Help Center

Getting Started

Welcome to SkillShark

Welcome to SkillShark, the most affordable and feature rich athlete evaluation software on the market today! SkillShark is widely used for tryouts, assessments, camps and clinics.

Due to the customization of our software, we can be used for every sport, at every level. We are going to walk through the process of setting up your account. This includes sign up, creating a group, adding players, adding evaluators and events, scoring athletes, to viewing and sending reports.

Create Account & Group

To create an account or login, start at skillshark.com (we recommend using Google Chrome). If your account already exists, just enter your login info to get started. If you don’t have an account, create one by filling out the sign in form, which will request your name, email address and password. No credit card information is required upon set up.

Group Definition and Creation

The first step is to create a group of athletes. A group is defined by any set of players that you wish to evaluate using the same set of metrics. When using any paid SkillShark account, you have access to unlimited groups, events and evaluator invites.

To start your group creation, simply enter your group name, along with other details such as attaching a group logo.

Editing an Evaluation Template

Templates determine what your athletes will be evaluated on. SkillShark provides a list of over twenty different pre-built templates that you can edit to fit your needs, or you can opt to simply create your own from scratch. Most coaches have a pdf or excel sheet that can be easily recreated in the template editor. Once you create or edit your template, it will be saved within your template builder drop down for you to use again!

Templates have three levels to help groups stay organized.

First off is a category. A category is the broadest level, and is most often used to organize positions. They help evaluators navigate easily through the app.

Skills are the next level, and they allow you to group similar or common actions together. In the reporting section of the software, scores are grouped into skills.

Finally, we have metrics. Metrics are the specific action that you wish to assign a score to. This is where all ratings, measurements and scores will be recorded.

Naming a template:

By default, it will be named New Template V1. If you wish to alter this, simply highlight and type in the new name. *

To add a category, click the plus sign and give it a name. In any sport that there are specific things that need to be tested, you could separate out positions. For example, pitcher, catcher, forward, defence, quarterback, kicker, in other sports.

Skills group common metrics together. For example, balance, agility and speed.

Metrics are what the evaluators will award a score to. Metrics can be subjective, single score or multi score. Be sure to add minimum and maximum scores, as well as the step (for example, awarding half points). You can also add notes that will appear beside the metric for the evaluator to see.

If you shift your gaze down, you will see that we provide an evaluator preview. This shows exactly what evaluators will see when scoring players during the evaluation.

Continue this process for as many categories, skills and metrics as you see fit.

Manage Players

Add Players

Next, we are going to navigate to the players table to add players into the system. Players can be added multiple ways- manually, through a CSV spreadsheet, or through integrated platforms.

If you use TeamSnap or SportsEngine registration software, simply click import players, and follow the steps to bring players in. Just make sure that you have the necessary admin privileges through these softwares before getting started!

The most common way to add players is through a CSV import. Simply click “Import Players”, choose your file to select. Make sure that your headers are in row 1 and data is in the rows immediately following.

SkillShark will map the column headers with the appropriate information needed within SkillShark. At a minimum, we suggest you include first name, last name, email, jersey colour, jersey number. SkillShark will auto assign jersey numbers and colours if not entered. You can navigate through the mapping feature to add other information, or even create custom fields.

Preview the players, select upload, and the player table will be loaded on your screen.

Manage Players Page

When you are on the players page, and players have been added, you can view, edit or even add headshots from a file on your computer.

If you are searching for specific players you can find them by sorting with the filters. For example, player lists, jerseys and positions. There is also a search bar where you can look up a player by name, email, or jersey colours and number.

On this page, you can also manually enter players. Manual entry is often used for late registrations, or on the day of the event. To add a single player, click “add player”, enter details, and save and close. Make sure you add the same information as the other players have!

Player Lists

Player lists are designed to organize your players by different age groups, genders, league divisions and so much more. Lists can be used to separate athletes into any set that you see fit for your evaluations. Evaluators are able to filter out these lists when using the mobile app.

To create a list, check box besides the athletes you wish to sort. Go to bulk actions, and click add to player list. It will then request that you create a player list. In this example we are going to add a U12 group to separate out an age division.

Click Create Player list and the list will be created, and selected players added to it.

These players can now be filtered by list.

Evaluators & Admins

Adding Evaluators

Most often, there will be a team of volunteers or paid employees scoring the evaluation. In an effort to make this as easy as possible, we have designed SkillShark to be compatible on any device. This includes both Android and Apple products, including tablets or even desktop screens. SkillShark can be used both online and offline. If you will have good coverage and reception, we recommend using a web browser. If you will be in an area with potential dead spots, simply download the app from either the Google Play or iTunes Store.

To add evaluators to your group, simply enter their emails during event creation, or by visiting the Users & Roles page (previously titled “Evaluators”). They will receive an email with instructions to create an account.

