Develop your players

A development plan is how a family sees the coaching their child gets away from match day. It holds your read of the player's game, the one or two things they're working on this block, and a running conversation about how it's going. Players and parents open it on their phones, so what you write there is often the clearest sign they get that the player is coached as an individual.

This page covers your part: building each plan, answering what the player logs, and running the review meetings between blocks.

Coaching a squad in its first season? Development Plans reads You're all caught up before a single plan exists. That's the start of the season, not work finished. Nothing reaches you until your technical director rolls plans out and players answer. Work through it in this order.

1. Wait for the rollout. Your technical director invites the players and sets the review blocks. Until they do, there is nothing for you to set up.
2. Build each plan as self-assessments land, under Build a player's plan. They arrive one at a time, so build as they come rather than waiting for the whole squad.
3. Answer the first check-ins, under Keep the conversation going. A quick first reply shows the family the plan is live.
4. Build your first video deck from a match with footage. See Build and present a deck.
5. Run the first block reviews, under Run the review meetings, once the club opens the first round.
6. Make your retention calls when your technical director opens the window. See Recommend who to keep.

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• Your technical director runs the rollout. They invite the players, set the review blocks and approve every plan before the family sees it. If your squad hasn't started yet, that's the reason.
• The player goes first. Each plan starts from the player's own self-assessment. You'll get a notification when one comes in (for example Self-assessment submitted for Jack Muller), and the player moves onto your list, ready to plan.
• Where to find it. Open IDPs from the menu. On a phone it sits under More, with a count of anything waiting on you. It opens as Development Plans. If your programme doesn't run development plans, you won't see it at all.

Development Plans opens on To do: one list across all your squads, holding only the plans that need you. The chips along the top split it up, with a count on each type of work:

• Concerns: a family has raised something about a published plan.
• Action needed: your TD has sent a plan back with changes.
• Needs reply: a player or parent has logged a session, a game or a clip against a goal.
• To build: a self-assessment is in and the plan is yours to build.

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Tap a row to open that player's plan at the entry waiting on you. When the list is clear it says You're all caught up, and View my players takes you to the Players tab.

Tap a To build row, or a player marked Ready to review on the Players tab. The plan takes four steps: Review, Focus Areas, Goals and Confirm.

You go through every attribute one at a time. The player's answer sits at the top of the card, and underneath it you make your own call: Strength, Building or Focus area.

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Roman rated himself Building on scanning (1), and your call goes underneath (2). If you disagree with the player, or mark something a focus area, the plan asks for a short note saying why. Write it to the player, not about them. Your notes go out with the plan, and the family reads each one beside that attribute, with your name on it. "You said Building; I see a focus area, and this is what I'm watching for" is the kind of note a player can act on.

For a player who had a plan last season, the card also shows how that attribute was rated then, in one line under Last season:, such as Coach: Focus area · Jack: Building · Parent: Strength. Anyone who didn't rate it is left out, and the line only appears where the attribute is the same one as last season.

Everything you marked a focus area carries forward. Now pick what the player will actually work on this block: usually one or two, never more than four. A block is only a few weeks long, and a player working on two things improves at both.

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Tick this block's focus areas (1), then Create goals (2). The ones you leave out aren't lost; they can be picked up in a later block.

For a returning player, the same step has a folded section, Last season in the programme and year (for example Last season in Boys Youth (2026)). Open it to see last season's focus areas, each goal with how it ended (Achieved, Progressed, Carry forward or Not met), and any off-field goals.

Tap Carry on on a goal to keep working on it. Its attribute becomes one of this block's focus areas, the Goals step builds this season's goal for it from the curriculum as usual, and the row then reads Carried on. The new goal shows a Carried on from 2026 tag, which your TD and the family see too.

• A goal marked Achieved says Achieved last season. Carry on only to build on it.
• A goal whose attribute isn't in this season's framework reads Not in this season's attributes and can't be carried. This is common when a player has moved programme.
• The four-focus-area limit still applies. A block that already has four reads Already 4 focus areas this block until you untick one.

You don't write goals from scratch. Clubhouse builds one goal for each focus area from your programme's curriculum, fitted to the player's position, age group and block dates. That's why every player working on scanning gets the same well-made goal, in your club's football language.

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Each goal sets out what you'll build into training (1) and what the player does in those sessions (2), then how everyone will know it's been achieved. If a goal's wording doesn't suit the player, tell your TD: there's no Edit goal on the coach's side, so the fix belongs in the curriculum or at approval.

On the same step you write a personal message to the player, which the family reads with the plan. It's required, so the plan won't move on without it.

The last step shows the plan the way the family will see it. Read it through, then tap Submit for approval. It goes to your TD, not the family.

If something is missing, the line under the button tells you what: you need a primary focus area, at least one strength marked on Review, and published curriculum behind every focus area you've chosen.

