Help Centre

How can we help you?

Find answers, guides and explanations for every part of the platform.

1. Getting Started

Go to login.html and click the Register Team tab. Fill in your Club Name, Team Name, Age Group, Head Coach name, email address and a password (minimum 8 characters). Click Create Team Account. You will be automatically signed in and redirected to your dashboard.

Your account is stored locally in your browser. For cloud backup and multi-device access, contact Evolution.

From the dashboard, click View Squad or navigate to squad.html. Click the + Add Player button to open the player profile editor. Fill in at least the First Name, Last Name, Date of Birth and one Guardian contact, then click Save Profile.

Click Log Session in the navbar. Select a date, session type (Training / Match / Friendly), and add an opponent if applicable. Then fill in each player's KPI stats for the session. Click Save Session.

When you first log in, the platform seeds 16 demo players and 6 demo sessions so you can explore all the features immediately. Demo data does not replace any real data you add. You can delete it from Team Settings → Danger Zone.

2. The Assessment

The Evolution assessment evaluates a player across seven cognitive-behavioural domains:

  • Visual — Spatial awareness and reading of the game
  • Auditory — Responding to verbal instructions and on-pitch communication
  • Analytical — Tactical understanding and problem-solving
  • Creative — Improvisation, skill expression and unpredictability
  • Social — Leadership, team cohesion and communication
  • Physical — Physicality, commitment and work rate
  • Emotional — Composure, resilience and psychological regulation

After completing the assessment, the player's two highest-scoring domains determine their primary profile type (e.g. Vocal Leader, Skillful Passer, Accurate Shooter, Explosive & Agile). These profiles are used throughout the platform to personalise recommendations.

Treat profiles as a tool for positive conversation rather than a fixed label. Use the domain scores to identify strengths to build upon and areas of potential development. Never use the results as a reason to restrict a player's opportunities.

Re-assess every 3–6 months — profiles often shift as players mature.

3. Player Profiles

Each player profile has six tabs:

  • Personal — Name, DOB, nationality, photo, position, jersey number, height, weight, other sports
  • Academic — School, year group, subject grades, GPA, academic goals
  • Contact & Guardian — Player email/phone, up to 2 guardian contacts (name, relationship, email, phone)
  • Ratings — 1–10 sliders for self-rating and coach rating across 5 dimensions
  • GPS Stats — Speed, distance, sprint count, HR zones per session with charts
  • Cognitive — Assessment history, domain chart, coach notes

In the Personal tab, click the + button on the avatar circle. Select a JPEG, PNG, GIF or WebP image up to 5MB. The image is automatically resized to 300×300px and stored as base64 in your browser's local storage. No files are uploaded to any server.

The badge is automatically calculated from the subject percentage scores you enter. Thresholds:

  • Excellent — Average ≥80%
  • Good — Average ≥65%
  • Needs Support — Average below 65%

Guardian contact details are required for safeguarding and welfare purposes. This data is stored only in your browser and is never transmitted to any third party. It is subject to GDPR and should be handled accordingly. Only collect and store data that is genuinely necessary for player welfare.

4. Logging Sessions

Live logging — Enter KPIs during or immediately after the session while memories are fresh. The session log page is mobile-optimised for pitchside use.

Post-session entry — Fill in data later from notes. All sessions can be edited at any time from the Session Log page.

  • Mins Played — Total minutes on the pitch
  • Goals / Assists / Hockey Assists — Standard match stats
  • Shots On / Off — Attempts on and off target
  • Tracking Back — Defensive efforts tracked by coach
  • Hands Up — Player signals a mistake or asks for help (cognitive composure indicator)
  • Anxiety Moments — Visible hesitation, freezing or avoidance behaviour
  • Indiscipline — Reckless fouls, dangerous tackles, verbal misconduct, or dissent
  • Comm+ — Positive communication and leadership moments
  • Composure (1–5) — Coach's rating of the player's composure under pressure
  • Decision Quality (1–5) — Quality of in-game decision-making
  • Effort (1–5) — Overall effort and work rate
5. KPI Dashboard

Each player has a behavioral dot — green, amber or red — based on their average across the last 3 sessions:

  • Green — All metrics within normal range
  • Amber — Hands-up average ≥3/session or anxiety average ≥2/session
  • Red — Indiscipline incidents average ≥1/session

These are indicators, not diagnoses. Always have a direct conversation with the player before taking any action.

