How A Young Coach Uses Software to Simplify His Work

It’s clear that sooner or later all membership and calendar management in sports clubs will shift from paper and Excel to special software. But many of you may wonder, what will the work of coaches be like after they have made this change? And is it worth the hustle? To get answers to these questions we talked to a youth coach Martin Kokkuta from HC Tallinn, who is already using Sportlyzer Coach Diary as an everyday tool.

To answer the question about how does he use software for his work, Martin says that his smartphone is always with him and he would like to use it for as many of his club related tasks as possible.

“I mostly use the Coach Diary mobile app,” says the young coach. “When I open the app, then all my athletes, workouts and games are there. It makes my life so much easier.”

Martin likes to plan exercises for the next workout while lying on the couch at home. “Later at the training session I check the plan on my phone,” he says.

“Marking attendance also takes me only a few seconds. And it’s convenient that everything that I have entered is automatically uploaded to our club’s database and I don’t have to send anything to the club again.”

Sometimes Martin has to substitute another coach. In cases like this, the other coach needs to add Martin to that workout and Martin can already check on his phone, where and when is the workout, what’s the plan, etc. At the practice he also marks down who showed up and who didn’t.

In HC Tallinn coaches don’t manage the registration of new members, but thanks to Sportlyzer they have access to the player database on their phones. For example, if someone needs to call a parent or send a late-night group SMS about a change in the next morning’s competition trip, it will take them a minute.

And unlike the lists on paper and Excel, player database on Sportlyzer is always up to date, because everyone involved (club manager, coach, player or parent) can update the player profile when necessary.

Now that the Coach Diary has saved him time, Martin can invest it in training analysis and learning. As the legendary basketball coach John Wooden has said: “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”

Martin Kokkuta Club: HC Tallinn Worked as a coach: 1 year Background: Handball player in HC Viimsi for 9 years, last 5 years as a goalie Becoming a coach: Substituted his brother at some workouts and soon became an assistant coach. Then the club founder Risto Lepp offered him to start coaching on a regular basis. Why do you like being a coach? “I like that I can contribute to the kids’ mental and physical development. I have always enjoyed helping people and being a youth coach covers all these aspects. I certainly have a lot to learn, as I’m a young coach and most of my career is still ahead. So I’m always trying to improve myself, participate in courses and learn on my own.”

 
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Tõnis Saag

Tõnis is the founder of Sportlyzer.com. He was an active sports karate athlete, representing the Estonian National Team 53 times over a 10-year period and winning numerous international tournaments and Estonian Championships. Tõnis was a certified youth coach for 13 years, working constantly with 100+ athletes. Half of that time he was also responsible for their club's development and daily administration. He was also a co-author of the first Estonian textbook for karate coaches and a board member of the Estonian Karate Federation for 2 years. Before starting with Sportlyzer, Tõnis founded and managed functional testing and sports medicine lab Vomax.ee.

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