Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / #114: Gill1918 Presents Coach Evander Wells “How I Use AI as a Coach” Powered by Coach O

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#114: Gill1918 Presents Coach Evander Wells “How I Use AI as a Coach” Powered by Coach O · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  Welcome to the Gill 1918 Project, a podcast series by
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  coaches for coaches, powered by Gill Athletics.
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  Think of it as the Ted Talks of track and field coaching.
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  Short, insightful, and packed with valuable strategies to help
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  you grow as a coach. This episode is part of the
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  Youth and Beginner Series, brought to you by Coach O.
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  In this series, we focus on topics relating to coaching
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  youth athletes, coaching beginner athletes of any age,
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  and supporting brand new coaches as they find their way.
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  With that in mind, let's grow. My name is Evander Wells, and
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  I'm the associate head track and field coach at the University of
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  North Florida. Today, I'm excited to share how
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  I use AI as a coach. Not as a tech expert, not as
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  someone who has it all figured out, but as a coach who's
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  learning how to use this tool in a way that actually makes my job
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  better. Before I talk about AI, though,
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  I need to be honest about something.
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  I'm not the most organized person in the world.
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  I never really have been. I was a procrastinator growing
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  up. And if I'm being real, that
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  hasn't completely gone away. My version of disorganized
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  doesn't look like laziness. It looks like chaos disguised as
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  productivity. It looks like sitting down to
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  write what should be a 10 minute e-mail, getting distracted and
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  suddenly an hour has passed. It looks like planning practice
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  on Sunday night from Monday morning.
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  And part of that chaos comes with the reality of coaching.
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  Every week I have a list of something that looks like this.
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  Plan practice, run practice, staff meetings, academic check,
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  insurance, recruiting emails, phone calls with parents, travel
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  logistics, budget paperwork, compliance forms, camp planning,
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  meet entries, and somewhere in there actually coaching
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  athletes. In my case, practice runs from
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  8:00 AM to about noon. Everything else, meetings,
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  recruiting, communication, administrative work, has to get
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  done between noon and 5:00 PM. That's not a huge window.
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  What used to happen is I look at that list and just attack
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  whatever felt urgent. Not necessarily what was most
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  important, just what was loudest.
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  And that's where stress builds. One of the simplest but most
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  powerful ways I use AI as this. I type out my weekly tasks
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  everything, and say something like organize this into a
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  realistic weekly schedule for a college track coach.
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  Practice runs from 8:00 AM to noon.
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  Remaining tasks must be completed between noon and 5:00
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  PM. Prioritize practice preparation
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  and recruiting communication. Then within seconds, I have
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  structure. It doesn't force me to follow it
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  perfectly, but it gives me clarity.
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  Instead of reacting, I'm planning.
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  Instead of feeling behind. I feel ahead, let alone change
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  things for me. But AI isn't just helpful for
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  scheduling, it's incredibly powerful for brainstorming.
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  For me, it feels like having a notebook where I dump my
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  thoughts and then being able to talk through those notes with
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  someone. I don't talk to AI like it's a
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  machine. I talk to it like it's a person
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  sitting across from me. I explain what I'm thinking, I
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  ask it to organize it. I ask it to refine it.
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  Sometimes I even ask it to challenge my thinking.
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  When I took an AI course, it described AI as a way that
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  immediately made sense to me. They say AI is like having a
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  really smart intern who's great at following directions.
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  That framing changed everything because just like an intern, AI
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  doesn't think for you. It doesn't understand context
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  unless you give it context. The quality of what you get
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  depends entirely on the quality of the direction you give.
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  And just like an intern, you don't blindly trust the work.
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  You review it, you adjust it, you make sure it meets your
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  standards, you fix anything that feels off.
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  The responsibility never leaves you.
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  But once you start doing it consistently, it becomes easier.
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  You learn how to give better instructions.
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  You learn what level of detail produces better output.
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  You learn how to tweak instead of rewrite.
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  And what used to take hours starts taking minutes.
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  Let me give you a real example. We have a intern on our staff
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  who does a great job. When he's given something
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  specific, he executes it well. When there's no direction he
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  kind of stands around. I use him to record time trials.
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  The first time I just said record this.