Once they have accepted your invitation, you can upgrade them to an admin from the Users & Roles page. An admin will receive the same privileges that you do in the group, and be able to run reports and see all data. You can remove these admin privileges at any time.

If an evaluator does not get upgraded, they will only be able to see their own data as they collect it. Once the evaluation is complete, if you wish to lock out evaluators from editing the data, simply lock out from event.

Once you become a super user of SkillShark, all evaluators added before will show up in this list * for you to add in one click.

Adding Admins

You can turn any evaluator into an admin. On the Users & Roles page, click the “Give Admin Access” button for the evaluator you want to change into an admin. If this button isn’t visible, it’s likely that the user has not yet accepted your initial group invitation.

Admins will be able to edit and add new players, add and edit events, see all reports and have very similar access as the group owner. Admins do not get access to the group owner’s billing info, but can view subscription and license usage information from the Group Settings page.

Transferring Group Ownership

Only current group owners can make someone the new owner. The new owner must be selected from the current list of admins in the group.

To transfer ownership of your group:
1. View the “Users & Roles” page of the group you wish to transfer.
2. Find your name on the list of users (your role will be “Owner”), then click the more button (3 dots).
3. Click “Transfer Ownership”.
4. In the pop-up, select the admin from this group who you want to make the new owner.
5. A special link will be emailed to the admin to review the details below, where they can decide to accept or deny the transfer.

When a group transfer is accepted:
• The original owner (you) will be switched the admin permission level in the group.
• The group will immediately become subject to the limits of the new owner’s personal SkillShark plan.
• Licenses purchased by the original owner (you) will not carry over.
• Transferred players will need new annual licenses.
• New Owners are responsible for adding their own payment details.
• No payment is necessary to complete the transfer.

Contact support@skillshark.com if you require assistance.

Checking In Players

Check-In Players

If you have any evaluators, volunteers or paid employees working your check in counter, . In an effort to make this as easy as possible, we have designed SkillShark’s Player Check In to work seamlessly with. This includes both Android and Apple products, including tablets or even desktop screens. SkillShark’s Player Check-In can be used both online and offline.

If you will be in an area with potential dead spots, simply download the app in advance from either the Google Play or iTunes Store.

Player Check In is Available on both our All Star and Legend Plans.
– Player Check-In works in both online and offline mode
– Your player details are synced to your account and will update instantly
– You are not limited the number of people who can check players in using SkillShark
– You can create your own custom fields along with our defaults (name, birthday, position, jersey number, colour etc.)
– You can easily take player photos, update player details, assign to lists and add walk-ons

Interested to learn exactly how to check in players and easily add walk-ons using ShillShark? Watch the video here, as we show a detailed breakdown on how to run player check in at your tryout, camp or showcase.

Evaluation Events

Creating an Event

Create an event and specify its date and time. In some cases or sports you may wish to hide player names or information from evaluators, so make sure to check these boxes if that is the case.

Next, select from the list the evaluators you wish to add to this event.

Now we add players to the event. You can choose all or some players from this table. Simply select all, or sort through the athletes you wish you include. You can search by name, jersey, number, or any other player attribute in this table. *

SkillShark allows you to enter pre loaded comments that your evaluators can click to add to a player. These are set up on the event page. In the upper right hand corner, select Pre Fill Comments. This will prompt you to download a comment template. Simply add a series of common positive, neutral or negative comments that would be commonly given during the evaluation. Save the file, and head back to your SkillShark account. Now choose the file, press upload, and these will show up for evaluators to see.

Once saved, our new event will show up in our events list.

Scoring an Event

SkillShark evaluations can be done online or offline, depending on if you will have a good connection or wifi signal. The offline app is available for free and can be downloaded on both the Apple iTunes or Google Play store. Evaluations can be scored on phone, tablet or desktop screens. The app will have slightly different features on Android and Apple devices.

Once evaluators are added to an event, they will be able to click through to start the evaluation. Their events page will only have events listed that they have been invited to evaluate. To begin evaluations, click “Evaluate”.

Prior to an event, users will be able to select players that they wish to evaluate, or chose to evaluate by category.  This allows users to perform a roll call, or narrow the players who they will award scores to.

Evaluators can add walk-on players through the software by entering a jersey number and colour. All uploaded data for this player will be combined within the group.

After set up in the app is complete, evaluators can begin awarding scores to athletes. Evaluators will enter information on a sliding scale, as single data point or in 5 point data averages.We make it easy for evaluators to add scores, with the red dots and numbers we call “breadcrumbs”. These breadcrumbs show, at a glance, where scores need to be entered. When there are no breadcrumbs left, it means all data has been collected.

Once a score has been added, you can add comments or even a video! Comments can be done with videos, typed comments, pre-filled comments from the admin, or voice to text on mobile or tablet devices. When recording a video, be sure to hold your phone or tablet horizontally so you are looking at it like a TV.

