CoachNow Cultivates Personalized Coaching With All-In-One Platform
At its core, coaching has always been as much about building and maintaining relationships as it is about the instructional knowledge being passed along.
Many coaches, however, experience frustration over the hours they spend communicating with players long after their regular practice sessions have ended. But CoachNow (formerly known as Edufii) offers a solution in the form of a one-stop technological hub of information and analysis that takes the busywork out of maintaining lines of communication – all without coaches losing their personal connection to their students.
Since 2014, CoachNow has helped thousands of coaches in more than 60 sports and in 140 countries save time and coach more. It also provides instructors with a technological platform that enables effortless communication in which player improvement can be analyzed, data can be collected and instructional media can be introduced – all within the same product.
CoachNow, which is a product of Shotzoom Software, has become a useful tool to coaches across a variety of sports ranging from golf, soccer, baseball and to lacrosse and rugby and is being used by coaches who work with players of all ages and at all levels.
Regardless of sport, though, the core mission of CoachNow remains unchanged.
“Ultimately, coaching is not about how much you know. It’s relaying how much you care to your athletes,” said CoachNow founder Spencer Dennis. He added: “We want to make sure that relationship can be maintained even when they’re not together.”
Therein lies the intrinsic value of CoachNow.
Before CoachNow, coaches were losing an average of 20 hours per week to administrative duties while trying to utilize a collection of ineffective technology systems. By shifting to CoachNow, instructors have discovered that the same tools they were plucking from other technologies can now be found in single app.
Download CoachNow for iOS here or for Android here.
CoachNow allows instructors to incorporate everything – from video analysis to voice-over messages to statistical information and biomechanical data – into one easy portal. By using this platform, instructors are able to remain more focused on their teaching methods and provide a more engaging and real-time experience for their athletes through the use of technology.
“CoachNow allows the coach to save time and build efficiencies so the student is not getting burnt out on the extra stuff,” said Dennis.
Because he understands that at least 90 percent of an athlete’s development is going to take place when the coach isn’t present, Dennis realized there was a need for a technological tool that would allow students to have access to their coaches on a full-time basis.
“CoachNow offers a unique, comprehensive coaching solution for coaches and athletes in any sport,” said CoachNow vice president of marketing Alex Flores. “We want CoachNow to help coaches take athletes where they cannot take themselves. Whether that’s preparing them to win a game or a match or preparing them for life.”
But with others in the competitive space introducing similar instructional solutions, CoachNow offers tools and solutions that others can’t in what’s becoming an ever-growing market space. Research shows that an instructional technology market that was at $49 million in 2014 is anticipated to reach a staggering $864 million by 2021 – a compound annual growth rate of 51 percent.
Within the same time frame, according to data collected by WinterGreen research, the sports analytic market will reach $4.7 billion by 2021, which represents a compound annual growth rate of 68 percent.
CoachNow has attracted clients across the coaching landscape, including Cameron McCormick, who oversees the game of Jordan Spieth, the world’s No.-4 ranked golfer. While top instructors like McCormick have used the technology to improve their own efficiency while working with professional athletes, CoachNow is also being used by a variety of other instructors from the youth and club sports level to those who work with national-level and Olympic teams.
“CoachNow is the most important tool a coach can have to extend and enhance relationships with athletes,” said McCormick, the 2015 PGA Teaching Pro of the Year.
The results, the coaches say, speak for themselves – regardless if the instruction is taking place in person or on a remote basis.
“CoachNow has empowered me to make a huge impact in my coaching with my athletes who live in other parts of the world,” said Primal Athlete Training Center head strength coach Matt Ellis. “It’s an incredibly valuable resource to help the athletes know exactly what they should be doing in a much shorter amount of time.”
Andy Skehan, director of rugby at St. Michael’s College in Dublin, agrees and believes CoachNow allows for a much more streamlined coaching process.
“(CoachNow) helps my players stay much more connected with myself, their teammates and our core ideas,” Skehan said.
In addition to maintaining the coach-player relationship, CoachNow also allows a players’ support system – whether it be parents, a trainer or others – to remain connected with the process as well. The technology also allows for progress to be cataloged over time, which can provide a history of improvement not only to a player, but to coaches who can use the technology to demonstrate a track record of successful instruction to new clients.
“When you’re talking about an athlete developing, the challenge is that their expectations come along with their development.”