Weekly session plan restriction check and sign-off
Problem
The weekly session plan is a document that gets copied and edited every week until nobody is sure which version is current. Player restrictions, a return-to-play protocol, a load cap, a contact limit, live somewhere else entirely: a spreadsheet tab the medical team keeps, or a note in a messaging group. Nothing forces the two to be read together. A plan gets built, printed or shared as a PDF, and an assistant coach runs the session from whatever copy they have. Nobody signed off that the drills match the restrictions in force that day, and there is no record afterwards of who saw the final version or when it changed.
Product idea
When the head coach publishes the week's plan, the tool checks the named players in each drill against a maintained restriction list and flags any mismatch, such as a full-contact drill assigned to a player on a graduated return protocol. Flags route to the performance analyst or coach developer for resolution before the session runs. Each assistant coach must acknowledge the final version, and that acknowledgement is timestamped and logged. It does not build the session plan itself and does not replace the planning document or drill library; it sits alongside them and checks what they already produce.
Who it is for
Head coaches who publish the weekly plan, assistant and academy coaches who must acknowledge it before delivering a session, and the performance analyst who maintains the restriction list and resolves flagged conflicts.
Possible first version
Manual upload of the restriction list as a simple spreadsheet, a plan upload in the format already used (document or PDF), name matching against the restriction list with a flagged-conflict view, a per-coach acknowledgement button, and a log of who acknowledged what and when. No integration with an athlete management system in version one; the restriction list is entered and updated by hand. No drill library and no video attached to a flagged drill.
- Build classification
- Workflow application
- Rough effort
- 4-6 week first release
- Roles involved
- Head coach, Assistant coach, Academy coach, Performance analyst
- Relevant to
- Professional club, Academy & youth, Collegiate athletics, Federation / governing body, Women's league
- Systems in play
- Session planning tools, Athlete management systems, Playbook and document tools
- Product framing
- Automate a workflow
Questions we get asked
Who has to keep the restriction list up to date, and what happens if they forget?
Usually the performance analyst or medical lead owns it, and the workflow is only as good as that list. If it is not updated after a restriction changes, the tool will not catch anything, and it should not be presented as if it does. The honest framing for coaches is that this checks the plan against the last list it was given, not against a player's real-time medical status.
We already build session plans in a document. Does this replace that?
No. The planning tool or document stays exactly as it is; this reads the finished plan and checks names against restrictions. If your plan format changes often, matching player names reliably in version one may need the plan to follow a simple structure, which is worth agreeing before build rather than assuming it will parse anything.
What if a coach needs to run a session and nobody has acknowledged the plan yet?
The tool flags this rather than blocking anything. Coaching decisions on the day stay with the coach on the ground, including in a genuine emergency change of plan. The record exists so that afterwards it is clear whether the check ran and who saw it, not so that a session can be physically prevented from happening.
Our assistant coaches barely check messages between sessions. Will they actually acknowledge anything?
That depends on making acknowledgement faster than the current habit of glancing at a printed sheet, which is a low bar but a real one. If acknowledgement sits behind a login and several taps, it will be skipped and the log will misrepresent what actually happened. It is worth testing the acknowledgement step alone, before the flagging logic, to see whether coaches will use it at all.
Is this your workflow?
Tell us one sports workflow that still runs on paper, spreadsheets, WhatsApp or an outdated system. We will map it and show you what a simpler product looks like.
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