CoachTube helps athletes perform better through online coaching from notable names

A sports technology company is using well-known coaches to help athletes learn and perfect their craft in the digital age.

The platform, called CoachTube, allows coaches to post instructional videos online that athletes — or even other coaches — can purchase to improve at their sport. 

"At its core, CoachTube is for anyone wanting to get better at sports," CoachTube CEO and Founder Wade Floyd told Fox Business in a recent interview. "From the athletes themselves, youth parents, to professional coaches. There is a wide array of instructional and educational videos available to all interest and ability levels."

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The platform saw immense growth as sports were shuttered during the coronavirus pandemic, Floyd said. The pandemic helped change people's behavior with virtual technology. 

"Our users got addicted. For a while, most sports were shut down, so you are limited with practice and the ability to compete. Those athletes and coaches that are hungry spent much of the pandemic on CoachTube improving their knowledge of the game," Floyd said. "With the extra time, we saw a major uptick in coaches that took this extra time to create courses to help other coaches and players. The concept of doing things remote definitely helped CoachTube, especially with the older generations realizing just how impactful it can be."

A major draw to coaches using the platform is the fact that they can keep ownership of their content and a majority of the revenue earned. 

"Before CoachTube existed, there were just companies that would film coaches then own the content and at best give them a very small royalty," Floyd said. "Coaches were shocked when they do something on CoachTube that they keep not only ownership but much of the majority of the revenue."

As of Friday, CoachTube had over 5,655 courses available from more than 1,400 creators on the platform. Floyd said it benefits coaches because they don't have to focus on running or marketing a business. They can just coach. 

"We give the creators all the tools and technology they need to help make a bigger impact online with a built-in audience of hundreds of thousands of users craving what they provide," he said. "For the athletes, they can learn pretty much anything they need to help them reach their potential on demand from coaches they trust."

Notable football instructors include Hal Mumme, the co-founder of the air raid offense; Patrick Willis, former Pro Bowl linebacker with the San Francisco 49ers; and June Jones and Mouse Davis, who refined and popularized the run-and-shoot offense.

Willis told Fox Business he was thinking about using the platform since the day he retired from the NFL in 2015, calling it "right up my alley." 

"There’s no way I can get out every day of the week and get into traffic and try to touch every single kid in person," Willis said. "The next best thing to that was bringing content and knowledge to a platform. I have some content — how do I put this out?" 

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Baseball offerings include instruction from famed pitching coach Tom House, described as the "father of modern pitching mechanics." As for basketball, notable offerings include courses from Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Sean Sweeney and another from Brooklyn Nets head coach Steve Nash. 

Last year, CoachTube announced it was also offering courses from student-athletes in a variety of sports following recent NCAA rule changes, which allowed college athletes to earn money from their name, image, and likeness (NIL). 

Noteworthy student-athlete instructors include Texas Longhorns wide receiver Xavier Worthy, Notre Dame running back Kyren Williams and Jalen Wilson, who recently won a national championship with the Kansas Jayhawks. A $20 course is also being offered by Texas Longhorn slugger Ivan Melendez. As of Tuesday, it has been viewed nearly 200 times.

In a press release last year, Floyd said the company was aiming to be the No. 1 revenue source for student-athletes. 

"We built CoachTube to empower coaches and athletes to succeed, not exploit their brand for profit," Floyd said at the time. "I can't think of a better way for athletes to make money off their name, image and likeness, than to teach what they love to those who look up to them."

Floyd told Fox Business the idea for CoachTube came about after he struggled with drills and practice plans while coaching youth baseball. Floyd said he was looking for a place online where he could learn from other coaches but "couldn't believe it didn't exist."

"All I found were dozens of random sites of video clips but nothing where I can search hundreds of courses from different creators with reviews. At the same time, I was obsessed with online learning from my previous company, where I bought thousands of dollars of business courses myself," Floyd said. "I just started calling prominent coaches who had clips on video-sharing sites as well as those that sold DVDs, and they were like, 'This is exactly what we are looking for.' That's all I needed to hear and launched a beta a few months later."

The sports education platform was officially launched in March 2015 and is based in Austin, Texas. 

Floyd said the biggest challenge the platform faces is getting "critical mass" in a new sport. But with more than 600 million athletes and coaches worldwide, he thinks the company is just getting started. 

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"Other than us becoming the platform to teach and learn sports — think Amazon for sports training — we will keep listening to our users and giving them exactly what they crave," Floyd added.