Your TD either approves it or sends it back:

• Approved. The family gets a notification, IDP published for Jack Muller, and the plan is live on their phones. If your TD added or removed a goal first, you're told: Published with TD changes: Jack Muller.
• Sent back. You get Changes requested: Leo Whitfield with your TD's reason, and the plan is back in To do under Action needed (Make the changes the TD requested). The family sees nothing until it's approved.

The Players tab shows where every plan in your squad sits:

Once a plan is live, the player and their parents log against each goal: a session they worked on, how a game went, a clip. Each one lands in your To do under Needs reply, and opens on the plan's Activity tab.

Reply from the box at the bottom of the thread. Clips play right there. The send button counts who will hear about it, for example Send to 3 people for the player and two parents. When you send, the family gets a notification with your reply in it (for example Sam replied — Scanning before receiving). If nobody in the family can be notified, the button just reads Send and the box says Nobody in the family will be notified. It stays on the plan for when they next open it. When a plan is clear, the footer offers the next player waiting, so you can work through the list in one go.

The notification opens the player's development plan, and your reply sits on that goal under My Goals, directly beneath the entry it answers.

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A good reply names one thing they did well and one thing to try next. Two specific lines within a couple of days are worth more than a paragraph a fortnight later. If a reply sits unanswered for 48 hours, it also appears on your TD's list as No coach reply in 2 days on "Scanning before receiving". It stays yours to answer. Responding to check-ins has more on the craft.

You can also start a conversation. The box reads Message Jack and their family…, a reminder that the player and their parents both read what you write. A message sent from there is about the plan as a whole rather than one goal. The family is notified (Sam messaged — Jack Muller, with the start of your message), and the notification opens the plan's Assessment tab, where your message sits under Messages from the coaching team.

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The family reads these messages but can't reply to them there. When you want an answer, ask it on a goal, where they can log back.

A live plan can still move with the player. You can:

• tap Edit on your message to the player,
• change your notes on any attribute,
• tap Add focus area to add another goal from the curriculum,
• tap Remove goal, which asks you to confirm first.

When a family raises a concern, it tops your To do list. Talk it through with the player and family first. Then tap Addressed on the row. The confirm, Mark concern as addressed?, counts the player's family and shows the notification word for word: Sam addressed your concern, with the day you marked it addressed. Tap Mark addressed and notify 2 people (the count is your player's family) to send it, or Cancel. If nobody in the family can be notified, the button reads Mark addressed and the concern still closes.

Tapping the notification opens the plan the concern was about, on its Assessment tab.

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Between blocks, the player, their family and you sit down to go through the plan. The club opens each round of meetings and families book their own times: you don't book for them. Families who haven't booked get one reminder, two days before booking closes. In junior and youth programmes a parent or guardian comes with the player; in a senior programme the player comes on their own.

As families book, a line lands in your inbox (it doesn't buzz your phone) and the meeting appears in your Calendar. On the Players tab, the squad list becomes the Review running order: the meetings grouped by day with their times, a count of how many are booked and reviewed, and a Not booked section at the bottom. Each player's plan shows the same at the top: that the family hasn't booked yet, or the booked day and time.

At the meeting, tap Start review on the player's row (or Start meeting for the first meeting on a new plan). Everything you need is in one place:

• What the family shared before the meeting: what felt best, and what they want to focus on next.
• Each goal's outcome: Achieved, Progressed, Carry forward or Not met.
• Next block: the focus areas to carry into the next plan.
• A summary for the family, your private staff notes, and who was there.
• Your retention view for next season, which is staff only.

Tap Save review to finish (for the first meeting on a new plan, it's Mark meeting held), then confirm. The family isn't sent a notification; they read your summary on the plan. Your private notes are never shared with families. If a meeting passes without being recorded, the plan says Not recorded until you do.

When your programme moves to next season, anything still open on your old squad, such as a plan not yet published, shows on Home in a Season wrap-up card. Its Open IDPs link opens that squad's plans, so you can finish them. If you're looking at another of your squads, the card offers Switch to this squad first.

About four weeks after the move, every plan still open on the old season is closed, and your technical director can close them sooner. A closed plan still opens, with the note This plan is from a season that has finished. It is kept as it was left and can't be changed.

Open any player from My Squad to see their season in one place: Overview, Matches, Training, Clips, Development Plan, S&C, Career and Medical, plus Wellness or Workouts if the player is on them, and their full profile and contacts for your own squad. Before a review meeting, attendance, minutes and tagged clips tell you most of what you need.

• Every player in your squad shows Active on the Players tab, not Draft or Changes requested.
• To do is cleared on a rhythm, and nothing has sat long enough to reach your TD.
• Every booked review meeting reads Reviewed in the running order afterwards, not Not recorded.