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Ensure that you have booked suitable dates and times at your training venue

LOGISTICS & ADMINISTRATION

What is the schedule for your season? The more you can map out the season as a whole, the better. Consider...
- The start of the season and the end of the season
- Training dates
- Cup round dates
- Breaks
- Match dates
- Tournaments
- Any other events
Have you booked dates and times at your training venue?
Have you organised a home ground for fixtures?
Have you organised a booking system for training and matches?
Have you completed all relevant accreditation and administration processes? These may include...
- Accreditation with your relevant federation
- League affiliation; team and player registration
Have you set prices for joining, training and matches? Have you organised ways to pay?
Have you defined staffing roles for the season? Does everyone know what they are doing? These roles may include...
- Club chair
- Treasurer
- Coaches
- Welfare officer
- Secretary
- Volunteers
Have you defined preferred modes of communication?

WELFARE

Have all the necessary risk assessments been completed?
Are all coach safeguarding requirements up to date?
Do you have all necessary information about players? At minimum, ensure you have...
- Medical notes
- Next of kin details
- Home alone consent
- Photo/media consent
Have you shared, explained and had agreement from all club staff, players, parents and guardians on the club code of conduct?

COMMUNICATION

Have you communicated as much as possible about the upcoming season to players, parents and guardians? Consider pulling together a guide to share, which includes everything they need to know.

EQUIPMENT

Is all equipment ready? At minimum, ensure you have...
- Balls (correct size for the age group)
- Cones
- Bibs
- Ball pump
- Whistle
- Fully-stocked first aid kit (most important)
- Period products, if appropriate
- Some spares of things like shinpads, shoes etc.
Is all kit, including matchday and training kit, designed and ordered?

ON THE PITCH

Has the club’s approach to training been defined? How should sessions look and be run?
Has a curriculum or syllabus been set, including topics to cover?
Have you planned the first few sessions for delivery?
Have you defined how you are going to track and measure the progress of the team and individual players, so you can help them all to develop?

OFF THE PITCH

Has the club’s ethos been defined and shared? This should include the code of conduct, information about the approach to playing style and playing time, etc.
Have you built in time away from training and games: meetings, social activities and events?

Related Files

scw-162-checklist-new-season.pdfPDF, 400 KB

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Paul Butler, Florida, USA

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Rick Shields, Springboro, USA

"I coach both young club players as well as players at the High School level and both genders. The talent range is wide at times, however with the use of Soccer Coach Weekly I am able to apply the information to all talent levels and player ages and make the session fun and challenging for all players. It has helped spark me at times when I am at a loss for what to do at the next training session or offers a different approach to a current problem."

Tony Green, Pierrefonds Titans, Quebec, Canada

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