LONDON, July 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — A leading Greater London hockey club emerged stronger than ever from the trials and tribulations of the Covid crisis, thanks to its determined coaching team and innovative use of the Spond sports team management app.
Despite being one of the most successful hockey clubs in the UK, with teams competing in seniors men’s and women’s leagues in the Essex region, Crostyx Hockey had suffered – like most grassroots sports team and organisations – from a loss of membership and revenue during the Covid crisis, Now, after using Spond to devise an innovative approach to track and trace, the club is well on its way to renewed success and prosperity, on and off the field.
“When England Hockey revealed the different stages of the ‘Back to Play’ programme, they required every session to be tracked and submitted to the England Hockey Portal with the contact details of each attendee,” said Ella Day, Captain of the Ladies Section at Crostyx. “Using Spond, our Covid officer could directly download the attendance for each session from the app and upload it straight to the England Hockey Portal, which made life much easier than having to manually input 150 names manually.
“Due to the government guidelines at the time, it was also a requirement to contact those who had been in close contact should someone test positive for Covid-19. Using the data on Spond, our Covid officer could see exactly who had attended the session and was able to contact that group directly using the messaging in the app, rather than spending ages contacting each person individually. Spond not only solved what otherwise would have been an admin nightmare, but also allowed us to return to full team training sessions several weeks earlier than many rival clubs, which led to enhanced revenue and improved performance on the pitch.”
The solutions devised by the admins and coaches at Crostyx are just two of the many ways that the Spond app and the Spond Club platform have empowered sports teams and other organisations to solve the problems and overcome the challenges thrown at them over the last two years. With less volunteers, reduced financial income and new approaches to training necessitated by social distancing, Spond has helped to take the stress out of sports team management, as well as helping to overcome specific challenges such as those faced by Crostyx.
“It was awesome to hear about how Ella and her colleagues used Spond to devise such innovative solutions to the challenges of training in the post-Covid period,” said Trine Falnes, Spond CEO. “This is just one more example of how Spond is much more than a simple team management app. Moving to Spond can be a transformative experience for clubs, teams and groups who take the time to make the most of the features on offer.
“In particular, Spond can replace a whole raft of traditional resources, from spreadsheets to messaging apps and payment processors, with one single user interface, allowing coaches to do more in less time, which means they can spend more time doing what they love.”
Since the world began opening up, Spond has worked hard to add new features and enhancements that make life simpler and less stressful for coaches and volunteers, with a particular focus on time-saving, fundraising and payment processing, all of which have the potential to improve the short-term survival prospects of sports team and organisations, while also contributing to their long-term prosperity.
Ella added: “Spond really does allow our coaches and admins to do more with less. For example, organising a matchday squad used to be a complex process involving emails, SMS messages, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and other channels. With Spond, you set it up in the app and everyone can confirm their availability in a few seconds, so there’s less chasing and the coaches always know who is available.”
Spond estimates that coaches will save an average of 2.5 hours per week using the app, which is growing rapidly in the UK, with British clubs now accounting for almost one third of the Spond’s 1.5 million monthly active users. In addition to the Spond app, the Spond Club platform is ideal for any organisation with more than one team, allowing admins to organise and communicate with players and members across multiple squads, with no limit on the number of registered users.
You can download Spond for free today. To find out more about Spond or arrange a free demo, visit www.spond.com.
