About Koomba
Built by athletes,
for athletes.
Koomba was founded by former college athletes who saw a gap in support for the next generation. We're building the health infrastructure that sport deserves—connecting athletes and families with vetted, elite mental performance coaches and sport nutritionists who understand what it takes to compete.
Medical Advisor
Brian Hainline, MD
Former Chief Medical Officer, NCAA
Former President, USTA
IOC Mental Health Summit Co-Chair
The Godfather of Athlete Mental Health
Sport is a public health imperative and a front door to youth development.
"Koomba sets the standard for proactive, integrated athlete support and empowers athletic organizations to prioritize resilience, optimize performance, and promote long-term wellbeing."
A decade ago at the NCAA, Dr. Hainline led the creation of best practices for supporting student-athlete mental health. The document was so well received that it led to his invitation by the IOC to co-chair a summit on the topic for Olympic athletes.
What he found was that "coaches were very poorly educated about mental health. They really understood how to logically talk about performance but didn't understand the bi-directionality of mental health and performance."
Without a government-led ministry of sport, the 54 Olympic national governing bodies in the U.S. are the caretakers of the development pathway. Though all are signatories to the USOPC's American Development Model—a coaching education framework for youth sports—few really adhere to it, leaving an opening for a platform like Koomba to assist with implementation.
"With Koomba, what I've really been emphasizing is that it has to be grounded in the American Development Model, doing developmentally appropriate activities," Dr. Hainline said. "Your ability to rest and recover is as important as physical training. You add the nutrition aspects because a lot of athletes have what's called relative energy deficiency, which negatively impacts performance and mental health."
"We really see youth sports as this incredible and untapped community health platform."
Sports has always been about education and building life skills, resilience and emotional capacity. In the last 5-10 years, that has somewhat drifted. Koomba is building health and performance infrastructure to support not only the athlete identity with performance coaching, nutrition and sports psychology, but also the families and coaches that surround our young people.
On a listening tour to youth clubs, Koomba's founding team discovered a few recurring themes. Not one athlete wanted another static app that tells them what to do with no real infrastructure behind it. Pretty much everyone communicated a desire to talk to someone who looks like them, sounds like them, and fundamentally understands the athlete identity and experience.
Grounded in Science
The American Development Model
The USOPC's American Development Model is a coaching education framework that guides how youth athletes should be trained at each stage of development. It emphasizes age-appropriate activities, holistic development, and the integration of mental, physical, and nutritional health.
Koomba's entire platform is built on these principles. Every provider in our network understands that the mental training and nutrition guidance they deliver must be developmentally appropriate—tailored to where each athlete is, not where adults think they should be.
Learn about the ADMMental Training
"The bi-directionality of mental health and performance" — coaches need to understand that performance and wellbeing are inseparable.
Rest & Recovery
Your ability to rest and recover is as important as physical training. Koomba helps athletes build these habits early.
Nutrition
Relative energy deficiency negatively impacts both performance and mental health. Proper sport nutrition is foundational.
Headstream Accelerator
Backed by Pivotal Ventures
Koomba is a 2025 graduate of the Headstream Accelerator (Cohort V), a program by SecondMuse supported by Pivotal Ventures (Melinda Gates). The program focuses on inclusive digital health solutions for underserved youth.
Learn more about Headstream