Week one - sharing a challenging journey

Last week, Goalkeeping Intelligence marked its second month anniversary. It certainly feels longer than that since the website went live, from the small Andalusian ‘pueblito’ of Casares, in anticipation of Tony Elliott’s course launch. In fact, a course collaborator asked just last week ‘how long have you been live now? Six months?’.

However, the reality and truth is that the platform is still very much in its infancy, and the wealth of experiences, trials and tribulations of the past two months are surely only a precursor of more challenging - yet utterly thrilling - times to come.

From publishing our manifesto, to regular email updates and jumping on the phone with as many community members as possible, we’ve been doing everything possible to ensure that our mission statement is clear:

’To inspire, stretch and develop a community of critically-thinking goalkeeper coaches’.

Having said that, on a personal level, the vehicle of Goalkeeping Intelligence moves beyond the goalkeeping world. Whilst the impact and objectives laid out through the manifesto will always be the primary driver of success, at the same time the project poses a fantastic learning opportunity and simulation for testing strategies in change management, education and online learning:

• Building a community and developing organic engagement and ‘buy-in'
• Delivering and facilitating impactful, purposeful and inspiring learning opportunities
• Changing perceptions, challenging dogma and facilitating critical debate within a community

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I’m very interested in the skills that the project can offer, and the transfer and connections it may well bring to other fields, projects and opportunities, far beyond the goalkeeping and even sporting world, in the long-term.

In an effort to cement the learnings, reflections and insights offered through both the challenges and successes of the Goalkeeping Intelligence platform, this blog post will be the first in a weekly journal, outlining what the week before has held and what we’ve learned from it. I’m hoping that it will be not just an opportunity for me to accentuate my own personal learning and development from the project, but also create an open journal for mutual problem-solving, idea sharing and inspiration, across a range of different fields. 

So far, we’ve seen great success in building the community of goalkeeper coaches signed up to and registered with the platform, with more than 400 goalkeeper coaches signed up to and engaging with the platform. Site analysis demonstrates exponential growth month-to-month in unique users and sessions, with ever-longer average sessions (even when accounting for those on paid courses) although trends follow with close correlation to the content curated and published. We have a number of excellent courses in production and planned for the next six months, from skill acquisition lecturers and psychologists to practicing elite-level goalkeeper coaches and youth development experts. 

At the same time, we’ve faced challenges in terms of the organic growth of user-generated content on the platform, and coach engagement with the discussion and stimuli produced, which we’d like to be greater and form a larger ‘body’ of the overall community timeline. We’d hoped to convert more course sales, too, especially given the feedback and repeat purchase metrics that signal those on the course are enjoying their experience and finding it a valuable learning experience.

We’ve got a number of plans in place to drive user-generated content further, including making it easier to understand all functions of the site and more accessible for coaches who are likely to be on busy schedules. We’re also currently reflecting on the pricing model, in-line with the intent of sharing the courses with as many coaches as possible and giving the educators the best possible platform to facilitate learning and critical-thinking.

I know that I’m incredibly lucky to have a diverse and broad network of friends and connections, from a wide range of different industries, and look forward very much to sharing the learnings and innovations from the project with all of you. I hope to use this space to provide honest, transparent and raw reflections of where the project is, what we’ve learned from the decisions we’ve made and how we plan to grow and develop the platform alongside the mission statement moving forward.

Of course, your ideas, feedback and candid words of advice are welcome at every stage, and I hope that together we can achieve great leverage and impact for the goalkeeping world.

Yours in goalkeeping,

Adam. ​

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If you'd like to find out more about Goalkeeping Intelligence, our site is live at www.goalkeepingintelligence.com.