What modern drill organization requires
In practice, saving training drills rarely fails due to storage space, but rather due to a lack of structure and hard-to-access content. A key criterion for a functioning drill collection is the quality of visualization and animation. Static sketches on paper or cluttered screenshots are usually not enough to clearly illustrate sequences like passing lanes, runs, or dribbling for the entire coaching team. Moving images and precise drawings make preparation easier and ensure quick communication on the pitch.
Furthermore, preparation requires sound libraries and collections. Coaches must be able to filter content by clear parameters, including age group, number of players, required equipment, training focus, and complexity. An unordered list of hundreds of files slows down processes. Only categories and personal favorites make a database usable in everyday work. Custom variations or adaptations to different group sizes must also be stored neatly so that valuable knowledge is not lost.
The final decisive criterion is integration into session structure and methodical progression. An individual drill never exists in isolation. It must fit coherently into a sequence of warm-up, main part, and wrap-up. Content organization must allow workload, didactic progressions, and overarching themes to be planned over weeks. When the transition from basic form to complex game form is seamlessly documented, the entire training gains quality and structure.
Why the drill collection must not be an end in itself
At Coach OS, we believe that simply saving drills without clear context does not make any coach better. A full hard drive or a folder full of cluttered PDF files does not create effective training on its own. The actual added value only arises when saved drills are directly linked to thoughtful periodization, the club's specific playing philosophy, and the team's current stage of development.
Software should relieve coaches of time-consuming organization and data work instead of forcing rigid patterns on them. Our core promise is therefore: Coach OS suggests, the coach decides. Always. We view a database as a dynamic system that flexibly adapts to age groups, skill levels, and changing group sizes, rather than just managing static content.
For this reason, we do not separate drill creation and organization from ongoing season planning. With the integrated drawing tool Sketch, you can precisely design custom drills, display them in 2D or 3D, and animate them via auto-morphing. They are then immediately available in the central drill database. In addition to title and execution, all relevant parameters such as introduction, coaching points, required equipment, intensity, and duration are recorded. This preserves the coaching team's personal touch while creating a structured knowledge base in the club that persists through coaching changes and secures knowledge. Special tags, such as marking drills suitable for camps, also help quickly find the right content for any occasion across the team or entire club.
How Coach OS solves organizing and saving drills
Coach OS offers a library of over 1,244 individually designed and animated drills created without stock content. Coaches can search this inventory by category, age, number of players, equipment, difficulty, and training focus. Each drill can be used in different variations, saved as a favorite, or expanded with your own sessions.
The Sketch tool is available for creating custom drills. It runs in the browser, on desktop, and on tablets. Coaches draw pitches with flexible dimensions, place 5 team shapes, 8 colors, 3 arrow types for pass, run, or dribble, as well as rotatable goals from 1 to 7 meters. With one click, the view switches between the two-dimensional Tactical View from above and the three-dimensional TV View. Thanks to auto-morphing between individual frames, movement sequences can be animated smoothly and key moments highlighted in color. Multiple coaches can even work on the same drawing simultaneously.
Saved drills flow directly into session planning. The session generator accesses the stored inventory of equipment – from full-size goals and mini goals to cones, agility ladders, and dummies. During assembly, the system considers 11 main categories with 6 to 14 subcategories each. Selectable periodization structures such as PPP, mesocycle, macrocycle, microcycle, linear, block, or ATR ensure that saved content is embedded into a methodical progression.
A planned session can be conducted on the pitch in live mode via smartphone or exported as a PDF file for the coaching staff. Through a library, documents, videos, and images can also be stored in folders and assigned to players as attachments for tasks.
Who the solution is suitable for and where the limits lie
Coach OS is suitable for coaches and clubs at all performance levels – from grassroots clubs and youth setups to men's and women's teams as well as youth academies. It supports individual coaches looking to save time and structure their own drills, as well as clubs wanting to establish a uniform development philosophy across all age groups with Club OS.
