Friday Freebie: The birth of a new coaching venture

Read on to find out what's coming for grassroots football

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I’m always looking for a different angle to bring to you to keep things interesting and entertaining and tonight is another one of those opportunities. I always encourage you as the reader to share what you’d like to see written about and it’s fantastic when anyone comes forward with an idea and put it into print.

Craig Scott and Dominic Doherty have recently founded a new company called Evolve Coaching which aims to get into the heart of grassroots coaching. Craig I know from his time in Sussex at AFC Uckfield and has been in the USA for the best part of the last two years where he is now College/tournament director and coach at Baton Rouge Soccer Club and also a coach at LA TDP which is the MLS Next program.

Dominic was approached by Craig with thoughts of tapping into this level and Dom felt it could go one further with video content and bespoke resources with a passion to help develop grassroot coaches and with that the next generation of players. Having spent time in the USA as well both have found coaching for grassroots there is severely lacking and an opportunity and idea was born. Dom is also a UEFA B license coach and currently works for Everton FC having played semi-professional for years.

TK: Gents, thank you for getting in touch and wanting to be a part of www.footballwriting.co.uk to get your message out there, is the full plan to attack grassroots coaching on both sides of the world and really make an impact?

CS: Absolutely, we’re aiming to impact as many coaches as we possibly can and hopefully see some real progress with providing them with as much help as possible.

DD: From my perspective it’s a chance to tap into both markets with us being in different countries and that helps with our aim to educate football coaches globally with our teaching and brand.

TK: How was the launch received and where did you step into first to get it off the ground?

DD: We’re awaiting for our website to be built in full which should be only a few weeks away for us to able to fully launch the service. But after creating our social media (details below) and having lots of conversations with various people within the game, it’s really positive and we can’t wait to make an impact in the market.

It's about utilising our connections and having conversations, the more we do the more people seems to want to help and get involved which is great and exactly what we want to achieve. I’m excited by it and initially it seems a few grassroots coaches are too, that’s always a good sign!

TK: It can be seen as a forgotten area of the game I feel but non-league football in this country is growing fast and needs better support.

Once the website is up and running in full how do coaches access the information and how exactly will it work?

CS: It’s based on a subscription service, £6/$7.50 a month meaning that coaches will receive small documents we’ve created and access to webinars, video content and sessions as well.

The coaching bible will be sold as a separate item, 117 pages of content full of technical and tactical aspects of coaching, it’s detailed where coaches can use this to receive information/inspiration on planning sessions etc.

Another part of the service is we will run a FREE webinar for specific coaches in the girls game as we aim to grow and inspire that part of the game as well, there is massive potential to tap into and we want to be a frontrunner to help that side of the game.

TK: Has that come across really well to the coaches you’ve spoken to so far?

CS: Definitely, we’ve had a lot of people wanting to be the first on board and wanting to support us and what we’re trying to achieve.

DD: Other aspect of what we do is to offer a bespoke coach education to any clubs that are interested, details are in the poster below and we welcome any club that wants to join in with that.

CS: We’re going to be releasing lots of exciting projects as we move along. We’re really passionate towards supporting grassroots coaching and hope to one day be the real pinnacle of coach development.

DD: For me that the by-product of helping coaches in the development of our platform.

TK: How far do you both feel this new venture can take you?

DD: I’m really positive about it, I think with the help of others our aim is to go and be as big as we can be. That being said it’s all about getting the small details right as we begin so that we’re set up for a good shout at achieving long term success.

Football is a great game and you get to know a lot of people from various walks of life and clubs in different situations, between us it’s a good network for people we can use to help. I just can’t wait until we are live and good to go!

TK: So how can people currently get in touch with you until the website is launched?

CS: All our social media is up and running and you can find us here:

            Facebook: Evolve Coaching

            Twitter (X)/ Instagram: @evolvethecoach

For any enquiries our email address is: evolvethecoach@gmail.com

TK: Craig, Dom, best of luck with the new venture and hopefully we see you rising and ingraining yourselves in the grassroots game inspiring a new and existing generation of coaches.