Regional shutdowns have left many clubs looking for new ways to deliver training to their athletes. As a result, some clubs have begun offering virtual athlete training.
If your club is properly insured, providing virtual training for your athletes is a great way to keep your membership learning. However, before jumping in, there are a few things to prepare and consider.
In this blog, we’ll give you 7 tips to ensure a great virtual training experience for your athletes.
A quick note before we begin: Do you need your virtual classes to connect with your club registration software? Uplifter has introduced a new virtual class feature that allows you to securely embed virtual class links into your program offerings. This allows clubs to offer and track virtual athlete training from registration through to invoicing, reporting and evaluation. Learn more here.
Let’s begin.
1) Make Sure Coaches Represent Your Brand
When a coach delivers virtual training to your members, they’re often doing so from their own home. This means your club’s equipment and, of course your managerial team, can’t be present. As a result, your brand is entirely dependent on the way that coaches instruct their class.
With this in mind, it’s important to set guidelines for your coaches and instructors. You may feel that most coaches won’t need your guidelines but it’s still good to provide guidance that they can fall back on. Here are three simple example guidelines for coaches and instructors to get you started:
- Dress in the same athletic clothing you would wear for in-person training sessions
- Avoid sitting down on couches or chairs that might be nearby during class, instead stand with the same posture you would like your athletes to reflect
- Provide a good example of a what a clear space looks like for training, ensuring your teaching environment is clear of any objects which might impede instruction
It can also be beneficial to do a weekly virtual meeting to see how coaches are adapting to online instruction. In this way, instructors can share their experiences and work together to improve upon their coaching styles.
2) Reassure Parents about Virtual Athlete Training
During virtual athlete training, your students will be streaming live video of themselves completing movements in their own homes. This means that some parents may feel shy about virtually letting you into their house. Some parents might say, “My house is a mess! I don’t want coaches seeing my place.” This is a natural reaction for parents when opening their virtual door to your club. But, of course, the sharing goes both ways.
Let parents and students know that this type of instruction is new for everyone.
Your coaches and instructors will be letting students into their at-home training space, too. For some coaches, this may mean that class could be interrupted by their kids asking for help opening a jar, or a pet running through their temporary studio space.
Ultimately, it’s going to take a little while for everyone to get used to virtual training. But, it’s important for all parents to understand that we’re all real people and no one will have the perfect training space!
All that said, there are some simple measures to take in creating a functional and safe training space.
3) Provide Clear Instructions for Creating a Safe Training Space
Firstly, it’s important to reflect upon your lesson plans before each class and ensure that the movements, and equipment you’re asking your students to substitute in, are appropriate for the coverage and liability insurance that your club might have.
Setting up a functional and safe training space can help your students get the most from your training. The first step in finding a good training space is to consider the grip that will be required for your movements. Specifically, ask yourself if students can safely complete your training on a tile floor, a wood floor, carpet, concrete, or some other surface.
Once you know what type of floor is best, ask your students to seek out a space in their house to match the required grip.
Tip: Throwing on a pair of running shoes with good grip can help counteract slick tile, concrete or wood surfaces.
Once a training space is chosen, encourage students to clear the area of any possible hazards. Not all students will be able to find a space that’s big enough to properly display their movements on their live-stream. With this in mind, coaches should be ready to slow down their class instruction to make time for camera adjustments.
Specifically, this may mean pausing and asking students to point their cameras at their feet for some movements, while asking them to point their cameras at the waste-up for other movements.
4) Setup Virtual Class Safety Protocols
We’ve already written about some of the best practices for virtual class security. Beyond those specifics, it’s important for all instructors at your club to follow the same safety protocols. So, if your club advises coaches to use virtual waiting rooms and virtual lock-call features, make sure those experiences are consistent across all classes.
Some families will have multiple children taking classes from different coaches. So, if coaches deliver a different safety experience, it may be disconcerting for kids and parents alike.
