Run a coached session

Coaching mode connects your phone to your sailors' phones over local Wi-Fi, letting you start and stop recording remotely, see live speeds, run countdown sequences, and communicate by voice — all without an internet connection on the water.

What you need

• The Dinghy Coach Android app on the coach's phone
• The Dinghy Coach Android app on each sailor's phone
• A local Wi-Fi network (a phone hotspot works well — see Wi-Fi / hotspot setup)

All devices must be on the same Wi-Fi network. Mobile data is not used for the coach-sailor link.

Before launching

Coach's phone:

1. Open the app. Set your name in the name field (e.g. "Coach" or your name).
2. Connect to the Wi-Fi network you'll be using.
3. On the start screen, tap ⋮ → Options and confirm Voice comms is on if you want push-to-talk.

Each sailor's phone:

1. Open the app. Set their sail number in the name field.
2. Connect to the same Wi-Fi network as the coach.
3. On the start screen, hold Get Coached for 1 second. The sailor enters a waiting screen.

Starting the session

1. On the coach's phone, hold Coaching for 1 second. The Coaching screen opens.
2. After a few seconds, each sailor's name appears in the roster as they connect.
3. When all expected sailors are showing as connected (green dot), tap Start Recording. All sailors' phones begin recording simultaneously.

During the session

The Coaching screen shows:

• A tile for each connected sailor with their name and live speed (updated every second)
• A GROUP tile for group actions (broadcast PTT, timer)
• Session elapsed time in the top-left and current clock in the top-right

Connection status:

• Green dot = connected and receiving data
• Amber dot = connected but data is stale (>10 seconds since last update)
• Red dot = disconnected / out of range

See individual feature guides:

• Start/stop sailors remotely
• Use push-to-talk
• Set wind and marks

Ending the session

Tap End Session. The app sends a stop signal to all sailors and waits for acknowledgement. A dialog shows how many sailors have confirmed the stop. Once all sailors confirm (or you tap Force stop), the session ends.

The coach session is saved locally on the coach's phone and uploaded to the cloud automatically when connected to internet.

After the session

Connect to internet (mobile data is fine). The session uploads in the background. Track uploads from each sailor's phone follow the same process — see Record with the Android app.

Once everything is synced, open app.dinghy.coach/open → Sessions tab to find the combined session. All boats, the course setup, and any voice notes from the session are already linked.