Coaching a group: one entry for the whole team
How a coach with many athletes keeps useful notes in a few minutes: what to write once for the group and what to note for each athlete.
With ten athletes on the hill, writing ten full diaries a day is not realistic. The answer is to separate what is the same for everyone from what is individual.
Write once for the group
- Session, start time and place.
- Discipline, duration and number of runs.
- Snow and weather.
- The focus of the day and the feedback you gave the group.
- The focus for the next session.
Note for each athlete
- Pick what you saw from a short list — focus, errors, what went well — and tap the athletes it applies to, instead of writing it for each one.
- A quick rating of what you observed, for example readiness, engagement and execution — or “can’t assess” if you did not see it.
- One short note only when something stood out.
- On race days: run status (finished, DNF, DNS or DSQ), time and how the start and finish went.
Keep it fair and private
- Write the shared text for the whole group and do not name other athletes in it.
- Rate what you saw, not what you expect from an athlete.
- Leave a rating out rather than guess.
- Read each athlete’s own entry before you talk about the session with them.
- Once for the group
- GS morning, 90 minutes, 8 runs, hard snow. Focus: pressure on the outside ski earlier. Feedback: start the edge change before the gate.
- Nick M.
- Readiness 4, execution 3. Note: late in the steep section.
- Emma S.
- Readiness 5, execution 4.
- Leo V.
- Readiness 3, execution 3, goal: can’t assess (left early for school).
In DOME5 the coach desk does exactly this: select athletes or a saved group, write the shared part once and add a quick row per athlete. Each athlete still gets a separate entry and never sees the others. The same list lets you assign a race, propose an action or issue reports for the whole group. More for coaches.