Sports coaching simulation games are rising in popularity amongst professionals and avid sports fans alike for a number of different reasons. For up-and-coming coaches, it’s a great way to test drive new strategies and make tweaks before running them with the team.

For loyal sports fans, it’s an immersive way to experience the game they love and understand its inner workings better.

Whichever of the two categories you may fall under, there’s always room to improve your simulation coaching skills.

Check out these three tips to help you secure your team’s next win.

How to Become a Better Coach With a Sports Simulation Game

1. Don’t Choose the Best; Choose the Best for Your Team

In the 2014 movie Draft Day, an NFL team’s general manager agonizes over a tough decision. Having painfully negotiated to secure the first overall draft pick, he must decide between selecting the season’s coveted player, a quarterback, or a tenacious linebacker with a heart of gold.

To the outrage of his primary shareholders and staff, *spoiler alert*, the general manager goes with the linebacker. He makes this controversial decision based on the players’ sportsmanship and the fact that his team already has an experienced quarterback who had just fully recovered from an injury.

The moral of the story is simple: What’s best for others may not necessarily be what’s best for your team. And that’s okay.

Everyone wants to have the best of the best, but team chemistry is critical to success on the field, all season long. There’s no point in hoarding all these blue-chip players if you can’t maximize them all — or worse, if they don’t mesh well together. Finding players who work well together is of utmost importance.

Each athlete is a puzzle piece with their own traits, strengths, and weaknesses. Consider how a player can affect your team’s dynamic – how can they augment what the team currently lacks? How can they complement existing players that deliver for your team?

With Wolverine Studios, you get to play with complex, multi-dimensional characters who don’t only vary in strengths and weaknesses but also have backstories, character traits, and quirks. You can even craft a unique storyline for them.

After all, in real life, the personal aspects can greatly affect professional performance.

2. Play to Your Team’s Strengths

Yes, there are many tried-and-tested techniques, and they are successful for a reason. But that doesn’t mean you should implement them blindly on the sole basis of being a proven tactic. Each player brings something different and wholly theirs to the table, and how they come together will be unique to your team.

When crafting your plays, consider how your players’ varying strengths and weaknesses can both complement and supplement one another. During game day, design your playbook to leverage your team’s strengths. But during practices and the off-season, take the time to work on your players’ weak spots to minimize your vulnerabilities and keep your opponents on their toes.

Wolverine Studios offers many playbook options, and the amazing thing is that you can also customize just about anything. You can change and optimize strategies, tailor them according to your players’ respective fortes, and lead your team just the way you envisioned.

This isn’t about utilizing what works best for other teams. It’s about zeroing in on what works best for your team.

3. Never Play the Same Game Twice

In real life, you’ll face off against teams that review your past games, learn your plays, study your players, and prepare counterattacks made specifically to beat you.

Many coaching simulation games come with standard functionality and miss out on external and internal factors that can impact a team’s performance. But Wolverine Studios aims to imitate real-life conditions and offers a truly intelligent AI that makes you feel like you’re not just playing a game but playing for real.

You’ll be pushed out of your comfort zone and as a result, you’ll grow tremendously as a coach.

In real life, each game, each season is different. As the coach, it’s your job to help your team grow stronger and constantly find ways to outsmart your opponents. With Wolverine Studios, you have a career-based sports simulation game that helps you monitor your progress and build your dynasty as a coach, season by season. 

You can track your team’s performance on a per-game and per-season level to see what works and doesn’t work. You can even export some data into spreadsheets and databases, so you can have all the information you need to course-correct and chart the best path to success.

Plus, you can relive your career highlights via historical archives. Every single win is worth celebrating, right?

You already know that when it comes to honing your skills as a professional coach, a flat, one-dimensional sports sim with a lackluster AI isn’t going to cut it. Your standards are much higher.

And so are ours.

That’s why we’re committed to giving you a lifelike, dynamic experience on the court and field. Our players are complex. Our opponents are out for a win. You’re going to have to hustle and think strategically to stay one step ahead of your competition — and our AI.

And you’re going to tremendously improve as a coach, as a result. This is the real deal.

Are you ready to get into the game and lead your team to victory? Jump right into Wolverine Sports with a free demo!