43 Kids, One Prompt

Tuesday, 5:30 PM. In one hour, 43 kids will be on the field. And I don't have a plan. Literally. Between my last meeting and picking up the kids from school, there wasn't a single minute to prepare. So I do what I've been doing for three months: I open my training assistant.

The problem every volunteer knows

I coach a U11 youth soccer team. 43 kids between 9 and 10 years old — we're several coaches, but preparation still falls on each individual. Some kids want to be Messi, some are picking daisies. Training should be age-appropriate, build on previous sessions, be fun — and still teach something.

I should be able to handle this. I played soccer myself, and not badly. I was a competitive athlete — track and field, German national squad. I majored in sports, mentored younger students in school, led extracurricular groups. If anyone has the background to plan a proper youth training session, it's me.

But background isn't the problem. Time is the problem. If you want to do it right, you're looking at an hour of preparation per session. Watching YouTube videos: How do you run a rondo with 9-year-olds? How do you build a drill sequence that doesn't end in chaos? Then there's the annual plan: What focus areas for the first half of the season? How do I prepare the team for indoor season? And then the parents — who rightfully expect their kids to develop. That training doesn't look the same every week. That the coach has a plan.

Between a full-time job, family, and whatever's left of the day, that hour is exactly the hour that doesn't exist. Same for 1.8 million other volunteers in German sports. The DFB offers coaching courses, training modules, online seminars — all well-intentioned. But it assumes you have time. And that's exactly what you don't have.

The consequence: You fall back on what you know. Warm-up, shots on goal, scrimmage. Every week. Not because you don't know better — I do know better — but because between the last Teams call and kickoff, nothing else fits.

An assistant that understands context

So I built one. Not a generic chatbot you have to explain everything to from scratch. An assistant that knows my context: U11, 43 players split across groups, 90 minutes, one field, six cones and a few pinnies.

I say: Focus on passing, last week was ball control. It gives me a complete session. Warm-up with ball (not without — the kids hate running without a ball). Two drills that build on each other. A game form that applies what they learned under pressure. Final scrimmage with a provocation rule.

All of it in 30 seconds. On my phone. While I'm sitting in the car waiting for the kids.

What actually changed

It's not the time savings. Sure, instead of an hour of preparation I need 30 seconds. But that's not the point.

The point is: I now dare to try things. Rondo variations I saw on YouTube but could never implement because I didn't know how to adapt them for 9-year-olds. Coordination exercises I didn't even know existed. Game forms with three goals that force kids to think instead of just running.

The kids notice the difference. Not because they know AI is involved. But because training has become more varied. Because it has a through line. Because the coach seems prepared — even if he's only been prepared for five minutes.

AI in volunteering: The overlooked potential

When we talk about AI, we talk about enterprise. About billion-dollar markets. About productivity in corporations. But 30 million people in Germany volunteer. Coaches, board members, caregivers, treasurers. Most of them have no resources, no assistants, no tools.

A youth coach who runs better sessions. A club board member who doesn't have to rewrite the grant application for the third time. A camp counselor who doesn't need an hour for the parent newsletter. That's not a billion-dollar market. But it's where AI can make the biggest difference — because the alternative isn't a more expensive tool, it's no tool at all.

What I learned from this

This training planner was one of my first personal AI projects. No client, no budget, no backlog. Just a real problem and the ability to solve it.

And that's exactly what I tell my consulting clients: The best AI projects don't start with a strategy presentation. They start with a situation where someone says: There has to be a better way.

For me, it was Tuesday, 5:30 PM, no plan, sitting in the parking lot. For you, it might be something else. But the beginning is always the same.

What's next: KICo

The training planner turned into an idea. If AI helps me — why not the other coaches too? I can't just hand over my personal assistant. The prompts are tailored to me, the context is mine. KICo will be an app that solves exactly this: training planning for all volunteers who don't have time but refuse to settle for mediocre sessions.

Coming soon. Because good training shouldn't depend on how much time is left after work.

— Philipp