On the KPI Dashboard, look for the Export CSV button. You can filter by date range before exporting. The CSV includes all session data, player names, positions and all KPI fields.

6. Tactics Board

The tactics board allows you to:

  • Drag and drop players across a full or half-pitch view
  • Draw movement arrows and zones with the pen tool
  • Add text annotations
  • Switch between formations with a single click
  • Animate player movements step by step
  • Save multiple board layouts per team
  • Export as a PNG image
  • S — Select/move tool
  • P — Pen/draw tool
  • A — Arrow tool
  • T — Text tool
  • Z / Ctrl+Z — Undo
  • Delete — Remove selected element
  • Space — Play/pause animation
7. GPS Tracking

This is how far the player moved in total during the session, measured in kilometres. A typical youth player covers 6–9km in a 90-minute match. Training sessions tend to produce 4–7km depending on intensity.

Top Speed (km/h) is the fastest the player moved in a single GPS reading during the session. Elite adult players typically reach 32–35 km/h. For youth players (U13–U18), 26–30 km/h is considered excellent. Top speed gives you insight into a player's explosive sprint capability.

Track this over time — a rising top speed suggests improved physical development.

Player Load is a measure of total physical exertion across the session, combining distance, acceleration, deceleration and directional changes. It is a proprietary composite metric used by most GPS platforms. Higher load = more physical demand. Use it to monitor training load across the week and prevent overtraining.

HR Zones show what percentage of the session a player spent in each heart rate intensity band:

  • Zone 1 (Rest/Recovery) — Very low intensity, standing or walking
  • Zone 2 (Easy/Aerobic) — Jogging, comfortable pace
  • Zone 3 (Moderate) — Tempo running, sustainable effort
  • Zone 4 (Hard/Threshold) — High intensity, approaching maximum sustainable pace
  • Zone 5 (Maximum) — All-out sprint or maximum effort

A well-structured training session for youth players typically shows significant time in Zones 3–4 with short bursts of Zone 5.

This is the platform's estimate of a player's average weekly running distance, calculated from their GPS sessions over the last 4 weeks. It helps coaches monitor cumulative load and plan rest/recovery periods. Sudden spikes in weekly km are a risk factor for soft tissue injuries.

8. Team Settings

Go to Team Settings → Club Branding. Drag and drop or click to upload your club logo (max 5MB, JPEG/PNG/WebP). Use the colour pickers to set your Primary, Secondary and Text colours. Click Apply Theme — the colours will update across the platform immediately. The live preview shows how your navbar will look.

In Team Settings → Coach Profiles, click + Add Coach. You can add up to 3 coaches. Fill in their name, role, email, phone, UEFA/FA licences and a short bio. You can optionally allow a coach to log in using their own email address (they will use the team password).

Go to Team Settings → Security & Account → Change Password. Enter your current password, then your new password (minimum 8 characters). The password strength meter will guide you. Confirm the new password and click Change Password.

9. GPS Import & Load Tracking

It takes three steps and under a minute:

  1. Export a CSV from your GPS platform (Catapult, STATSports, Polar, Garmin, or any system that exports player data as CSV)
  2. Go to GPS Import, set the session date and type, then drag your CSV onto the upload zone
  3. Evolution auto-detects your platform and maps the columns. Review the mapping, then click Save GPS Session

Your data immediately appears in the KPI Dashboard, player profiles, and the Coach Command Center on the dashboard.

