5 iPhone Apps for Basketball Coaches

By Ryan Wood, iHoops.com

There was a time when coaches charted shots with a pencil and a clipboard, made 15 phone calls to the entire team when practice was canceled, and was limited by the basic functions of a stopwatch and a whistle.

With technology advancing so rapidly, the job description of basketball coaching can be zeroed in more and more on working with players. Smartphone applications are one of the reasons.

The Apple iPhone has millions of users and literally thousands of apps to use, including several specifically for basketball coaches. Here are five such apps that could make your job description as a basketball coach a little more efficient:

HoopStats Basketball Scoring

Rare Software - $4.99

The comprehensive stat keeper for basketball coaches or managers, the HoopsStats Basketball Scoring app allows for real-time statkeeping in an easy-to-use format. You can even export those stats to HTML and Excel, and email shot charts via PDF files.

iShotTrack

Blane Townsend Studios -- Free

This app allows you to pinpoint where your team made and missed shots on the floor, then create scouting reports complete with hot and cold spots from where your team was shooting. iShotTrack allows you to scout the data for the entire game, individual quarters or a combination of different quarters.

Tally Timer

HOLTEC, LLC -- $0.99

This is a great tool for basketball practices. Tally Timer helps keep track of scores and time for various drills and pickup scrimmages you may conduct, has a stopwatch that can count up to 99 hours or down from any time period, and has alarm sounds for various actions so you don't have to keep your eye on it while conducting practice.

HoopCoach Mobile

HoopCoach.org -- Free

This app is perfect for coaches looking to move up the ladder. Called the "LinkedIn" for basketball coaches, HoopCoach Mobile allows you to search for college, overseas and high school coaching jobs through its app, as well as connect with other coaches around the world.

rTeam

Stretch Computing, Inc. -- Free

This app is a great way to organize the off-the-court aspects of leading a team. rTeam gives you a one-stop shop for taking attendance at practices, emailing practice or schedule updates to the entire team, map practice and game locations to send out to the team, update results anyone can access, and more. In short, it's how you can easily communicate with your entire team in the iPhone age.