To be honest, however, there are clear limits where Coach OS is not the right choice. If you are looking for software that records video and performs automated video analysis of matches, you will not find that feature here. While match data can be imported via interfaces, video analysis itself takes place in specialized third-party systems. Likewise, Coach OS does not handle membership management, fee collection, or club accounting. Furthermore, Trax Sports does not manufacture its own measurement hardware; data from GPS vests or heart rate belts from other manufacturers is integrated via interfaces for academies. There is also no certification of the software by DFB, UEFA, or FIFA, as licensing always applies to the coaches developing the material, not the software used. For coaches, the features cost 19.90 euros per month and team.
FAQ: Saving & organizing drills | Coach OS
How do you draw and save your own drills in the software?
You can flexibly draw your own drills on a computer, tablet, or smartphone using the integrated Sketch tool. To do this, you can use customizable pitch dimensions, various team shapes, arrow types, and goals. Once created, the drill can be displayed in 2D or 3D, animated via auto-morphing, and saved directly to your personal database for future sessions.
Can multiple coaches collaborate on a drill library?
Multiple coaches can work on the same drawing simultaneously and make joint adjustments. Newly created drills initially remain private to the creator and only become visible to colleagues once shared. Via Club OS, the entire coaching staff accesses a unified library and club curriculum, sustainably strengthening knowledge management.
How are saved drills integrated into session planning?
When creating new sessions, the session generator accesses the stored database directly. The system selects suitable drills based on criteria such as squad size, available equipment, pitch size, and the chosen periodization structure. All suggested drills can then be manually moved, swapped, or adjusted at any time within the session schedule.
What export options are available for saved drills?
Prepared sessions can be exported as clear PDF files, printed, and shared within the coaching staff. Additionally, drills, videos, and documents can be stored in the internal library and distributed digitally as attachments via tasks to individual players, positional groups, or the entire squad. For practical use on the pitch, a live mode is also available on smartphones.
Using the integrated tool Sketch, you draw training drills on desktop, tablet, or smartphone. You have flexible pitch dimensions, 5 team shapes, 8 colors, 3 arrow types, and rotatable goals at your disposal. Drills can be displayed in 2D and 3D and animated using auto-morphing. Once saved, they land directly in your personal database.
Yes, through the Sketch tool, multiple coaches can draw and make adjustments to the same drill at the same time. Newly created drawings initially remain private to the creator and only become visible once actively set to public. In a club, Club OS also enables cross-team access to the shared development philosophy and library.
When creating a session, the session generator accesses the drill database directly. The system selects suitable content from 11 main categories and over 1,244 stored drills. In doing so, the software considers factors such as pitch size, available equipment, squad size, and the chosen periodization cycle. All content in the plan can be swapped or adjusted manually at any time.
Every prepared training session can be exported as a clean PDF file to print or share with the coaching team. Additionally, drills, videos, and documents can be stored in the integrated library. From there, materials can be distributed directly to individual players, position groups, or the entire squad as attachments via tasks.
Questions on drill organization and digitization
How do you quickly convert paper sketches from notebooks into digital training drills?
You photograph the page from your notebook or type the drill sequence as text. Artificial intelligence draws the drill from it and suggests a suitable title, sequence, and coaching points. Then you adjust the sketch directly on your computer or tablet. The tool Sketch by Coach OS thus converts your templates digitally without manual redrawing.
By what criteria do you sort and find drills for your age group?
You structure your collection specifically by category, age, number of players, equipment, and difficulty. This way, you find exactly the drill that fits your current training conditions instead of searching through cluttered folders for a long time. In Coach OS, you access over 1,244 animated drills that you can filter according to these criteria and build directly into sessions.
How do you clearly convey movement sequences of a drawn drill to your players?
You switch from two-dimensional tactical view to a three-dimensional perspective with one click. As a result, your players recognize spatial distribution and running lines much faster on a tablet or smartphone. You show the animation as a video or present the drill via QR-Code as augmented reality. This greatly eases the explanation phase before training on the pitch.