Why we built Tactics Board
Tactics Board was born from a real need. I coach two youth football teams, and week after week I kept running into the same problems when planning practice sessions. In this article, I share the problems that led to building Tactics Board and how we solved them.
The reality of practice planning
As a coach, you want to focus on what matters: developing your players. But planning sessions takes a surprising amount of time. Drawing tools exist, but finding a good browser-based option built specifically for football coaches was nearly impossible.
Most tools require installing a separate app or are simply too clunky for regular use.
Five problems I wanted to solve
1. No good drawing tools
Coaches drew drills on paper, in PowerPoint, or with online tools that were clunky to use and slapped watermarks on every image. I wanted to build something that just works — right in the browser, on any device, no installation needed.
2. Finding drills was tedious
When I needed a drill for a specific theme, say passing patterns or 1v1 defending, I had to browse YouTube videos, websites, and coaching forums. Finding, comparing, and choosing drills consumed time that wasn't exactly abundant to begin with.
3. Ready-made drills couldn't be edited
I often found great drill ideas, but they were static images or PDFs. If I wanted to adapt a drill for my team, changing the number of players or adjusting the field size, I had to redraw everything from scratch.
4. Complex drills were hard to visualize
A simple passing drill is easy to draw, but when a drill has multiple phases, movements, and transitions, a static image is often hard to interpret. At least if you're equipped with rather limited cognitive capacity, as is the case for me. This is where the idea for animations came from: showing the drill frame by frame, with the result exportable as a GIF.
5. Sharing drills was clumsy
Sharing drills between coaches meant attaching images to some traditional office application and then distributing the resulting documents. Or sending screenshots on WhatsApp. If the drill changed, the whole process had to be repeated. I wanted drills to be shareable via a link, with changes visible to everyone instantly.
How Tactics Board came to be
I started development with a simple drawing tool: a field template, players, and lines. I was happy enough with the result to start wondering if others might find it useful too. Gradually, I added features so it could serve as a communication tool between coaches.
It runs in the browser on any device, so you can open your practice plan on the pitch whenever you need it.
Where we're heading
There are no concrete plans for the future at the moment. If you have ideas or feedback, don't hesitate to reach out. Tactics Board is built for coaches, and development will be driven by coach feedback.