Clipboards on the touchline
Your clinic has a contract with a local rugby club, a football academy or a university team to screen the squad before the season. On the day, three physios run stations: history questionnaire, movement tests, strength and range measurements. Each player carries a sheet of paper from station to station.
Afterwards, the sheets go back to the clinic in a folder. Someone types the results into a spreadsheet over the following week. Follow-up appointments for players the physios flagged are arranged by text. The club's head coach wants a summary of who is available and who needs attention, and it takes a fortnight to produce.
Why screening creates so much paperwork
Screening days compress a lot of data collection into a few hours: dozens of players, each with several measurements, observations and notes. Paper is quick on the day and slow afterwards.
The data is also useful beyond the day. Comparing this season with last season, or a player's post-injury measurements with their baseline, is only possible if the data is stored in a consistent, searchable way. Spreadsheets typed from paper rarely are.
Timing adds pressure. Screening happens in a short window before the first fixtures, often for several teams or age groups in the same few weeks. Any follow-up needs to happen quickly to be useful, and the coaching staff want answers before they pick a squad. Paper and retyping slows every step at exactly the moment speed matters.
Consent is part of it. Players, or parents for young players, need to agree to what the club is told. With paper forms, that consent is easy to lose track of.
What paper screening costs
| Issue | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Retyping sheets | Physio or admin time after every screening day |
| Illegible or missing entries | Gaps in the data |
| Slow club summary | Coaches wait, the contract looks less valuable |
| Follow-ups arranged by text | Flagged players not seen |
| No baseline history | Comparisons with previous seasons impossible |
How we digitise screening day
- Your physios define the screening protocol: stations, tests, measurements and the fields they want to record. We build it as a tablet form.
- The squad list is loaded in advance, with consent forms completed online by players or parents, including what may be shared with the club.
- On the day, each station records results against the player with a tap or scan, even without a reliable connection, syncing afterwards.
- Where a physio flags a player for follow-up, a booking link or appointment request is created automatically.
- Results are stored against each player, so this season's figures can be compared with previous ones.
- A club summary is generated from the fields you choose, limited to what players consented to share.
The protocol, the interpretation of results and what is said to the club are your physios' professional decisions. The system records and organises.
After the next screening day
No typing week. The club summary is ready soon after the day, not a fortnight later. Flagged players have follow-ups booked. Physios can look back at a player's baseline when they return from injury. And the clinic has a professional, repeatable screening product to offer other clubs.
Players notice the difference as well. Follow-up appointments arrive as a booking link on their phone rather than a message from a physio's personal number, and returning players can see that the clinic remembers last season's results. That kind of continuity is part of what keeps a club contract year after year.
For the clinic owner, the season's data also becomes a record of the value provided, useful in renewal conversations and when approaching new clubs.
Is this how screening runs for you?
- Players carry paper sheets between stations
- Results are typed up after the day
- Club summaries take weeks
- Follow-ups are arranged by text message
- Previous seasons' data is hard to find or compare