McDonald’s supports revolutionary coaching aid to stop the slide.

Thousands of Kiwi volunteer football coaches and managers are using a hi-tech online coaching platform called CoachMate – a tool the code hopes will help reduce the number of young players dropping out of sport.

The platform, supported by McDonald’s New Zealand and New Zealand Football, provides world-class tips and tricks for both coaches and the army of parents, managers and supporters who volunteer their time to keep the 80,000-odd youth and junior age-groups players staying in the sport.

Also being used by Basketball NZ, Golf NZ and Halberg Foundation, the platform is designed to equip volunteer coaches with tools and resources so they develop more confidence in working with young kids.

Andy Boyens, a former All White who is now Technical Director at New Zealand Football, says in the two years since the organisation linked up with CoachMate, the digital platform has attracted almost 15,000 users, 8000 of whom identify as coaches.

“Hopefully, this in turn means the on-field experience is more fun and rewarding for the players so that they will want to keep playing for longer,” Boyens says.

CoachMate co-founder and Chief Programme Officer, Leigh Kenyon, says the number of kids leaving sport is higher than ever, often the result of inexperienced coaching. These statistics, he says, are confronting as the benefits of sport on physical and mental wellbeing are well known.

Kenyon says CoachMate is working to solve the problem of sports drop-outs. “This is because they (young people) are leaving at higher rates than ever. Girls are leaving twice as much as boys and kids are five times more likely to leave with poor experiences, including an inexperienced coach.

“In the grassroots/community space it’s potluck on who you get for a coach and they’re not always necessarily equipped for the job; first experiences are the ones that mean that kids come back for the next season or not.”

It is a scenario also worrying NZ Football: “The biggest drop-off in playing numbers happens when young people start and leave secondary school,” Boyens says. “We hope CoachMate will start to reverse that trend because our surveys tell us that the number one factor in keeping kids in sport is enjoyment.”

Boyens says the role of McDonald’s, the primary sponsor of community football in New Zealand for the last 20 years, is huge: “They have not only sunk millions into grassroots football in that time, they are now working with us through CoachMate to level up coaching and team management tools.

“Overall, there are around 160,000 players in New Zealand with about a further 30,000 playing Futsal (a shorter 5-a-side version of the game) and, without McDonald’s, the sport wouldn’t be where it is today.”

Boyens, who played 19 internationals for the All Whites between 2007-2011 and spent several years in Major League Soccer (MLS) in the US, uses CoachMate himself when coaching his sports-mad young children (a son aged 7 and two daughters, 10 and 12).

All three play football but are into other sports too – his eldest daughter plays water polo, his 10-year-old netball and his son basketball.

“Like most volunteers I am time-poor and I have found CoachMate extremely helpful, especially when I’m involved in a different code like basketball.”

Kenyon, who played football professionally in New Zealand, believes kids in grassroots and community sport have just as much love and passion for sport as those lucky enough to perform in the elite space – but they don’t always get the experience they deserve, relevant to their age and stage.

“So we focus on the people that have the biggest impact on a kid’s sports experience – the coach and the support network around the kid. Our mission is to reshape the way coaching education is delivered by making it easier and more accessible, and completely free, for anyone to volunteer as a coach and create great sports experiences.

“We want to create an opportunity to upskill the community and get everyone in sync by offering the ability to manage teams and groups day to day lives, all in one place through the CoachMate app.

“When I look back on my career, I class my biggest achievement as not playing at a professional level – but that all my best mates I kicked the ball around with at 7-years-old are still my best mates. We’ve grown up together, experienced life together, built a family network that has been super supportive. All the skills I have as a human and in life, I have learnt through sport.

Kenyon says since launching, survey results show there has been incredible engagement with CoachMate; 51 per cent of coaches say it is very helpful with another 15 per cent saying it was a “game-changer”.

He says CoachMate is working with many other Kiwi sports to get them involved and, in its first international steps, it will soon launch a platform for Golf Australia.

McDonald’s spokesperson Simon Kenny, Head of Impact and Communications, says volunteer coaches and managers are a key part of the football whanau and the company’s focus is to make world-class resources accessible for them.

“Together with New Zealand Football and CoachMate, we are on a mission to keep kids in sport,” he says. “We believe every child should have the opportunity to participate in physical activity and the CoachMate platforms provide volunteers with ‘what-to-coach’ and ‘how-to-coach’ so they can help kids stay active and thrive.”

He says McDonald’s community football aims to provide all children aged 4-12 years with high-quality football and futsal experiences that increase passion for the game along with fundamental movement and playing skills.

Players experience age-appropriate games and coaching tailored to meet their wants and needs. Three programmes are offered – McDonald’s First Kicks (4-6 years), McDonald’s Fun Football & Futsal (7-8 years) and McDonald’s Mini Football & Futsal (9-12 years).

Kenny says each season Macca’s award Player-of-the-Day certificates, Player-of-the-Day trophies, and over the last seven years it has distributed 100,000 balls to clubs throughout the country, all in the hopes of inspiring future Football Ferns and All Whites.

For more information go to: nzfootball.co.nz