The session planner: plan a training session

Coaches

Coaches and club staff build a training session in a minute, from the age group, level, objective and length, then change it, print it and keep its versions.

1. Open the Coaching Session Planner from your sidebar or the Apps button at the top of the page. My sessions lists your own sessions and those of the clubs and teams you look after, newest date first.
2. Under New session, the Smart Session Builder asks where to keep it (your own library, a team or the whole club), the age group, level, objective and length, and a date if you like. It writes a first plan in six blocks (warm-up, skill development, technical development, game scenarios, conditioning, and review and recovery) with timings and drills from the library that suit the age group. Shuffle drills picks others; Create session opens it in the editor.
3. In the editor, fill in the briefing: objectives, outcomes, coaching points, focus areas, how many players and coaches you expect, the weather and the equipment checklist. In each block, add a drill from the library, move it up or down, remove it or change its minutes; the editor shows the total and warns when a block is shorter or longer than suggested. Save keeps a new version.
4. Safety and age guidance collects the safety notes of the drills you chose and the guidance for the age group. After the session, write what went well, what to work on next, the learning outcomes and your notes: they help you plan the next one.
5. Print or save as PDF makes a session sheet with the times, blocks, drills, set-ups and review questions, to take to training. Versions keeps the last 50 saves: choose an older one to bring its plan back, then save. Duplicate makes a copy, and Delete puts a session in the bin, where it is removed for good after 30 days.
6. The drill library holds starter drills written for My Rugby Career, and your club's and your own drills. Search by name, category or purpose, and filter by category, age group or whose drill it is. Open a drill to see its purpose, set-up, diagram, coaching points, progressions, regressions, safety notes and equipment, or print it.
7. Copy to my drills makes your own version of a drill that you can change; New drill writes one from scratch. Keep it in your own drills or, for club administrators and managers, in the club library. Video links can point to World Rugby, YouTube or Vimeo only.
8. Draw a diagram (or Edit the diagram) on your own or your club's drill opens the Exercise Designer. Set the size of the area, place cones, marker discs, poles, tackle bags, shields, ruck pads and other kit, add attackers and defenders, and draw their runs and passes. Build the drill in stages: move the players for each stage, write its coaching point, and Play shows them one after the other. Save keeps the drawing with the drill, and its first stage becomes the drill's picture.
9. The Picture, PDF, PowerPoint and Video buttons save the drill as a picture (PNG or JPEG), a PDF sheet with every stage, a PowerPoint with one slide per stage, or a short video.
10. Save as template in a session keeps its plan without a date under Templates. Use this template starts a new session with the same blocks, drills and minutes: choose where to keep it and, if you like, a date.
11. To run a session on the pitch, open Training in the MRC app on your phone. It keeps the next seven days of your sessions; Start training counts down each block, buzzes when its time is up and keeps how long each block really took. It works without signal and sends everything when you are back online.
12. For a team session, Attendance lists the team's squad: mark each player present, absent, injured or excused, on the phone or from Training record in the session. Only staff who may change the team's sessions take attendance.
13. After training, score the session from 1 to 5 for effort, quality, enjoyment and objective met, in the MRC app's Review or under Training record. My sessions then shows how many came and whether a session is scored.
14. Share with the squad in a team session shows that squad's players the day, the focus and a short message of yours on My teams. They never see the plan, the notes, the scores or anyone's attendance.
15. Plan the next session, in a confirmed match's report or in the MRC app after the match, suggests a focus from the match's numbers, such as line-outs lost or turnovers conceded, and opens the builder set to it. The suggestion follows fixed rules, not AI.
16. Analytics shows what your sessions add up to: sessions completed, hours actually run, attendance, the coach scores, the focus mix, the most-used drills, and planned against actual minutes per block. Choose your own sessions, a team you look after or, for administrators and managers, the whole club, and a period. A team's staff also see attendance per player; exports and prints never hold names.
17. Planner settings, for the club's library keepers (administrators, managers and whoever holds Manage the session planner), set the club's own minutes per block for the builder, whether coaches may add drills to the club library, and whether new club drills need approval. A drill waiting for approval shows under Waiting for approval in the drill library: approve it, or return it with a note.
18. Every save of a club drill or your own drill is kept: History on its page shows who saved which version and when; Look opens an older one and Restore makes it the current one again.
19. Guides opens the coaching guides: the principles of play, positions, safety at training, concussion awareness and age-grade guidance, with links to World Rugby. The editor's Safety and age guidance links to three of them.

• Sessions hold how many players you expect, never names. Attendance (team sessions only) is seen by that team's staff alone, has no notes or health details, and is deleted at the end of the season plus 400 days, or earlier when a player leaves the squad.
• Your own library is only yours. A team's sessions are for the staff who look after that team; club administrators and managers keep club-wide sessions and the club library. Players see a session only when its staff share it with the squad, and then only the day, the focus and the message.
• The builder leaves out full-contact drills below U14 and controlled-contact drills at U8, but you know your players best: always follow your union's age-grade regulations.
• Pictures, PDFs, PowerPoints and videos are made in your browser and saved on your device; nothing is uploaded. Drills hold no names, but a saved file can be passed on: share it with care.