A Kiwi-made sports coaching app is making some serious waves, with recent big name backing as it looks to expand its reach across the Tasman.
CoachMate is already used as a resource for volunteer coaches in basketball, football and golf in New Zealand.
Now, former Wallabies rugby great Stirling Mortlock is behind the venture, asking his investment group to jump onboard.
"I think it just resonated with me personally," Mortlock told 1News.
"It’s all about keeping kids in sport, keeping healthy and for them to have great sport experiences ― as opposed to a lot of other sporting and coaching apps we’ve seen that focus on making sure my kid ends up being an All Black or a Wallaby."
The app already has a head-start across the ditch, with Golf Australia and another soon-to-be announced major sport both signing up to deliver coaching content in the new year.
CoachMate was created as a go-to guide, with things like training drills, session plans and videos making it easy to plan a training session.
It's free to download from major app stores and is currently used by NZ Football, Basketball and Golf NZ to deliver training content.
With around 12,000 users across all sports so far, Basketball NZ said 20% of those using the app stated they had never coached before.
"We go 'hey I’m a rugby dad or I’m a netball mum and I knew nothing about basketball and now I feel like I know what I’m talking about'," Basketball NZ chief executive Dillon Boucher said.
"At least they can bluff their way through a training session."
Auckland dad Harley Turner said the app has been a game-changer with coaching his son’s school football team.
"There were a few times I was driving to the training session, and you get there a few minutes early and think 'what am I going to do?'
"I can just have a quick look at the app and then go 'oh yeah, yeah I’ll do that drill'."
The app was created by Kiwis Michelle Walshe and Leigh Kenyon, who share a passion for kids to thrive in sport.
"If we could increase retention of kids in sport by 10% that would be game changing," Walshe said.
The company hopes to take its product global in the coming years.
"The same problem exists in every country and every sport that needs volunteers to deliver the game," Walshe said.
"There’s huge interest coming out of the UK and Ireland specifically."
Boucher agrees: "If we don’t have people volunteering their time our sport doesn’t exist."
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