5 Key Benefits of Athlete Evaluation Software

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Selecting the most well-rounded players for your team. That is the number one goal in the minds of coaches. Players will be evaluated across a range of skills, scores will be analyzed, and decisions will be made. But, without the use of athlete evaluation software, this process isn’t as easy as 1-2-3.

If we consider the pen-and-paper method still widely used, there are a plethora of challenges it presents. How long will it take for the data to be transferred from the clipboard to the computer? What happens if the data isn’t entered correctly or gets lost? How long will it take to use Excel to generate reports in order to interpret that data?

Save yourself the headache and consider an athlete evaluation software to conduct your next tryout, end-of-year evaluation, or mid-season performance evaluation.

1) Reduce Data Entry

With athlete evaluation software, it’s incredibly easy to score an athlete with just the tap of a screen. Create an evaluation template ahead of time, outline the skills that will be evaluated, and simply rank players using any mobile device.

No longer do you need to spend time bringing out your clipboard, locating the player, and making notes with a pen (a note which may not be legible when it’s read later). This means that not only can you reduce data entry errors, but you can also spend more time focusing on what you should be looking at — how athletes are performing.

Easy athlete scoring ability on SkillShark

2) Cut Down Evaluation Time

With leading athlete evaluation software, you can set up everything needed for your evaluation in a matter of minutes:

1. Import players. Players can be imported either from an Excel spreadsheet or a player management software such as TeamSnap, SportsEngine, or Linkt.
2. Create an evaluation template. A pre-filled evaluation template comes readily available based on your sport. Use these pre-determined metrics or customize your own evaluation template completely!
3. Create event. Add an event name, start date & time. Next, invite all of your evaluators, giving them each access to the evaluation template you have created.
4. Evaluate event. Use sliders to rate performance, input time-based scores, add any additional comments, and attach videos on any mobile device.

“The process of athlete evaluations used to take us 2-3 hours. Now, it is done in under 20 minutes with SkillShark.”

Tyler Stahl, Notre Dame Academy

3) Unlock Player Insights

Let’s go back to the paper-based system again. Once you have been through the setup process and have collected all the data, how do you even begin interpreting the data. As most sports organizations don’t have a data scientist on hand, figuring out how to sort segment players and visualize data becomes incredibly time-consuming. As a result, proper insights can’t be gathered and team placement decisions aren’t made with 100% accuracy.

However, if you’re using evaluation software, analysis is a piece of cake. Once scores are inputted during evaluations, they are then readily available for analysis in an array of reports. You can now focus on comparing and ranking players to make important drafting decisions.

Score grid reports on SkillShark

Note: Leveraging reports after a mid-season or year-end evaluation is great to monitor individual player progress or compare development between two players.

Individual player development reports in SkillShark

4) Provide Athlete Feedback

Athlete development is essential for long-term success. As much as players want to win each game, they also want to become well-rounded athletes who are adept at many skills. However, if an athlete isn’t told what to work on by their coaches, how will they know what skills to develop?

By using athlete evaluation software, coaches can provide immediate, professional reports sent straight to the inboxes of their athletes. Players can see how they score across each skill and how they fare to the team average. In addition, players can view any attached comments or watch videos of themselves performing that skill.

While coaches often don’t have the time to give this level of detailed and prompt in-person feedback during practices, individual reports can supplement in-person feedback. Athletes will have a clear understanding of how they are performing, what areas they need to work on, and tips for how they can improve on certain areas.

Individual player report in SkillShark

5) Streamline Parent Communication

Parents will almost always have questions about how their child is progressing. With the money, time, and energy commitment parents are making to a sports team, parents want to ensure their child is getting the most out of their sports experience.

Instead of trying to decipher handwritten notes, coaches can share scores, comments, and video feedback with parents through individual reports. When sending a report to an athlete, coaches can send a copy to the parents as well. This way, parents are getting fed the exact same feedback their child is, eliminating any inconsistencies that arise with the delivery of in-person feedback.