Here are some helpful tips on using Practice Planner Pro to help you be better prepared and organized for an upcoming season:

Create a Seasonal Folder- This will allow you to keep all of the information created over a course of a season such as practice plans, scouting reports, etc. in a place that is easy to find. Another benefit of this is the ability to access practice plans, evaluations, etc. from a previous season for easy reference. You can also review information from a previous season easily. This can be done by using either Practice Planner Pro or the Windows Explorer feature of Windows 95 or 98. If you want to use Practice Planner Pro, simply click the Open a Practice Plan or Save a Practice Plan button. A dialog box will appear showing a folder and a name of the folder. You can create your system of folders and sub folders to store all the information for a particular season by using the new folder button in this dialog box.

Creating a folder entitled 1998 Season would allow you to keep practice plans, post practice and post game evaluations, as well as scouting reports together. Sub folders entitled Practice Plans, Post Practice Evaluations, Post Game Evaluations, and Scouting Reports can be created to keep information separate and allow easy access. You can even take it one step further by creating folders such as Week #1, Week #2, etc. for the entire season to organize information more specifically.

Build Your Drill Directory- Enter all of your drills ahead of time by creating categories and sub categories to store them using the drill directory feature. Your drills can be categorized in any way you choose. For example, you may want to categorize drills by the specific fundamental being covered or by the number of players needed to run a particular drill. You may even want to categorize your drills according to positions. Of course, you can use all three methods.

Assigning a pre-determined length of time for each drill can save you valuable time when creating actual plans. If you know that you will be doing stretching on a daily basis for 10 minutes, you can assign 10 minutes as the default time for that drill and the time will automatically be entered in along with the drill name. The same applies with a particular point of emphasis that you want to assign to a drill.

Create Practice Plans and Scouting Reports in Advance- You can look at your calendar of practice days for the entire season and begin creating practice plans in advance. Obviously the plans you create for the beginning of the season can be much more detailed and specific. Whether you have a seasonal, monthly, or weekly master practice plan, you can create general plans that can be the framework for creating more specific plans as you identify areas of your team's performance that need emphasis as the season progresses

Creating scouting reports in advance can also benefit you as you enter your season. These reports will be general and based on the past season's information but can easily be edited and updated as opponents are scouted during the season.

Practice Planner Pro is a valuable tool that can help you be highly organized and also maximize your ability to create effective practice plans over the course of the season.