Pocket Coach more than just another sports app: Co-founder Achintya Krishna sheds light on app's importance

Pocket Coach is a ‘Make in India’ sports-tech app.

The Indian sports tech market is pegged to be the next big thing. With its ₹26,700 crore FY24 valuation, it is projected to reach ₹49,500 crore by 2029. The sports tech sector has played a vital role in contributing to the broader sports economy, and as it continues to evolve, the impact and adaptation of sports tech are at the center of it all.

One of the key areas is the sports training and assessment space, which aids teams, players, coaches, and, to some extent, parents.

With technology and AI getting democratized and packaged with easy access to the internet, sports training can take a leap, leaving behind the over-reliance on coaches to develop an athlete’s game. As a former athlete, I have seen firsthand how sports development takes a similar approach to classrooms.

Initially, players follow the same approach, where everyone learns the same moves, basics, and techniques as instructed by the coach. But as players improve, they remain part of the same group, which may include individuals who are better or worse than they.

It is rare to see a player receive individual attention. This is especially true in team sports, where the focus is on developing the team’s playing style, and the player has to fit into that and work on development without the necessary guidance.

Pocket Coach, developed by NBA Academy India alumnus Achintya Krishna along with Omkar and Anup (both state-level players in football and table tennis, respectively), helps basketball players develop their game by gamifying their training.

“Our first idea was to create a platform with recorded training programs from professional international coaches,” Achintya recalls. They also aimed to automate the registration and payment processes for local tournaments in cities like Mumbai and Bangalore.

Achintya was part of the 2017 cohort of the NBA India Academy, which also produced Indian National Team players like Prashant Singh Rawat, Arvind Kumar Muthukrishnan, and Sejin Matthew. He was the only player in his cohort to pursue science academically.

Despite receiving offers from Division III (D3) colleges in the US, the lack of scholarships—a common issue with D3 programs—led him to turn down the offers and pursue a degree in Computer Science at PES University in Bangalore.

The idea first took root during the COVID-19 pandemic when Achintya teamed up with his cousin, Omkar, and friend Anup. Their passion for sports and experience at the state level helped them craft an app that was built for athletes, by athletes.

The journey wasn’t straightforward. Initially participating in a six-month cohort organized by Cisco, the team pitched their sports-tech idea and eventually won a grant of ₹5 lakhs. This early success led them to explore computer vision, app development, and technologies like pose estimation and ball tracking.

The team later joined the Campus Founders Program with IIM Bangalore, securing a Convertible Debenture (CCD) of ₹30 lakhs from the incubator. They also received a government grant from Karnataka, being one of only 100 startups selected across the state.

Inspired by the iOS app HomeCourt, Pocket Coach aims to replicate the same app or provide an even better experience while keeping in mind the needs of Indian users.

“One thing we have already differentiated from HomeCourt is that we are providing for Android users. The market in India is 90% Android, if not higher,” Achintya explains.

The key differentiator lies in accessibility. While HomeCourt is exclusively available on iOS, Pocket Coach caters to India’s predominantly Android user base.

The app processes Android users’ sessions on its servers once they are complete, while iPhone users get real-time feedback due to better processing capabilities.

Pocket Coach gamifies fitness and basketball drills in innovative ways. For dribbling practice, players place their phone in front of them, and as they dribble, spots appear on the screen that they must touch with their off-hand, earning points for each successful touch. Another drill combines dribbling with math equations—players must move their hand to the correct answer while maintaining their dribble.

The app can track various exercises, including squats, push-ups, and lunges, all gamified with interactive elements. “If I tell a kid to do 100 squats every day, they might not do it or be interested in it. But when we showed this, kids were coming one after the other just to do squats because there was a leaderboard, making it competitive,” Achintya notes.

Pocket Coach has expanded beyond individual users to partner with schools and academies. They successfully piloted with One World International School’s after-school sports training program, where coaches can assign custom drills to students and track their progress. Parents can also monitor their child’s improvement over time.

The platform includes an academy ecosystem where coaches create academies, organize students into groups based on skill level or age, and assign different workouts to different groups. The app guides users through sequential exercises, automatically tracking performance and updating progress.

Another area where Pocket Coach is more India-centric is their freemium model with moderate pricing to help athletes from all backgrounds. The shot-tracking feature offers 200 free shots per month, with unlimited tracking available for ₹99/month on Android and ₹149/month on iOS.

Compared to HomeCourt’s ₹349 monthly subscription, Pocket Coach costs almost one-third. This is making it accessible to a wider audience. For the B2B model, schools and academies pay an annual subscription fee for access to personalized workouts, tracking, parent reports, and leaderboards.

The team faces typical startup challenges, particularly with user retention. While the shooting feature sees consistent usage, other gamified drills tend to lose user interest after a week. They’re addressing this through personalized notifications and better integration with the academy ecosystem.

Looking ahead, Pocket Coach plans to expand into racket sports like pickleball, badminton, or tennis. They’re also exploring video analysis for match footage, which could provide automatic data analytics for professional and grassroots basketball.

Currently bootstrapped after their initial grants and CCD, the team hasn’t pursued venture capital funding yet, preferring to focus on building traction.

The success of Pocket Coach represents more than just a sports app—it’s a testament to how Indian athletes can leverage technology to solve problems they’ve experienced firsthand. By democratizing access to advanced training tools and making them affordable for the Indian market, Pocket Coach is positioning itself as a key player in India’s growing sports tech ecosystem.

As the Indian sports technology market continues to grow rapidly, solutions like Pocket Coach that understand local needs and leverage global best practices are likely to transform the way athletes train and improve in the country.

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