Legendary basketball coach, John Wooden, once said, “The coach is first of all a teacher.” Like any good teacher, a coach must have effective ways for managing information, tracking progress, and executing the lessons. What’s the best way to organize all of this information? Raymonn Adams believes he has the answer, and the answer uses interactive technology. Unfortunately, the sad reality is that many coaches are still stuck using antiquated ways of preparing – scattered pen and paper notes, not readily accessible and in no particular order.
Throw away the pen and paper, because Adams is looking to change the way coaches can organize their information. If Adams has anything to say about it, the methods of planning, organizing, and executing all the tasks of coaching will be drastically different than pen and paper in the near future. And he’s already saying a lot with his creation of Lockr, “an online app that aims to help individual position coaches organize drills, measure player progress and collaborate with other coaches all in one place.”
The Beginnings
When Raymonn Adams wanted to develop a way to help coaches track, organize, and measure coaching effectiveness, he didn’t have to do much research to learn what coaches were missing. Adams was a National Association of Intercollegiate Athletes All-American running back when he played for Doane College, and he played in the CFL and NFL. Yet, it wasn’t his on-field experience that inspired him to launch Lockr, but his experience as a coach at Doane College later in his career. He realized “things like inconsistency in practices, a lack of measurable results, and the difficulty in connecting and sharing ideas with other coaches” were hindering his coaching abilities.
In 2012, Adams put his coaching career aside to focus his efforts on web development. Combining his extensive experience as a player and coach with his skills in web development, Adams “went all-in by investing a six-figure amount into Lockr.” One year later, Adams isn’t the only one that believes he can change the methods of coaching. In December 2013, Lockr received a $200,000 investment from Dundee Venture Capital of Omaha and a $50,000 investment from Confluence Capital in Minneapolis, MN.
The Features of Lockr
The mission of Lockr is “to help coaches track, organize, and measure coaching effectiveness to better prepare their teams and improve themselves as a coach. Below are the major features and capabilities of Lockr that help them accomplish this mission:
– Get Organized
The first feature coaches will notice when using Lockr is the monumental help in organizing all of their plays, files, and drills in one place. Lockr makes it simple and easy to upload plays and drills, with details such as the name and the type of play, and a quick description. And coaches don’t need to worry about their strategies being found; Lockr keeps all files locked for privacy, until you decide to share them.
In an interview with the Silicon Prairie News, Adams explained, “Instead of coming up with drills in your head and making a list of all the equipment you need, having the video in another spot and notes in a notebook somewhere, Lockr brings it all together in one space.” A major feature of Lockr is its ability to connect the mobile phone app with its website. Coaches can take videos with their cell phones of drills and plays, and quickly upload it to the website for later use. Making plays, drills, and files easily accessible on any device is a big step in transforming the way coaches can design and execute practice plans.
– Collaborate with Coaches
One of the unique components of Lockr is the ability to connect with other coaches, locally and nationally, to share drills, plays, and files. Whether with your own coaching staff, or with any other coaches, Lockr makes sharing ideas and strategies with other coaches simple and effective. Lockr allows coaches to create profiles complete with their coaching history and their usage of the program. The website again emphasizes that coaches do not have to share anything they do not want to.
Simple and organized collaboration sets Lockr up nicely in their goal to create a community where coaches can easily share files, drills and plays. Coaches can also send messages to each other to share ideas and advice, as well as creating practice schedules and play books with their coaching staffs.
– Track Progress, Coach Better
So much of any sport, and particularly football, is based around statistics. Yet, what if you could have statistics that can help you better track your progress not only in games, but in practice? Lockr allows coaches to keep track of the drills they are using in practice and making notes about each drill to help them find what is working and what isn’t working. Coaches can plan and edit their practice schedules by simply dragging and dropping drills into the calendar, and they receive data to track drill usage. According to Lockr’s website, the program “gives you the tools to make data-driven decisions and self-scout to ensure you are spending enough time practicing key drills.”
Adams uses the example of working on a skill, such as ball handling with players over several weeks to have actual data, rather than just the perception of improvement of skills. Adams explains, “This will allow th player and the coach to go back and see that they’ve spent 22 percent of their practices working on that skill and track the progress.”
– Success at Your Fingertips
With the many features and capabilities of Lockr, what may get overlooked is the impressive interface that works on any device. The app has a responsive design and automatically adjusts to the coaches’ screen size. So it doesn’t matter if they are using a tablet, laptop, desktop, or mobile phone.
The Future of Lockr
Lockr has amazing potential to revolutionize coaching for high school, college, and professional football coaches. Coaches with the Oakland Raiders, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the University of Oregon, and Southern Methodist University are already using Lockr. The app is currently on the verge of version 2.0, after beta-testing and user feedback.
While Adams originally designed Lockr to target football coaches only (“tunnel vision,” he admits), Lockr has unbelievable potential to spread to coaches of all sports. Any coach that uses drills, plays or video clips could drastically increase their coaching effectiveness and practice execution with Lockr. Starting at the high school level, all the way through college and professional ranks, Lockr can be utilized to improve the methods of coaching in a multitude of ways.
Plain and simple, Adams wants to revolutionize the way coaches’ coach. “I hope in a year or two, if you’re coaching, you’re also using Lockr,” Adams said. “I want to do more than dominate (the coaching field).”