Christine Sinclair venturing into tech

Well, everyone knows the name Christine Sinclair, of course, making a solid career in soccer, smashing records on the pitch, and now she's gearing up to do more of the same, but this time in technology. So, Christine Sinclair, welcome back in person to CP 24 Breakfast. Last time you and I chatted, it was a zoom talking about your Barbie doll and your likeness. Oh, my God, I forgot about that. Great. That doll was actually pretty amazing. That's okay, but you brought yourself and it's great to have you back on the program this morning. I assume you're not getting into the coding side of this, but rather the coaching side of this. Tell us about your role and what exactly this is all about. So I've joined with sports share, which is an online community which shares sports knowledge, training tips. My channel will be like drills, individual skills, training sessions and just sharing the knowledge that I've acquired over the 25 year career I've had with the next generation. So do you sort of go back through the sort of recesses of your brain and think about all those drills, all those different things, like what's worked as from from as a player to coach perspective? And now are you trying to like break them up into segments or how does your role work in terms of what you contribute? Well, we actually just did some filming yesterday and it was all just individual skill, breaking down the game into or simplifying the game into, you know, separate skills, whether it's inside the footpath, outside the footpath, things like that. And the thing that really excited me was not everybody, not every young kid has access to like a world-class coach five days a week. And I think of all the time that I spent in my backyard, just myself, a ball and a wall. And that's what really excites me, giving ideas to young kids so that, you know, even if they don't have access to the most amazing coaches day in and day out, that they'll have access to the little things that help me. So how does it work? I understand it's kind of a subscription-based formula. Kind of what's the price point and how do people get into with that? Well, it's a small fee and obviously as you pay a little bit more, you get access to in-depth interviews. Sat down with Amy Walsh yesterday and talked about the the mindset of in and around the goal, things like that. But yeah, you can subscribe, pay a monthly fee and you'll have access to, yeah, all the all the training. Not only myself but, you know, part of my goal is to get other professionals out there to share their knowledge. And it's not just soccer. It's all different sports. The mental side of the game, the mental side of taking a PK, for instance. What happens if you miss? What happens if you make it? Yeah, this is just the beginning and I can't wait to dig deeper. I'm sure, obviously, you're hanging up the cleats and kind of thinking about what your career is going to be post-soccer. Was coaching always something that was in the back of your mind, that somehow you were gonna get into that side of the game? Absolutely not. But as my career went on, the more giving back and the more, like, inspiring the next generation kind of crept into what I wanted to do. And with SportsShare, it's a way to give back and share my knowledge. I do want to try coaching. Definitely not a head coach. I've seen that just seems way too stressful and way too much pressure. But I, yeah, I'd love to be an assistant coach or, you think, makes a good coach? Because, you know, it's pretty well known in sport that maybe not necessarily the best players, and we could all make a good argument for you being the best in the world, and I know you'll start nodding your head rather than, or shaking rather than nodding when I say that to you, but sometimes the best players don't make the best coaches. What do you think makes a good coach an effective coach? Yeah, I mean, obviously, I think a coach has, obviously, has to have the knowledge, but especially dealing with professional players, they need to be excellent people managers, because we all expect to play. We all expect to play 90 minutes, week in, week out, and it's about how do you make every player feel valued, even though they might not be playing the amount that they want. And the best coaches that I've had throughout the course of my career were able to do that. They were able to make every single player feel valued and feel like they were improving, because as players, that's all you want to do, is you want to know why you're playing, why you're not playing, and how you can get better. And yeah, those are the best coaches I've had that take the time to get to know the individual and what makes you tick. Yeah, that's smart. A good coach definitely needs to know that. Now, tell me a little bit more about sports here, in terms of how long this has been around. You're kind of getting, I understand there's an equity position for you as well in this. So what is the kind of genesis of this? Where did it come from? So it's very new, just went public this year, but it started in and around COVID. The idea came around where, you know, being athletes, everything shut down, everything went online. And I mean, as a national team player, we were running sessions online, we were doing workouts online. And so that's where this idea evolved from, was that how can we, like, make the most of the world turning to online. And yeah, to be able to get professionals, vetted professionals, it's not just random people that are, like, sharing information. Put all the knowledge in one place, and where kids, parents, it's for parents too, it's for the volunteer coaches, they can access training sessions. Just one place where everyone can kind of, like, congregate. Quite a resource there, absolutely. Hopefully, that's the plan. Yeah, good. Well, good luck with it. Christine Sinclair, always a pleasure. Thank you for being here. Good to see you again.