A first-week checklist for new joiners in sports academies and clubs

A new head coach reaches a cricket academy on Monday, is handed a bag of cones and told to take the under-14 batch at the nets. Nobody has shown him the ground gate key register, the parent contact sheet or the rule on who may switch on the bowling machine. By Thursday a mother has complained on the parents' WhatsApp group and he is wondering whether he took the right job. A written first week prevents most of this.

This post gives a copyable checklist for the first five working days of a coach, trainer, lifeguard or front desk joiner in a sports academy or club. Adapt it to your ground, pool or dojo. It describes habits that work, and it does not set out what any statute demands.

Academies run on trust. Parents hand over children at 5.30 in the morning and expect the person at the nets, the pool edge or the mat to know the drill. Trainees join in a season window, so a coach who wobbles in week one costs you batch registrations. Coaches also work split shifts, early dawn and evening, so the week has fewer overlapping hours than an office job.

Sport has its own hazards. Wet pool decks, sparring without mouth guards, fast bowlers with stiff backs, boys running on hard courts in worn shoes. A joiner who learns the safety routine on day one is protecting your trainees and your name.

Name, role, batch or lane assigned, reporting head coach or academy director.
Day 1, before first session: gate key and equipment store register signed, first aid box and ice pack location shown, nearest hospital number written on the sheet.
Day 1: meets the head coach, walks the nets, courts, pool deck or dojo floor with the coach, no solo session yet.
Day 1: attendance register and trainee roster handed over, with any medical alert, asthma or old injury noted against the child.
Day 2: shadows one full session, notes warm up order, drill sequence and how the batch lines up.
Day 2: safeguarding rule read and signed, covering changing rooms, photographs, one to one contact and travel to away fixtures.
Day 3: co-leads a warm up and one drill, head coach observes and gives two points to keep and one to change.
Day 3: parent communication rule explained, including which WhatsApp group, who replies, and what is never sent late at night.
Day 4: runs a part session alone with the head coach standing at the boundary or pool edge.
Day 4: kit and equipment issue recorded, such as whistle, cones, shuttle tubes, pads or belt set.
Day 5: review chat for thirty minutes, using the questions below, notes sent to the academy director.
Sign off: head coach, joiner, date, next review day.

1. 1

   Prepare it before the joiner arrives

   Fill in the name, batch and key holders. Print or save it on the coaches' shared drive. A sheet that is blank on day one signals that nobody expected the joiner.

2. 2

   Name a buddy

   Pick a senior coach who is on the same timetable. For swimming schools, pick someone who has stood in the water with the batch, not only the office.

3. 3

   Tick items as they happen

   The head coach or the buddy ticks each line, with the date. If an item is skipped, write why.

4. 4

   Sit down on Friday

   Put the five questions below to the joiner. Write the replies on the sheet itself.

5. 5

   File the sheet

   Keep it in the person's file and use it when you write the three month review.

• Cricket coaches: ask for a net schedule, the turf wicket and artificial wicket booking rule, the bowling machine switch routine and the ball count rule for young fast bowlers.
• Football coaches: add the age group registers, the pitch marking routine, the boots and shin pad check, and the rule for heat breaks in the afternoon.
• Swimming instructors and lifeguards: add the pool deck walk, the rescue tube and spinal board positions, chlorine and pH reading log and the whistle code for clearing the pool.
• Martial arts instructors: add the belt grading calendar, sparring pairing rule, mat cleaning schedule and who signs the injury note.
• Front desk and admissions staff: add the fee receipt book, trial class form, batch capacity limit and how to handle a parent who arrives early for a trial.

• Fast bowlers: a joiner should know the over limits per spell for under-14 and under-16 bowlers, and who counts them on the net-session tally sheet.
• Football: studs on astroturf, the water break in the 4 pm heat, the corner flag and goalpost anchor check before a Saturday fixture.
• Swimming: the chlorine and pH reading at opening, the backstroke flags, the kickboard stack, the learner pool depth markers and the lifeguard chair rotation.
• Martial arts: the dojo floor mats, groin guards and gum shields, the belt grading panel and the rule that no junior sparring happens without a senior watching.
• Clubs: member guest passes, the locker key ledger, the coaching court booking board and the committee's rule on trial memberships.

• Which three trainees are still strangers to you?
• Where did the buddy help most, and where did you work it out alone?
• When did you not know whom to ring?
• Which net, lane, mat or goalpost looked unsafe?
• What did a parent expect that nobody mentioned?

The first mistake is putting a joiner in front of a batch because a coach has resigned. Cover is a separate problem, which we cover in the post on absence cover for sports academies. Write the sheet anyway and shorten the shadow days.

The second mistake is leaving documents to the end. Signed safeguarding and equipment forms belong in the first two days. See the documentation guide for football academies and the onboarding page for cricket academies for how a file can be kept tidy.

A third mistake is treating part time and visiting coaches as exempt. The visiting batting coach who comes on Saturdays needs the same gate, safety and parent rules. Keep a short version of the sheet for such people. The overall picture for the sector sits on the sports academies and clubs HR page.

Revisit the sheet each time the fixture list is reissued and the batch timings shift. Add the line that would have saved last month's muddle. Strike off whatever nobody touched. Send the sheet to the next joiner early, before their first day, so they arrive prepared. If you want help writing role sheets and a joiner plan for your academy, start with the requirements form.