Meeting Your Players in Real-Time on Their Mobile Devices

{Sponsored} Communication is key to a successful coaching effort. Current students heavily rely upon their smartphones for everything, from social interactions to scheduling and, foremost, for communication. In kind, coaches need to meet student-athletes where they are.

Many coaches utilize handouts and print calendars to get pertinent dates and information to their players. However, printing calendars and handing out information to your student-athletes is not only time-consuming, but it is expensive. Plus, if you have to reprint because of a mistake, the costs double. You’re also reliant upon the players to keep track of paper.

Some tools exist that will allow coaches to streamline processes that were previously completed via printed documents. One particular app is designed to contain the best-of-breed team management functionality all in one place.

OX Sports’ Total Team Management is a combination of communication application, documentation storage, team calendar, roster, depth chart, playbook and form collection. It’s a single app that players and coaches can use to do everything they currently do via paper, email, various calendars, text or chat apps, and numerous other apps. “With OX Sports as a whole, our objective is to make life easier for athletic programs,” said Rafe Maughan of OX Sports, a former high school and college football coach.

The app’s calendar shows all upcoming events. Coaches can import calendars from other apps, such as Google or Outlook for easy updates. Since all dates are in one place via the app, players get updates as soon as the coaches post, rather than waiting for a paper copy at practice or an email that requires players to manually add dates to their personal calendars. This also prevents mistakes and eliminates player excuses, since everything is clearly laid out for all to see.

Rosters can be customized per game and quickly updated. The depth chart is always live, so all players know where they stand; this directly leads to players working harder at practice.

“Coaches have their systems. They have their teaching tools, and they don’t want to recreate them. Via the Playbook, coaches can bring those tools into our system seamlessly so your athletes can study seamlessly,” Maughan said. Coaches are able to view what each player has reviewed for increased accountability. Quizzes are available to confirm the learning as players go.

Quizzes go further. Create quizzes about team policies, feedback coaches have given or anything for which players need to be held accountable. The results will tell you if were paying attention during pep talks. When they are used about team policies such as drugs and alcohol, attendance and attitude, it is much easier for coaches to enforce the rules. There is no hiding behind excuses players may have for breaking the policies.

Direct communication is the key. It is ideal to use the same app for chat and communication logs as the players are using for everything else related to the team. Parents, school administrators and transportation staff can all be included in the necessary chats.

With OX Sports, all of the things coaches need to do to create a cohesive communication strategy are available in one place. The app is available via the web, iOS and Android on a variety of smartphones and tablets. It is onthe-go teaching and communication. It is exactly what coaches need in their arsenals to move to the next level in total team management.

Visit oxsports.com to learn more.