The missing playmaker: every sports organization needs an Instructional Designer

You’ve optimized recruiting, recovery, and performance - why not how your athletes and staff learn?

Two years ago, I posed a simple question on my Substack: Why aren’t more sports teams hiring instructional designers?

At the time, the number of IDs in athletics was practically nonexistent. And today? Unless there is a secret society of instructional designers hiding in pro and collegiate sports bunkers, that number has not changed much.

Yet the stakes have never been higher.

You can have the perfect game plan, the best data, the most detailed scouting report - but if you cannot teach or deliver it effectively? It does not matter. Talent without comprehension is a waste of potential.

Information alone is not enough — athletes & staff need learning experiences that stick

Playbooks. Recruiting. NIL education. Compliance. Nutrition. Film review. Team standards & culture. These are instructional moments, whether anyone is calling them that or not. The problem? Most teams - heck, even most workplaces – still rely on email, PowerPoint, and long meetings to “teach.”

Coaches, ADs, GMs, admins - ask yourself: Is how we teach keeping up with how today’s athletes and staff learn?

Gen Z and Gen Alpha athletes and staff usually do not engage with lectures and long documents. They are digital natives who expect and thrive with videos, visuals, interaction, quick explainers, and feedback. Countless studies have repeatedly shown any learner - no matter their age - retains more when content is delivered in short, multimedia-rich bursts with clear relevance and application.

If you are “talking at them” as your instructional strategy, you are behind.

Instructional Designers are built for this

Enter the instructional designer: a specialist trained in how people retain and apply knowledge - and how to build systems that work for learners.

We do not just make things “pretty.” We make them sticky. We help you teach better. We make information memorable.

Instructional designers are trained in how people learn — we consider cognitive load, we recognize the need for varied instruction. We do not just design slides — we can build systems that help coaches and staff teach better, athletes retain what matters, and everyone perform to the best of their ability.

We are not here to replace coaches or administrators - we are here to help their message land and stick.

We can:

• Translate playbooks into interactive walkthroughs

• Turn long meetings into on-demand, trackable microlearning experiences

• Use existing LMS platforms to create custom onboarding and training

• Design feedback loops so coaches know what athletes and staff do and do not understand

• Help identify where breakdowns are happening — before they show up on the field

• Build targeted learning interventions using the tools you already pay for (eg., your LMS, Slack, Teamworks, etc.)

This is not theory, this is evidence-based practice.

Universities already have the tools — what’s missing is someone who knows how to use them to their fullest potential

Professional teams may have more budget and access (and less of an excuse to be without an ID), but universities already have the infrastructure. What is often missing is not funding. It is intentionality. It is the right hire. It is someone who knows how to build learning into your existing system.

Most universities already pay for robust learning management system(s) like Blackboard or Canvas. However, athletic departments rarely use them strategically even though student-athletes are already logging in for academic coursework.

With the right instructional designer, you could be using your LMS to:

• Build a central hub for nutrition, strength, and recovery resources

• Deliver NIL and compliance training in interactive formats

• Create digital playbooks with embedded video, quizzes, and scenario-based drills

• Track engagement, completion, and retention — just like you do with film breakdowns

All of it is already paid for. What’s missing is the person who knows how to build learning into your system.

Sports have embraced science in every other area. Why not learning?

You have hired sports scientists, mental performance coaches, data analysts, recovery specialists, and more. You are optimizing every variable in the game…except the way knowledge is delivered and understood. Believe it or not, learning is a science.

Hiring an instructional designer is not fluff. It’s foundational. It is how you:

· Eliminate miscommunication

· Catch breakdowns before they show up in play

· Scale knowledge across changing rosters and staff

· Save your coaches time

· Build buy-in and accountability from athletes

Research across corporate, military, healthcare, and education sectors shows that strong instructional design improves retention, application, and behavioral change. Why would sports be the exception?

Somehow, teaching remains one of the least optimized parts of the process.

You have hired everyone for every detail — but no one dedicated to how your athletes and staff actually learn?

From equipment to nutrition to branding, every detail supports the team’s success. But the way your athletes and staff learn might be the key to unlocking long-term performance and success.

If you are still relying on an assistant coach to double as your instructional designer, or a GA to build your training resources with Google Slides and vibes, it is time to get serious. You are not losing games because of effort. You are losing execution in the gray space between instruction and understanding. Instructional designers live in that space. We fix it.

Whether you are a coach or in an administrative setting, I can help.