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  For me. The video technically wasn't
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  wrong, but it wasn't. But it wasn't as useful as I
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  hoped so I had to get specific. I told him the most important
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  things are seeing me start the Rep and seeing everyone cross
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  the finish line, start zoomed in so you can see me, then zoom out
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  so that the entire finish line is in the frame when athletes
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  cross it. Once I gave him that level of
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  detail, the videos came out perfectly.
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  That's how AI works. The key isn't better questions
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  is better instructions. Think about it as a coach, if
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  someone comes to you and says coach, give me an annual plan,
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  you don't have much to work with.
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  If they say, hey coach, can you give me a Sprint plan that's a
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  little better? If they say coach, can you give
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  me a 20 week Sprint plan for my high school boys team with a
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  county meet in March and A state championship in May?
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  That gives you a lot of things to work with.
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  The more detail the better the plan.
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  AI works the same way. Most people may say something
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  like reply to this e-mail that's very vague.
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  But if you say reply to this e-mail as a college coach in a
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  conversational tone, thanking them for reaching out, letting
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  them know they do not meet I athletic standards and we cannot
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  move forward in the recruitment process now AI understands the
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  role, the tone, the intent and the outcome, and the quality
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  improves immediately. Here are a few prompts you can
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  use if I need to set up a visit. I can say reply as a college
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  track coach in a warm and conversational tone.
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  Let the athlete know we'd love to host them for an unofficial
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  visit on March 3rd or March 10th.
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  Include details about meeting at the track, touring campus, and
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  observing practice. If I want to encourage an
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  athlete to apply, I can say reply to this message as a
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  college track coach, encouraging the athlete to complete the
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  admissions application. Emphasize that applying does not
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  commit them, but allows us to move forward in the recruiting
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  process. Keep it positive and supportive.
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  Now if I'm replying to a high school coach, I can say write a
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  professional but friendly e-mail to a high school track coach
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  asking them to have their athlete complete our recruiting
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  questionnaire, expressed appreciation for their program,
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  and mentioned that we're looking forward to following their
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  athletes season. These prompts take seconds to
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  write. And here's the best part, you
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  can save them. Most coaches already save
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  replies for common messages. Now you can save structured
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  prompts. Every time you paste a new
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  message under the save instructions, AI generates A
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  tailored response for that specific situation.
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  It adapts. That's where I've saved the most
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  time e-mail. Not the most important emails.
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  I still spend my own time on those but the high volume
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  routine ones, the ones that used to drain time and mental energy.
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  And once emails was under control I started to use AI for
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  bigger projects. Things like recruiting plans,
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  meet day planning, camp manuals. Honestly your imagination is the
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  only limit. I used to rely on a paid
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  recruiting service and it worked, but often times it felt
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  generic. There was less of me in the
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  messages. Now I use AI to help build
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  structure, but I feed it my philosophy, my tone, my
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  standards. For example, I can say help me
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  brainstorm a 12 month recruiting plan for the University of North
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  Florida Track program include recruiting topics that change
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  every four weeks. I want to tell the story of our
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  program in weekly emails and text messages to recruits.
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  Parents will receive messages every three weeks and the final
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  months will focus on asking for commitment.
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  After that, I can add more details like the topics I like
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  to cover when I want to start, when I plan to wrap up key dates
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  like application start date and deadline, and any other thing
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  that's specific to our university, our track program,
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  or myself. The more information you
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  provide, the better, and what comes back feels more like me
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  than what I was using before. AI didn't replace my voice, it
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  amplified it, and that's the bigger idea.
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  AI isn't replacing coaching, it's replacing friction.
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  It's not turning me into a robot.
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  It's helped me become clearer, more organized, and more
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  consistent. If you're really a highly
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  organized person and I makes you faster.
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  If you're not like me, it can change how you operate entirely.
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  So start small. Use it for brainstorming.
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  Use it for those emails you want to avoid.
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  Save your prompts. Give better instructions because
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  AI isn't here to replace coaches, is here to reward
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  clarity, and when used properly, it does not erase your voice, it
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  amplifies it. Hopefully that can help you
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  learn how to use AI in a better way.
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  Thank you. Hey gang, Mike Cunningham here.
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  Thanks for joining us for this episode in the Youth and
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  beginner series Powered by Coach O Powered by Coach O is more
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  than a platform. It's a movement to benefit track
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  and field by supporting coaches, athletes, parents, officials and
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  event directors in countless ways.
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  Find out more and get yourself plugged in to the Powered by
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  Coach O by visiting coacho.com today.