Digital coaching education and development with coachbetter

BVB Evonik Football Academy - Inspiring children around the world

The BVB Evonik Football Academy offers thousands of children the opportunity to experience the BVB philosophy firsthand, regionally in Dortmund, but also nationally and internationally through partner clubs. It is a matter close to the club’s heart to inspire every child and young person in the Dortmund area and around the world for BVB. In addition to sporting success, the personal development of each individual child is a cornerstone of the academy. The aim is to realize the full potential of each player on and off the pitch.

BVB authenticity and the highest quality abroad

Just like in Dortmund , coaches who are licensed and educated by BVB at the numerous partner clubs abroad ensure that BVB football is embodied authentically and with the highest quality. The coaches not only wear the BVB logo on their chests, but they also live the BVB philosophy and represent BVB's values with and in front of the players and their parents.

To meet these high standards and to educate coaches accordingly, BVB sometimes employs its own coaches at the respective partner clubs. They come from Dortmund and live locally. In addition, delegations from Dortmund travel around the world to educate coaches at all partner clubs and to train children themselves.

The key to the success of our academy and the partner clubs are our coaches. By working with coachbetter and creating the BVB eAcademy, we want to ensure the best possible education and development for our coaches with the BVB philosophy. The better the training, the greater the added value for each individual player and their development, athletically and personally.

Florian Ingwersen, Lead Project Manager BVB eAcademy

Digital and sustainable rethinking through the BVB eAcademy

The search for sustainable, digital, and environmentally friendly solutions for the coaches' education and player’s development has long been a topic at the BVB Evonik Football Academy. This process was accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The requirement for the digital solution was to transfer the knowledge and philosophy of BVB to partner clubs around the world, despite thousands of kilometers from the SIGNAL IDUNA PARK, and to educate and support the coaches as best as possible without having to be physically on site.

coachbetter is the suitable solution. The numerous functions of the platform and the outstanding user-friendliness exactly match the needs of BVB. As a result, through an intensive, six-month project between coachbetter and the BVB Evonik Football Academy, the BVB eAcademy was created. The individually adapted platform from coachbetter which was set up according to the needs of BVB, is now run as private label "BVB eAcademy".

coachbetter functions customized for the BVB eAcademy

Thanks to the possibilities and functions of coachbetter, the BVB eAcademy can support its coaches daily – physically separated but digitally coming together. The aim is to give the coaches a tool that supports them in their daily tasks, but at the same time promotes their development and education. The functions of the BVB eAcademy include:

Education and Knowledge Share: Transfer of pedagogical and sporting knowledge through e-learning formats based on the philosophy and methodology of Borussia Dortmund and training content. This ensures that all coaches are ambassadors of the BVB philosophy, on and off the pitch.

Training Planning: Coaches can individually choose from over 250 activities and adapt them to the performance level of their team. The activities from the areas of technology, tactics and fitness were developed by BVB coaches and reflect BVB's football concept. Experts from Dortmund are in close contact with the coaches and give individual feedback on the sessions created.

Player Profiles and Team Overview: With the team administration and integrated player profiles, the development of individual players can be traced worldwide from Dortmund, simply and transparently.

Drawing and Developing Activities: The platform offers the possibility for coaches in partner clubs to draw their own activities. These are then further developed together with experts from BVB and integrated into the BVB eAcademy.

Video Analysis: Partner clubs can share videos directly with coaches in Dortmund to carry out joint analyzes.

Data Analysis: The platform enables an overview of all training sessions and activities carried out by the partner clubs for robust analysis.

Working together with coachbetter is very trusting, efficient and highly professional at all times. The coachbetter team understood the BVB eAcademy as a joint project from the start, and so we were always able to go one step further together, to think outside the box and make the project a great success. Above all, the speed and solution-oriented approach from coachbetter is absolutely convincing.

Christian Diercks, Head of BVB Evonik Football Academy

We are, of course, very proud of this partnership; Borussia Dortmund stands for excellent coaches' and youth education, and we look forward to pushing the digitization of coaching education forward together globally. The need for digital solutions in football is unbroken and the joint project helps us to further develop our platform and make it even better. The structures in the club are excellent and the passion and euphoria of all those involved in this club are simply contagious. In Signal Iduna Park, I saw a quote from Jürgen Klopp, which I personally but also on behalf of coachbetter can only agree with: "We all have a bit of a crush on this club".

Patrick Patzig, Co-Founder and CEO coachbetter