When using the online app, like this one, scores will be automatically saved. If you are using the offline downloadable app, scores will need to be submitted once you connect to cellular data or wifi after the event.

After data is collected, it is time for the fun part! Running reports…without a second of data entry.

Athlete Self-Assessments

Just like evaluation events, you can also build self-assessment event. Self-assessments are a great way to provide you with new insight into your players. For the athlete, self-assessments create accountability and awareness, helping them align their mindset with their performance.

The first step to creating a self-assessment is through the events page, instead of a tryout or team evaluation, you would simple select “self-assessment.” 

When editing the assessment, you will simply form you evaluation metrics into questions.

If it was a character skill for example, we might change the leadership metric to say;

How would you rate your leadership abilities on a 0-10 scale? Please describe why you gave this answer

From here, simply toggle on the metrics you would like to include, and rephrase them into questions for your athletes.

The metrics you leave off will not be visible to the athlete.
One sent, athletes will now be prompted to download the mobile app and complete their self-evaluation before the due date. As your athletes complete the assessment, their Individual reports will start to appear.

Self Assessment Reports 

You can click the “View Scores” button at the top, or simply navigate to the reports section and select “Self-Assessments.”

If for some reason you can’t see your reports, check you have the correct event selected in the filters. 

To view your player reports, simply click “view”  

If you would like to download a PDF of the report, select the blue download button to the right of the report.

Self-Assessments are available on our All Star Tier. There is no limit to how many self-assessments can be sent out by the coach or sports organization.

Self-Assessments are set up similar to any other evaluation event, however, they are completed by your players as opposed to scores being collected by evaluators.

Coaches can customize each piece to their self-assessment, including questions and due dates.

Why do I need self-assessments?

By conducting self-assessments, you can now find the answers to many helpful questions such as, “Is their perception holding them back or pushing them forward?” Encouraging your athletes to examine their own learning and levels of understanding can be an important and pivotal “wake-up call,” in many cases for both the coach and athlete.

To learn the important of self-assessments click HERE

Reports

Individual Player Reports

Player Reports are an exciting way to give feedback to your athletes, and provide a good visual of how the athlete is doing in comparison to the team. They also allow organizations to see where coaching needs to be implemented. Player Reports help athletes gain a solid understanding of what they’re doing well and what they need to work on.

** Please note, player reports only appear when data has been collected.

If you haven’t had an evaluation yet, you can read or view the video in this section for educational purposes.

Players are searchable through the player table. You can filter by event, evaluators, player lists or positions. You can search for players by name, email, jersey number and colour.

To view the players report, select “View”.

The event name, organization logo and player information, including head shots, are all displayed on the report.

The report aesthetically organizes player data and by default, shows how they ranked in relation to the other athletes. You can customize the report exactly as you like.

For example; you can customize from shifting from a table view, to spider graph, bar chart, or horizontal sliders. After you get the report to your liking, this report can be generated as a pdf.

To find player reports, simply navigate to the left-hand menu, nand click “Reports” then Select “Individual Reports”

The first thing you want to do is hover over the filter that says “events”, and make sure you have the event or event(s) selected you would like to show data for.

If you want to send reports to a select group of players, you would simply check the box beside the player name, then hit “Bulk Actions”

Here, you can export them as a PDF, or email them directly to your players.

To send the individual report, or customize what the athlete sees, go ahead and select “view” beside the player name.

At the top of the report, you can see the event name and player details. You will also notice rank displayed for each skill and metric.

You can easily show or hide these details simply by clicking the “Edit” tab

All Scores Report

All scores simply displays all data that was collected by evaluators and helps us rank athletes. You can filter by event, evaluators, player lists or positions. You can search for players by their details.

The table has different options to view the data. You can look at the data from a birds eye view to see all category scores, or you can break it down by skill and see all metrics included.

Both views can be exported to CSV or PDF.

Weighted Reports

Weighted reports are the original reason why SkillShark was developed and are incredibly powerful for coaches.

Weighted reports allow you to craft your ideal player, by assigning customized weights to any skills or metrics.

You can assign a relative weight of all the skills against each other, or the metrics within a skill.

For example, to figure out  the best ball thrower, we are going to use 100 points of the skill “Ball Throw” and 75 and 25 respectively for Accuracy and power. The system allows you to create any ratio you desire.

Once we generate this report, the table will reflect the scores based on the weights we determined. At this point, you can use the software to assign teams.

These reports can be exported to CSV and PDF.

Leaderboards

Leaderboards

Leaderboards are a great way to display the ranking of players during an event. Creating Leaderboards can be a fun way to drive competition among your players. 

They are also great to display on a large TV during your tournament, camp, combine or showcase event. Leaderboards are exciting for both parents and fans, as they get a good visual of their athlete’s performance.

SkillShark Leaderboards are customizable, 
and display LIVE data at your event. 

This means the data is displayed instantly after a score is given.