The days of disorganized sports teams, lost in a sea of paper schedules and bulletin board announcements, could soon be over thanks to an ambitious new app called DRIVN. Promising to be an all-in-one place for team communication, DRIVN could be the answer for a number of coaches who are trying to improve efficiency in their setup. While organization has always been a leading trait among winning coaches, it can potentially be done in a much more streamlined manner.
Being able to share team news, schedules, video and even things like lifting results, sleeping patterns and hydration could enable greater performance for both coaches and players.
And in a recent announcement, DRIVN revealed new partnerships with top college hockey programs like Boston College, Boston University and defending Men's NCAA Champions Providence College. This adds to an existing client list that includes Ohio State University, as well as pro teams like the Calgary Flames and the Philadelphia Flyers. Founded in 2014, DRIVN has gone through rapid growth already."The competition ...is just the old way of doing things. I text my team, I do Google Docs, I give handouts or PDFs."[/pullquote]
DRIVN CEO Chris Heidelberger and co-founder Matt Lombardi recently explained its purpose in an interview with BostInno.
"The interesting thing there was when we started working with the teams is it really began with how you communicate now," said Lombardi, who is a former Boston College hockey player. "What are they tracking with their athletes? What is the coaching style like? And a lot of what we found was that their communicating in the multiple areas whether it be tech, emails, posting things to the board. Then whether they're tracking stuff. You know, with several schools we have game-player questionnaires. They're tracking their resting heart-rate in the morning, their weigh-ins, weekly or daily. And those are just done on a clipboard, pieces of paper."
Both Heidelberger and Lombardi figured out that using technology to organize all of the team's information was actually something that had almost completely escaped the world of sports tech previously."The competition when we arrived is just the old way of doing things," Heidelberger explained. "I text my team, I do Google Docs, I give handouts or PDFs."
Other formats are out there, but not in as complete a form as what DRIVN is doing. Apps like TeamSnap and AMP Sport are in the market space, though DRIVN promises to take it to another level.
With DRIVN, the expectation is that teams can combine everything into one, easy to read format. Heidelberger put it into clear terms:
Everything that's been happening in these sort of disparate, non-integrated ways now just arrives on their phone integrated with Google Calendar. So we're really revolutionizing the way that coaches coach and players interact with the coaching staff, nutritionists, strength and conditioning, other coaches and each other.
Skeptics will inevitably point out that seasoned coaches like Boston College's Jerry York might not want to jump into using the app on a daily basis. Lombardi reasoned that this misses the point of how a team like B.C. works. Noting that the team works in "multiple tiers," Lombardi explained how assistant coaches are more likely to be involved with specific instructions and information that would be found on DRIVN."We can take what Coach (Greg) Brown does as he works mostly with the defense," said Lombardi. "And his big thing is about just getting better everyday. The discussions that I’ve had there and what he’s been able to use it for is to give them, you know, here’s what you should do on the ice tomorrow morning. Here’s a clip from the Bruins and Penguins last night. Brooks Orpik is playing tonight. Watch him play and pay attention to his shifts. So he’s able to now use it in a much more efficient manner of making his defense better."
In terms of funding, Heidelberger said that the company has been successfully bootstrapping since its inception. He noted that "we have some friends and family that are involved," though he did confirm DRIVN is aiming to raise funding in the "first quarter, probably closer to January than March.""We’re really good at bootstrapping too, so we’re feeling very good at where we are right now," Heidelberger added. "We’re generating revenue as a company already and we’re moving forward pretty rapidly."
As for the future, DRIVN could be headed for widespread usage soon. With an eventual ambition to move beyond college and pro sports (into individual fitness as well as pickup and youth sports), Heidelberger says growth is on tap even in the short term.
"We have tons of teams in pilot across multiple sports."
Image via DRIVN
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