Coaching is easy, right? You just tell a few kids what to do. They execute it perfectly with no questions or complaints. Everyone knows where to be and when. You have plenty of equipment and no other teams get in the way. Parents are always a joy to work with and understand everything that’s going on.
That would be nice.
In reality, running a large program is a very complex logistical nightmare. Even for the most organized, there’s a mountain of planning, coordination and communication that needs to happen at every level of the organization. Somehow, even though you invest the time and the money into making systems to handle it all, it never really just clicks.
The impact is that so much slips through cracks. Careful plans get ripped to shreds. An athlete gets left behind. Frustration and miscommunications abound.
I’d like to propose some practical tips and a vision of how things can be made calm.
Practical tips for taming the chaos
We speak with thousands of coaches and athletes about their experience at CrewLAB, so we pick up a thing or two about what separates the best from the rest. Here are some thoughts.
Be intentional about your coaching tools. Don’t just use what they used before because that’s the way that it has always been done. Think about the specific needs of your Team. Find something sport-specific, that is built for coaches and complies with the regulation of your league — SafeSport, NCAA, etc.
Separate official communication from social chat. Don’t get stuck on social media with minor athletes. Don’t get stuck in chats that are unmoderated and can get nasty. And don’t make that the same place where you make major announcements. Worst case scenario that happens a lot, is the coach pressures kids to be on a digital space that they are getting bullied on and the coach has little awareness or control.
Prefer simple, repeatable, and reliable tools. Spreadsheets are great, but often get complicated, break and leave the techy coach the only one able to make sense of it.
Consolidate into a single source of truth Don’t maintain several different channels with different purposes. Fewer channels and apps is better for clarity and coach sanity.
Set communication expectations and policies. Make it clear what you want athletes, coaches and parents to stay up to date with and how often you expect them to do it. Tell them what is acceptable behavior and what isn’t before it’s an issue.
Standardize within the organization. The amount of tech tools your Teams use can get out of hand. Don’t let an individuals weak preference allow proliferation and create confusion. Standard systems also make it easier for coaches and athletes to switch between teams without missing anything.
Give coaches elevated privileges. Coaches and Admins should have more access rights to team data and control than Athletes and Parents. They are ultimately the people that make it happen and keep the athletes safe and focused.
A Vision of calm, effortless leadership
This is a lot to think about when you probably just want to be focused on drills, lineups and competitions. Lucky for you, CrewLAB makes it incredibly easy to upgrade your system.
For free, in minutes, you can show your community that your team has a clear plan, a powerful system, and a thoughtful leader at the helm.
One home for team information: Your CrewLAB Team
Think about all the athletes, coaches and supporters in one accessible spot. You have all training data, video, photos, messages and personal details like their T-shirt sizes, contact information, etc. at your fingertips. This is the core of what CrewLAB offers today and it’s fantastic at bringing teams together and centralizing attention.
Bring everyone into one place and enjoy deleting your other apps and spreadsheets. Even if you lose some control, you gain peace of mind.
A shared experience for all your teams: Your CrewLAB Organization
Most teams operate within an larger organization — whether it’s a university, high school or club. There’s significant dependency and shared resources between teams.
Examples of shared or dependent resources
- Coaching staff
- Training schedules
- Registration and billing systems
- Public-facing website
- Communication channels
- Waivers and forms
- Equipment and facilities
- Fans and supporters
What if there was a way to make coordinating these resources and interacting between teams simple, automatic and joyful?
That’s the promise of CrewLAB Ultra. Email dominic@crewlab.io if you want to learn more.
FAQs about setting up CrewLAB
How should I set up my organization?
Your organization already has a structure to it. Generally, you’ll want to make one CrewLAB Team for each of your existing teams in the Organization.
If groups have either different coaching staff or different training schedule, they are likely going to be a separate team.
Another consideration is influence and critical mass. If you want your athletes to feel like they are part of a larger community, then you might consider making fewer teams so all the athletes influence each other. There will be some clunkiness to work through, but it could be worth it.
For minor distinctions between groups of athletes within a team, like Seniors/Juniors/etc. or Distance/Mid-Distance, you can use Squads to segment your Team. More on that below.
How do I organize my Team Calendar?
Are the practice times the same?
If yes, then you should absolutely program in your weekly schedule in the Calendar with recurring events until the season runs out.
If no, you probably should make separate Teams. Today in CrewLAB, everyone on Team is invited to every event.
Do you plan and publish training in advance?
If yes, go into each practice and assign a workout. If that’s too simple, just upload a photo or add notes to the event details. Training and journals submitted around the event will get aggregated on the event regardless of how much detail you add.
Does everyone do the same training?
If no, then you’re probably better off not assigning a Workout or assigning a workout that has a duration of the length of practice, so athletes can reflect on that. You can always simply communicate your intentions for the workout within the notes of event.
Is the planned workout very complicated and multi-part?
If yes, just similar to above, just add the workout in the notes. Assigning a workout will be too restrictive for you. You can use that feature to collect a certain fitness Test if you want results tabulated.
What happens when I need to remove someone from the Team/Org?
When you are removing someone from the team for any reason, you have choices.
- Change their role to a Supporter: Reduces their access, while keeping an open line of communication with the team
- Remove them from the team: There data will stay with the team and they will keep it as well if they join another team. If they want to keep training on CrewLAB, they are welcome to make their own Team for free.
How should I transition between seasons or make large Roster changes?
You have choices depending on the nature of your team.
Do you have low turn over year over year? (like a varsity or collegiate team that just has few changes per year)
You should transition alumni to a Supporter role or removing them from the Team altogether (see here for how).
Some coaches make Alumni Teams and encourage their athletes to join after graduation.
Do you have a team that completely changes athletes every year? (like a U17 squad)
You should make a new CrewLAB Team each year and add the season in the name of the team to make it easy to switch between them.
Levels of CrewLAB
Organization – A collection of Teams that are part of the same institution. Led by an Administrator or Coach.
Team – The main hub of activity for Athletes and Coaches in the same Roster. Led by a Coach. There is one Calendar, Home Feed, Workout Log, Video Drive, etc. in one Team.
Chats – One Team can have multiple Chats to focus the conversation on different topics. There are some presets that populate based on Role and only a coach can make custom Chats. See more here: Chat channels
Squads – A custom subdivision within the Team. Set it however you’d like. This is mostly used for the Summer/Winter Challenges and breaking down the Analytics. See more here: Summer Smasher
Role – Coach, Captain, Athlete, or Supporter. See more here: User roles
1 person can be part of
- Multiple Organizations
- Multiple Teams
- One Squad per Team
Next Step: Bring calm leadership to your program. Start your free CrewLAB account today at crewlab.io.
