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Reviewed Site: Sportplan

Site Content Area: Drills, skills, training plans

Introduction:

This is a website that offers a variety of tools to enhance your teaching or coaching.  It allows you to view a few items prior to joining.  The free membership allows you to view 15 drills per month for free, but you do need to be selective prior to choosing a drill since once you choose it, it counts against your credit balance.  The subscription option is reasonable at $5.63/month with no long-term contract.  Don’t get too excited just yet, that is per activity/sport, so if there is more than one you are interested in, you will have to pay for each one.  My suggestion is find a friend or two, each of you subscribe to a different sport, than share with one another.  The subscription does give you unlimited access to the entire library.  There is a school option offering multi-sports and multi-teacher access.

Site Requirements/Access & Overview to Building Your Own Site:

We’ve decided to eliminate this section in the reviews since most updated browsers and computers can access the majority of websites.  If you are unable to access this site, check your settings including your security settings and try again.  If you still cannot access the site, be sure you verify you have all the current updates necessary, i.e. JavaScript, browser version, etc.  Still having challenges, talk to your IT department.

Overview:

The Sportplan.com website gives access to the latest coaching techniques, practices, and tactics.  All drills are demonstrated by animation or video.  It is designed to assist you in planning a training/coaching sessions.   Sportplan is an application for coaches and teachers which can assist with planning, along with saving valuable time.  

Navigation:

The navigation is on the left-hand side of the page with a rollover color change.  It is a standard click on the text and go to that page. 

The Look:

The site is a simple, clean layout, with a basic color scheme.  The front page is uncluttered so you can locate what you want to do quickly.  Once you enroll in either version, the site transforms into a Blog-like structure.  Your personal tabs will be on the top; the various sports on the left; your clipboard on the far right; the inner right side are boxes with more options; and in the center is your credit balance and profile options.

Features of the Site:

It’s fairly easy to figure out how to get the information you are looking to access.  First choose the activity or sport; select the sport criteria; select the drills; and add them to your own clipboard.  You are able to rearrange the drills and add notes, titles, or more instructions to build your personal coaching session.

There is a chalkboard available with tools enabling you to add your own drills or sketch new drills.  You can print your plans and take them with you.  All your plans and chalkboard sessions are saved and stored online in your “My Stuff” folder. 
You can share your plans with your colleagues via the “My Team” tools. 

Access to the community page to discuss items, ask for assistance, or share your thoughts is another benefit of this site...  You will receive email newsletters with tips, drills, and other suggestions.  The site includes articles written by top professionals which I was unable to find, thus I’m thinking you can only access these with the full subscription... 
  
There are six video clips demonstrating the various features of the site: searching for drills, your first session, using the chalkboard, sharing plans, how to store your plans, and what to expect from the slideshow tool (enabling you to present your plan via LCD Projector, SmartBoard, computer screen, etc.). 

The site features a Blog which has lots of handy tips on how to utilize the tools and plans, as well as other announcements of interest.

There is an option to use a logbook and an athlete management system, which I could not figure out how to access it; must be via full subscription.

One of the bummers is the example PDF’s don’t open and render an error page.

Under the video you will see the text, word-for-word, of what is being explained and demonstrated on the website.  I really like that feature a lot.  I was actually able to view more content than just the 15 videos by simply reading the text.  I like that I can read the text along with watching the video and also being able to utilize a drill without using my credits on the video.

Conclusion:

This is a decent site to visit and you can get enough information with the free version to make it worthwhile.   
As always, happy surfing!