Free club resource
The Grassroots Club Training Checklist
What training a club actually needs, who needs it, and how often it runs out. Written down in one place, because nobody ever has.
No sign-up. No email address. Tick it off, add your names, print it for the committee.
If a player went down at training on Tuesday night, most clubs could tell you who would deal with it. Far fewer could tell you when that person's certificate ran out, or who covers it when they are away.
That is not carelessness. Nobody has ever set out plainly what a grassroots club is supposed to have in place, so it lives in one volunteer's head until that volunteer moves clubs.
So we wrote it down. Use it, ignore it, print it and stick it in the clubhouse. It is yours either way.
Work through the groups below. Tick what is already covered, write in who covers it, and you will be left looking at the gaps. Your ticks and names are saved in this browser on this device, so you can come back to it. Nothing is sent to us.
0 of 33 covered at your club
Every coach
The people on the grass every week. If one person at the club is trained, it should be them.
The injuries that actually happen on a pitch: sprains, breaks, bleeds, someone who stops breathing.
Typically renewed every 3 yearsA player takes a knock, gets up, says they are fine and wants to carry on. Your coach has about thirty seconds to decide whether that is true.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]The general-purpose one. Runs as a classroom or blended course rather than fully online, up to twelve people at a time, so it is worth booking as a group.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]Aimed at sport and activity settings rather than an office. Worth it if your sessions run away from the clubhouse.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]
Anyone working with under-18s
If your club has youth teams, this is the group that gets asked about. Leagues and county bodies expect safeguarding to be in place, and expect you to be able to show it.
The baseline for anyone in regular contact with young players.
Typically renewed every 3 yearsFor whoever holds the welfare officer role. Somebody has to, and it should not be whoever missed the meeting.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]Children are not small adults and the first aid is not the same. Classroom or blended, so plan it as a club rather than one person at a time.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]For the young players themselves. Older juniors learning basic first aid is a quiet win most clubs never think of.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]
Matchday
Bigger crowd, more people, more that can go wrong. Covers the touchline and the terrace, not just the pitch.
The people watching outnumber the people playing, and they are older.
Typically renewed every 3 yearsIf there is a defibrillator on the wall, somebody needs to be confident enough to take it off the wall.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]The fuller version, for whoever is most likely to be first on the scene.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]Someone at your club carries an adrenaline pen. Ask around: you will find they do.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]Common, usually managed, occasionally not. Cold air and a hard session is a familiar combination.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]Knowing what to do, and what not to do, in front of a crowd of people who do not.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]
The clubhouse
The bar, the kitchen, the matchday teas. The part of the club that tends to look after itself, right up until it does not.
If you serve food to the public, somebody should have done this. Most clubs assume somebody has.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]A parent asks what is in the burgers because their child has a nut allergy. The honest answer should not be a shrug.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]An old building, a full bar and one fire door that sticks.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]For whoever ends up behind the bar after a derby.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]Rarely thought about at a club bar, and exactly the sort of thing you want understood before it happens rather than after.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]
The committee
Unglamorous, and the bit that protects the club as an organisation rather than the people in it.
Needed more often than clubs expect: tournaments, fun days, hiring the pitch out.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]You hold names, dates of birth and medical notes for children. That is exactly the data the rules are about.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]A club is often the only place someone turns up every week. That counts for something.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]Often asked for by leagues, county bodies and funders when you apply for anything.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]Clubs think safeguarding means children. It does not only mean children.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]
Not a football club?
Same problem, different sport. There are courses written for specific sports and organisations, including several for exactly the groups we work with.
A version written for rugby rather than adapted from an office course.
Typically renewed every [renewal period]- Typically renewed every [renewal period]
- Typically renewed every [renewal period]
- Typically renewed every [renewal period]
- Typically renewed every [renewal period]
- Typically renewed every [renewal period]
- Typically renewed every [renewal period]
- Typically renewed every [renewal period]
- Typically renewed every [renewal period]
Worth saying plainly: Play Fund Win is an official ProTrainings reseller. If you buy a course through the link below we earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It is what keeps resources like this checklist free and ungated.
Found some gaps? Start with the free one.
ProTrainings run a Student First Aid course that costs nothing and needs no card details, and a club can register for it as an organisation rather than one person at a time. After that, Play Fund Win clubs get 20% off every online course, and there are over 350 of them.
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Setting the account up through this link is what applies your 20%, and it keeps it applied for as long as your club is with Play Fund Win, on renewals as well as first purchases. A few courses on this list run as classroom or blended rather than online, and those are flagged above.
This checklist is a starting point put together for grassroots clubs, not a statement of your legal obligations. Requirements vary by sport, league and county body, so check what yours asks for. Where a club works with under-18s, safeguarding is expected of you and you should be able to evidence it.
Where a renewal period still reads as a placeholder, it is because we have not had that one confirmed by the training provider yet. We would rather leave a visible gap than print a number we have guessed at.
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