How to choose a training platform for coaches
What an endurance coaching platform should have: calendar, watch sync, metrics, mobile, language and pricing.
The platform is the online coach's office. Choosing well saves hours every week; choosing badly forces you to work with patches of spreadsheets and messages.
The essentials
- A calendar per athlete with planned and completed work.
- A workout builder with steps, blocks and targets.
- Automatic sending to the watch.
- Activities that arrive on their own from your athletes' devices.
- Load metrics: fitness, fatigue and form.
What makes the difference
- A view of your whole roster with alerts.
- Plan compliance at a glance.
- Working well on mobile, because much of the job happens away from a computer.
- Being in your language, and your athletes'.
- Tools specific to your sport, for example for trail running.
Pricing
Look at how it scales: pricing by tiers of athletes is fairer when you're starting out than a fee designed for big teams.
Try before you decide. If the platform comes with sample data, you can walk through every screen before inviting your athletes.