Evolution auto-detects and maps columns from:

  • Catapult — PlayerLoad, IMA counts, speed zones
  • STATSports (Apex) — Player Load, HSR, sprint distance
  • Polar Team Pro — Heart rate zones, training load
  • Garmin — Distance, speed, HR data
  • Generic CSV — Any export with player names and numeric columns

If your platform isn't listed, use Generic — the column mapper lets you match any CSV column to any metric manually.

GPS platforms often export abbreviated names like "J. Smith" while your squad has "James Smith". Use the Player Name Matching tool at the bottom of the GPS Import page.

Evolution shows every GPS name it can't automatically match, with a dropdown to select the correct squad player. Save once and Evolution remembers the mapping for all future imports.

ACWR (Acute:Chronic Workload Ratio) compares a player's last 7 days of training load against their 28-day average. It is the leading evidence-based method for monitoring injury risk:

  • Below 0.8 — Underload: Player is doing less than usual. Risk of detraining or match unreadiness.
  • 0.8–1.3 — Optimal: Sweet spot. Player is fit, adapted, and at low injury risk.
  • 1.3–1.5 — Caution: Load is rising faster than the body can adapt. Monitor closely.
  • Above 1.5 — High Risk: Significantly elevated injury risk. Consider reducing intensity or volume today.

ACWR requires at least 4 weeks of GPS data to become accurate. Import sessions consistently for best results.

Speed zones break a player's distance into intensity bands based on their running speed:

  • Z1 Walk — Under 6 km/h
  • Z2 Jog — 6–11 km/h
  • Z3 Run — 11–16 km/h
  • Z4 HSR (High Speed Running) — 16–21 km/h
  • Z5 Sprint — Over 21 km/h

If your GPS export includes per-zone distance columns, Evolution uses them directly. If not, it estimates zones from your High Intensity Running (HIR) and sprint distance totals — still very useful for squad comparisons.

Go to Session Report (or click the Report link next to any session in the KPI Dashboard). Select the session from the dropdown, then click Print / Save PDF. The report is formatted for A4 landscape and includes:

  • Session summary tiles (avg distance, peak speed, avg load)
  • Full player metrics table with speed zone mini-bars
  • ACWR readiness grid for every player
10. Coach Command Center

The Command Center sits at the top of your Dashboard and gives you an instant squad brief every time you open the app. It reads your GPS data and surfaces:

  • A personalised headline summarising your squad's load status
  • The percentage of GPS-tracked players in the optimal ACWR zone
  • Named alerts for any player with elevated or high-risk load
  • Days since your last GPS import — so you never lose track of the data gap

It requires GPS data to be imported first. The more sessions you import, the more accurate and useful it becomes.

Smart alerts are generated automatically from your GPS data. There are three types:

  • Critical (red) — ACWR above 1.7. This player is at significant injury risk. A recovery or very light session is strongly recommended today.
  • Warning (amber) — ACWR between 1.5 and 1.7. Load is elevated. Consider reducing volume or intensity for this player.
  • Info (blue) — GPS data is stale (7+ days since last import). Load tracking accuracy is reduced.

Alerts disappear automatically once the ACWR returns to the optimal zone or new data is imported.

11. Pricing & Billing

Visit pricing.html for the full pricing page. In general:

  • Free — Local browser storage, unlimited players and sessions, all core features
  • Evolution Pro — Cloud sync, multi-device access, PDF exports, priority support
  • Academy — Multi-team management, admin dashboard, custom branding

Paid plans are processed via Authorize.net — a PCI-compliant payment gateway. Your card details are never stored on Evolution servers. All transactions are encrypted with TLS 1.3.

Yes. You can cancel at any time from your account settings or by emailing intelligence@evolutionbda.com. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. No refunds are provided for partial periods.

Your local browser data remains untouched. Cloud data is retained for 30 days after cancellation, after which it is permanently deleted. We strongly recommend exporting your data (Team Settings → Export Data) before cancelling.

Email intelligence@evolutionbda.com or visit evolutionbda.com. We typically respond within one business day.