What Makes SkillShark's Athlete Evaluation App Unique?

Elimination of data entry and instant access to player results. If you’ve researched athlete evaluation apps, you might assume these are the only advantages of moving away from pen-and-paper forms. In reality, switching offers many more benefits.

SkillShark, a top-rated athlete evaluation app that is customizable for any sport, boasts a myriad of vital features to make the evaluation process efficient and stress-free for coaches and evaluators alike.

Let’s dive into the top 5 features of SkillShark!

1. Player Report Cards

When an athlete doesn't make the team or feels their confidence lagging during practice, player feedback becomes a crucial source of guidance.

With SkillShark, individual player report cards are automatically generated after an evaluation, based on the scores each player receives. These reports give athletes a clear view of their performance and show how they compare to the team's average.

Athlete report cards in SkillShark

Additionally, comments and videos can also be added to the player report card, enhancing the level of feedback provided to athletes and their parents.

Comments: Coaches/ evaluators can create pre-filled comments ahead of time, which can later be added to the report when an evaluation takes place.

Videos: Coaches/ evaluators can record an athlete performing a specific skill and attach the video to the report card. This enables athletes to visually observe themselves performing a skill, making it easier to apply the written feedback they are given.

2. Developmental Resources

Train and develop your athletes using your very own resource library of resources: PDFs, videos, infographics, and more. Developmental resources enable athletes to improve their overall performance within a given skill(s) outside of regular practices.

How does this feature work? If a player receives less than *set score* on a specific skill (exact score will be set by you), a developmental resource, in the form of a PDF or video, will be attached at the bottom of the player’s report card.

Let's give an example. Before your mid-season basketball evaluations, you set the criteria so that any athlete who scores below a 9 on dribbling (ranked on a scale of 1-10) will receive a YouTube video on the "Best Dribbling Techniques." After your mid-season evaluation is complete, all athletes who scored a 6 or below on this skill will have this video automatically attached to their report card.

Developmental resources in SkillShark

SkillShark is an essential tool for all youth sport organizations to take advantage of. As coaches, it is our job to provide both reinforcing and constructive comments to young athletes. SkillShark has helped immensely with our player development and provides a superior solution to our program.

Bill Edwards. Hofstra Head Coach

3. Live Event Leaderboards

Build excitement and friendly competition among your players at any event with live leaderboards, ideal for combines, camps, showcases, or tryouts. Aside from building competition among players, leaderboards are equally engaging for parents and fans, as they can get a good visual of their athlete’s performance.

Did you know that our leaderboards are completely customizable, allowing you to display LIVE data at any event? As scores are input into SkillShark, player data is automatically synced to the leaderboard, and results are instantly displayed.

Additionally, you can create groups on your live leaderboard. For example, you can create a leaderboard for Top Shooters, showcasing the players with the highest scores in shooting

4. Athlete Self-Assessments

Practices and tournaments are not usually conducive environments for athletes to reflect on their performance. However, when athletes are provided with a self-assessment that can be completed from the comfort of their own homes, they are more likely to take the time to reflect on their performance.

Self-assessments enable athletes to respond to pre-selected questions concerning their performance, mental well-being, and goals. I.e., Questions such as:

• How would you rate your dribbling ability on a scale of 1-10?

• On a scale of 1-10, how apprehensive do you feel before practices?

• What three skills would you like to work on before the season comes to an end?

Coaches can then leverage the data gathered from these self-assessments to further enhance their coaching approach. This could come in the form of adding additional drills to help players develop a specific skill they’ve identified as wanting to improve. Alternatively, it could involve offering additional one-on-one conversations after practice to support an athlete who feels overwhelmed.

5. Tiered Draft Reports

Tryouts move fast, and so must your drafting decisions. With potentially 100s of scores collected after tryouts, you might be thinking, "What is the best way to analyze this data?" Players (and parents) want quick decisions to be made, and coaches want to avoid spending hours on data entry & report setup.

That's where tiered-draft reports come in:

• Assign a percentage value to each skill for a position.

• For instance, a weighted report can be created for the “Forwards” position in hockey. I.e, Skating and shooting might be deemed slightly more important than passing; therefore, they will both be allocated a higher weight.

• Based on these weightings you assign, SkillShark will identify the top 'Forwards' players and draft them onto teams.

Wrapping Up

What once started as an app to easily score players on a mobile device has turned into a multifaceted software. Regardless of whether you are coaching new or returning players, providing clear feedback and facilitating opportunities for self-reflection can significantly enhance player development.