proSports.Zone Year in Review 2021
Onward! Forward! Or Just Partially?
The year 2021 was a challenge in many ways—not just for us as a young company, but also for sports clubs, their countless volunteers, athletes, and the entire country. 2021 marked the second year of living under pandemic conditions.
Us vs. The State of Emergency
A brief look back at 2019: After two years of development, we were ready to introduce proSports.Zone to the public. January 2020 was supposed to be our big launch. Motivation was sky-high, and we had a long list of clubs eager to get started with us. We had great conversations with numerous traditional clubs, youth academies, and ambitious amateur teams looking to enhance their youth development.
Then came March 2020, and the world came to a standstill. Many projects were put on hold, postponed to “later,” or canceled entirely. In short: we picked the “perfect” time to launch! ;-)
We’re Still Here!
Despite the pandemic—or perhaps because of it—we’ve welcomed several new customers to proSports.Zone over the past two years! Clubs used the competition- and training-free time to set up proSports.Zone, train their coaches, and digitalize their sports departments. During periods when group training was impossible, our app enabled virtual training with videos and exercises. It was incredible to see how our solution helped simplify and enrich daily training routines!
Always Moving Forward!
We’ve always believed that this situation wouldn’t last forever—and that a “post-pandemic era” was coming. 2021 marked a significant leap forward in the technical development of proSports.Zone. Every feature was reviewed, some were completely redesigned, refined, or expanded. A particular focus was placed on analysis, statistics, and evaluations, as well as improving usability and clarity.
All About the App!
2021 was the year of the proSports.Zone app! Our lead developer, Alexander, and his team made remarkable progress. The app demonstrated its full potential for virtual training: athletes now receive their assignments via the app, complete with video instructions, guides, images, and more. Athletes can upload their training videos and images, allowing coaches to review and provide feedback.
The Team is Growing – And We Need You!
We’re growing! That’s great news—at least for us! :-) In 2021, we expanded our team with several freelance employees supporting sales and content creation. However, there’s still a lot of work to be done, and we need more hands on deck. If you’re interested in “something with sports and digitalization,” check out our job openings—maybe there’s a perfect fit for you!
Anything Else?
2021 had a special highlight for our CEO, Ronny. In May 2020, he enrolled in the DFB Elite Youth License course. Due to the pandemic, the course was structured as a blended learning format with mostly online sessions and only two in-person phases, scheduled to conclude in September 2020. However, like many things in the past two years, this didn’t go as planned. Finally, in August 2021, Ronny and 25 fellow participants completed their exams at the Hennef Sports School. After 16 months of training, they officially earned their DFB Elite Youth License!
Looking Ahead: 2022 Will Be… Different!
And that’s an order! Well, just kidding.
For the new year, we wish for everyone—including ourselves—to regain a sense of normalcy. We hope that many things will once again be possible: for sports, that we can train together again, compete in front of crowds, and experience real stadium atmospheres. We hope that clubs can revive their authentic community spirit.
2022 will continue our path toward even greater digitalization in sports. We’ll introduce many new features in proSports.Zone to further enhance your experience as a coach. The app will become a full-fledged communication hub, and as a major highlight, we’ll be launching a high-quality video analysis tool!
We’re also excited to participate (for the third time) in the ITK conference, where we’ll be exhibiting and meeting many of you in person. Additionally, we look forward to conducting more live presentations, training sessions, and workshops on-site.
2022 will be different! We strongly believe it will be better!