During these unfamiliar times, creating a familiar security experience can provide a strong emotional anchor for your membership.
5) Record and Watch A Trial Run
Coaching in-person is much different than coaching virtually. It will take time for coaches and instructors to get comfortable in front of the camera, but doing a trial run can help. To get started, here are three major things coaches can look out for:
- Eye-contact: Coaches and instructors should look directly into the camera to establish a sense of connection with their members. If looking at the camera lens seems difficult, pick a spot on the wall just above the camera, or look at the glowing light beside it. Of course, looking away from the camera from time-to-time is natural.
- Energy levels: It’s very common for people to look less energetic on video. In fact, some coaches may be shocked to see themselves looking low-energy as they review their trial run. This is a natural occurrence when transitioning to video-only instruction. To counteract this, coaches should speak more enthusiastically than they may be used to in order to engage athletes.
- Camera Angle: After watching a trial run, some coaches will find that their movements are not completely visible. In this case, their instruction can benefit from adjusting the camera to isolate different body parts during different movements.
Reviewing these three elements can help ensure your instruction clearly connects with students. However, it’s important not to obsess over every small detail. It will take time to adapt to virtual class instruction, and the most important thing is to get started!
If coaches are still feeling unsure, they should ask for feedback from other coaches. When teaching, coaches should focus on the quality of engagement that students display. Using software like Zoom, you can also add polls to your virtual classes. Leveraging these polls, coaches can ask for student feedback, and adjust their instruction based on what students have to say.
6) Find the Device that Works for You
There are three main devices that can be used for virtual training: mobile, tablet and desktop. Choosing the right device will depend on the age and quality of each one. Of course, the benefit of laptops is that you can see students on a larger screen. And, if you can connect your streaming device to a larger television screen, that’s even better!
Regardless of the size of your laptop, if it’s an older device, you may find that your laptop’s camera produces sub-par video streaming. If that’s the case, consider using a combination of devices.
Since most people have a smartphone that’s less than three years old, it may make sense to leverage your phone’s camera for video streaming, and your laptop’s screen for viewing. To do this, coaches can simply join their class with both devices and grant co-host permissions to each one. This topic is discussed in detail on YouTube by other virtual class instructors.
Tip: If you do use two devices at once, be sure to mute one of your devices to avoid creating a feedback loop.
7) Leverage Tips from the Pros to Add Long-term Value
Once coaches begin virtual athlete training, they can continue to finesse their delivery using tips from the pros.
For example, have you ever wondered how TV anchors are able to stand perfectly still when reporting from the field? This yoga teacher and former broadcast journalist explains that the trick is to put one foot in front of the other. It’s a simple way to cement your posture and avoid the natural tendency to rock back and forth when standing for a prolonged time.
For coaches and instructors, a lot of time will be spent in motion. But, when stopping to explain a new concept, standing with one foot in front of the other will help improve their presentation.
If coaches are struggling with confidence, they can even consider adopting power poses into their pre-class preparations.
Although clubs may only have to offer virtual classes for the short-term, if coaches continue to improve their virtual coaching skills, your club may view virtual athlete training as a new service to offer permanently.
Continuing to offer virtual athlete training will not only help reach new athletes once regional shutdowns are lifted, it will also help proactively prepare for any possible future regional shutdowns if a secondary or tertiary wave of shutdowns occur.
Conclusion: Bring Your Entire Experience Online
To summarize our 7 essential tips for virtual athlete training, clubs have to bring their entire experience online. Virtual class training is not just about filling a training gap during regional shutdowns. Instead, it’s about confidently bringing your brand into the virtual space for your membership.
In practice, this means creating a reassuring and safe environment where coaches deliver engaging training for athletes. This transition may require tweaks to technology and coaching presentation, but if you master virtual training, your club can extend its reach and diversify it’s offerings for the future.
Do you have any other tips about virtual athlete training? We’d love to hear from you on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
