RecordingPractice · 28:41
Hold your run a beat longer.
About Coach Sidekick
Everyone filmswhat players did.We keep what coaches said.
The most valuable coaching in youth soccer is spoken, and most of it disappears the moment practice ends. We catch it and get it to the player it was meant for.
Why we exist
Feedback is one of the strongest influences on how people learn. In youth soccer, most of it disappears the moment practice ends.
Decades of learning-sciences research rank feedback among the strongest influences on how people learn, though its effect depends heavily on the information it carries. Players remember fragments. Parents get a secondhand version in the car.
Clubs film every match now. The footage shows what a player did, not what their coach told them to do next.
Coach Sidekick captures what coaches say during practices, matches, and halftime talks, and turns it into feedback a player can act on and a record a coach can learn from. No clipboards, no note-taking after practice. A coach records on the phone already in their pocket.
Wisniewski, Zierer & Hattie (2020): feedback's overall effect on learning is d = 0.48 across 435 studies, and information-rich feedback is roughly four times as effective as simple praise.
What it does
Said once. Used by both sides.
One thing a coach says, kept and sent two ways at once. To the player it was meant for, and back to the coach who said it.
For players and families
Stay onside a beat longer before you break. Time the run to the pass, not the player.
Matched drill · Timing the Run: Hold and Break
- Technical
- Tactical
- Physical
- Psychological
A rounded picture of growth. Never a single rating.
For coaches and directors
Who you reached13/16
Feedback mix
Followed the plan82%
A private mirror on the session, and across the club.
Who it's for
For the clubs that measure a season by who improved, not just who won.
Founding team
An education researcher and a pro player walk onto a pitch.
One of us studies how people learn. The other played at the top and now coaches kids. Two ends of the same feedback loop. Same conclusion: the best coaching is spoken, and almost none of it survives the week.
Clubs are filming more of the game than ever. None of those cameras hear it.
The science of how people learn
Andrew Katz, Ph.D.
Co-Founder & CEO
Andrew studies how people learn, how teachers decide what to teach next, and how AI can sharpen both.
Coach Sidekick is that research pointed at a soccer pitch: the coach and player feedback loop, rebuilt so both sides can see it.
Education & learning-sciences researcher · Ph.D., Engineering Education, Purdue University
The reality of the pitch
Hunter Jumper
Co-Founder & Head of Coaching
Hunter is an NCAA Division I National Champion (Virginia, 2009), a three-time ACC All-Tournament selection, and was drafted into MLS by the Chicago Fire.
Now a youth coach, Hunter has been the player getting the feedback and the coach giving it. He knows what gets said in the moment, and how little of it lasts.
NCAA National Champion, UVA Men's Soccer (2009) · 3× ACC All-Tournament Team · MLS SuperDraft, Chicago Fire (2012) · Youth soccer coach
What we believe
Three things we won't compromise on.
- The best coaching is spoken, and it vanishes.
- The note that changes a player is said out loud, in the moment, and gone by the car ride home. Video keeps what players did. Almost nothing keeps what their coach said. We built a company around not losing it.
- Coaches deserve the loop they give players.
- A coach spends all season giving players an honest look at what happened and what to adjust. Almost no one gives it back to the coach. We do: a private look at the session you just ran, who you reached, who you didn't, and how closely it followed your plan.
- Every player, not just the loud ones.
- On a roster of eighteen, the most gifted get most of what a coach says out loud. We attribute the coaching to each player by name, so the quiet kid who never gets pulled aside still goes home with something real, in the coach's own words.
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What it looks like
A center-back gets pulled aside in training and told to hold her run a beat longer. By the next match, in the noise and the nerves, it is gone. She is not unusual. In one study of youth players, the message did not fully land in nearly two of every three moments (Januário et al., 2016).
With Coach Sidekick, that note is waiting for her the same night. In her coach's words, with a drill to work on it before the next session.
The coaching survived. And coaching that survives becomes feedback she can revisit, drills that close the gap, and growth a coach can watch take hold.
Founding cohort
Build the missing half with us.
We're taking on a small founding cohort, just a handful of clubs we can work with hands-on. Founding clubs get our direct attention and a real say in what we build next. If you coach youth soccer or run a club, we'd like to work with you.
Everyone films what players did. Help us keep what their coaches said.