I’m planning to write about some of my coaching tools for the next couple of blog posts. I’m sure that every good coach has some handy helpers, which aid him in being organized, prepared and professional. Today I’d like to share with you one of my most important assets: My Coaching Clipboard.
Now, there are a lot of good coaching clipboards available, and I’ve had a lot of them, but for the last 5 years I have sticked to one particular clipboard, the KBA Playmaker SPM-16.
During practices and games I’ve used this clipboard for visualizing drills, explaining particular offensive and defensive set ups and scribbling down important keywords I’d like the team to soak up and understand. Oh, and I also used it when I once kicked my clipboard and got a technical for it. Of course I deserved it, but the point is, this board is durable and I assure you it can take a serious beating!
Let’s have a close look at this basketball clipboard:
The KBA SPM-16 Playmaker clipboard is 40cm x 23cm (9″ by 15.5″) in size and is made out of sturdy, durable plastic. Eventhough it may be larger than some clipboards, personally I think the size is perfect and easy to see for players, even if they stand a little further away, for example, during time-outs. Depending of what you’d like to show your players, you have a fullcourt diagram on the front side with the clip and a halfcourt on the back.
When I’m not using the clipboard to draw strategy or making important points, I then always clip my scouting template on the front side, so I can write down the stats and game notes right away. The clipboard is a little larger than the normal notebook size, so the paper can be clipped easily and comfortably without reaching over the edges. As much as this is good, it may be a drawback because the KBA SPM-16 Playmaker clipboard is too large to fit in standard sized bags in which regular notebooks would fit in.
The clipboard comes with a dry erase pen which can be attached to the clip via Velcro®. Writing with the pen is great as it has a strong black color and can be erased easily once it has dried. As like with other dry erase pens the problem is, that unless they are totally dried, they leave stains on the board and on the fingers when you wipe. I’m the type of guy that loses pens constantly, so being able to attach the pen with the Velcro® is a great feature preventing further misplacements of pens. The Velcro® serves as an eraser, too.
What I like:
High-Quality plastic which is durable and sturdy
Good prize
What can be improved:
Actually I haven’t found anything, which I didn’t like, but for some people the size of the clipboard may be a problem as it is larger than regular notebooks.
Summary:
The KBA SPM-16 Playmaker clipboard is a great product, so simple and useful, that I’d recommend it to anyone who asks me. In fact, we’ve ordered this coaching clipboard for all of our coaching staff. The price of around 15 bucks makes it an affordable investment.
