Youth coach app: run your team's week in about thirty minutes

A coach's week, in one place

0:00 By the end of this video, you will have a simple weekly routine for coaching one team. It covers practice, availability, the lineup, attendance, stats and messages to families. We will walk through one week, day by day. The admin side fits into about thirty minutes: ten on Sunday, five on Tuesday, five on Thursday and ten on Saturday.

What should a youth coach app do?

0:22 A coach app should answer six questions. When are we on? Who is coming? Who plays where?

0:29 Who came? How did players do? And how do I reach the families?

Sunday: plan the week

0:34 On Sunday, spend ten minutes. Check the calendar for the week's practices and the game. Then write one practice plan you can reuse, with a clear goal for each block. Here is a typical example.

0:47 It is illustrative, not a specific club. A seventy-five minute practice has five blocks. Ten minutes of warm-up, twenty of technique, twenty-five of small-sided games, fifteen of scrimmage and five to cool down. Keep one goal for each block.

1:03 Give the most time to games where each player touches the ball often. Short lines and quick turns keep young players moving. Ask for availability on each practice and game, with one reply-by time. Read the counts to size the session. Then read the names to set the groups and positions.

Tuesday: mark attendance

1:20 After Tuesday's practice, take five minutes to mark attendance: present, late, absent or excused. Over a season, that record shows patterns an RSVP alone does not show.

Thursday: set the lineup

1:34 On Thursday, set Saturday's lineup from the answers. In our example, the roster has twelve players. Eleven are going and one is away. It is a seven-a-side game, so seven start and four wait to come on.

1:48 Share playing time on purpose. Two halves of twenty-five minutes make fifty minutes. Seven players are on the field at once. Shared across eleven players, that is about thirty-two minutes each.

2:01 Write the substitutions before the game, at set minutes. Rotate who starts and who finishes, so no player sits out the same stretch each week.

Saturday: stats and a note home

2:11 After Saturday's game, spend ten minutes. Record a few simple stats your team really uses. Then send families one short note: what went well, and the next date. Keep coaching messages in the team's own spaces, not in personal group chats.

2:28 Write to young players where another adult can see. Keep one space for team news and one for parents.

How Play 2 Earn Sports helps

2:35 Now, how Play 2 Earn Sports helps. Practices can be created with a location, and they show on the team calendar with games and events. Repeating practices are set up through the club's event tools. Players and parents answer Going, Maybe or Can't go, and coaches see the counts and names.

2:54 Coaches and club admins use the same lineup builder. Team sports such as soccer, basketball, baseball, hockey and American football each get their own surface: a pitch, a court, a diamond, a rink or a gridiron. Individual sports get an event-lineup view. Coaches and club staff mark attendance as present, late, absent or excused, separately from RSVPs.

3:20 Teams can keep player stats. Staff entries publish right away. Player-entered stats publish after two teammate confirmations. Each team has Team, Coaches and Parents channels.

3:33 Coaches and guardians post in Parents, and guardians can read their child's Team channel. A private adult-to-minor chat brings a parent or guardian into the conversation until the player turns eighteen.

Coaching one team on your own?

3:45 Coaching one team on your own? Coaches join through a club account. So start a free club account for your team, then set up your team from that account. Every organization feature is on every plan.

3:57 Plan on Sunday, mark attendance on Tuesday, set the lineup on Thursday, and close the week on Saturday. The full guide is on the page linked in the description. Start with your own team: Starter is free for clubs with up to 10 teams. Thanks for watching.