Northwest FC have signed up to partner with The Coaching Manual for another year, with the Ohio-based community club using the platform for everything from building a curriculum to hiring senior staff members!
We took the opportunity to speak with NWFC's Executive Director and Club President Tim Phlegar about the many ways they have used the platform at their club over the last five years.
Tim said: "I brought The Coaching Manual to our club. Like a lot of coaches, I was browsing YouTube, and I kept coming across The Coaching Manual's content, and then one of those days I just clicked in and thought wow - there's a lot more out here than I realised."
The broadcast-quality session content and insights available to its members were key factors in the decision to partner up with The Coaching Manual, as well as supporting Northwest's exponential growth.
Tim said: "10 years ago we had nine teams. When I took over five years ago, we had 20 teams. Now we're at 40 teams. As we grew, I knew I didn't have the time to help all the coaches get all the sessions they need, and I needed another outlet. The videos that you have embedded, with the coaching points, and all those types of things, and being able to see how the kids interact with the coach, I just thought 'we gotta jump in on this!' So five years ago I bought The Coaching Manual for the club."
The use of The Coaching Manual is not just driven by Tim - every coach at the club is benefitting from the content available to them through the partnership.
Tim said: "Every year I do a check and say 'hey guys, do we want to keep this?' and everybody's like 'yes, please!' - one year I accidentally let our renewal expire, and my phone blew up that day. Everybody was asking what happened to The Coaching Manual!"
The Coaching Manual not only helps the coaches at a club coach better, it can help players to understand the session before stepping out onto the field, saving time and improving the quality of practice overall.
Tim said: "I'm currently coaching u16, and that's a whole lot different from the session I ran Wednesday night for a u9 team. To be able to pull both types of training sessions for experienced players versus less-experienced players, has been hugely beneficial. I even like for the younger ones, sometimes coaches on TCM bring out the whiteboards and show the kids ahead of time.
"We've also started showing kids the session video ahead of time. I was able to get the David Moyes session in front of our whole team ahead of time, and it made that training session much better - they all knew what we were trying to accomplish."
Sometimes the most difficult relationship for a soccer club to manage is that of the players' parents. After all, they are the main decision-makers in each player's soccer journey, so having them onside is a must. The Coaching Manual can help there, too.
Tim said: "I noticed from parents, I got some comments early on, that the sessions started to look better. The parents are into soccer, but not volunteer coaches, so they know what's going on. They'll say 'wow, that session was a good one', and I'll say yes, that was the David Moyes pressing session."
"There are so many great articles on the TCM blog, and the role of a parent, to help parents. There was one about sideline behaviour, and what to do/not to do when the game ends. Those are perfect nuggets to educate parents, and have them see it when we put it on social media or in our newsletter."
Tim said: "We delayed hiring a Director of Coaching because The Coaching Manual was giving us everything we needed. Now we have a Director of Coaching to make sure The Coaching Manual is being utilized correctly, just because of how big we got, and how competitive we became. The Coaching Manual had an article on 'The role of the Director of Coaching' - I leveraged that article to help with my job description, and getting the board to approve the hiring of the DOC role."
NWFC is a nonprofit organization that reinvests the club's revenue in player development. This focus allows the club to keep costs to a minimum while still providing players and their families a high quality experience. Their goal is to educate and train players and coaches to a competitive level, yet in a positive and fun environment. NWFC promotes sportsmanship, integrity, and leadership by stressing the technical, physical and mental components of the game appropriate to each age level.
Tim added: "The goal was to make sure kids had access to the sport. Club soccer is quite expensive in the States, and we wanted to create a more value proposition, that also still offered competitive competition. I always want us to feel like we're giving the same experience as the [other] clubs but for half the price. We compete in as high levels as we can. We give out scholarships more than any other club I'm aware of. We're a non-profit and our mission is to support kids through soccer, and we make sure we budget accordingly to be able to help families. We've got people driving 45 minutes to come play for us. We have a pretty significant refugee population in our area and as part of our outreach program we wanted to make sure they had access.
For more information about Northwest FC, visit their website here.
If you want to enquire about The Coaching Manual for your club, email sales@thecoachingmanual.com