The clocks go back, the arguments start
All summer, teams train on the grass whenever it suits them. In late October the evenings go dark. Your club has floodlights on one training area, which lights enough space for two teams at a time, and hires a 3G pitch at the local school on two evenings. That is a small number of slots for a large number of teams: juniors, adults, women's and girls' sides, walking football or veterans.
Every autumn the same conversations happen. The first team says it needs two sessions a week. The under-15s coach has done three years of Tuesday nights and does not want to lose them. A new girls' team has no slot at all. The committee spends a meeting on it, someone draws up a timetable in a spreadsheet, and then coaches swap slots among themselves by text, so nobody knows who is actually on the pitch on any given night.
Why the allocation causes friction
- There are no written rules for who gets priority, so every decision looks personal.
- Swaps between coaches happen informally and the timetable is soon out of date.
- The cost of floodlights and 3G hire is not shared out by team, so heavy users and light users pay the same.
- Sessions cancelled for frost or school events are not rebalanced.
- The person responsible for locking up and switching the lights off does not know who is last out.
What the friction costs
Coaches fall out, and in a volunteer-run club, falling out is how you lose coaches. Newer teams, often girls' or disability sides the club wants to grow, end up with nothing. Teams double up on a slot built for one, which is not great for sessions or the pitch. And the club pays for lights left on after the last session because nobody knew it had finished early.
It also colours the whole season. Teams that feel hard done by in October carry that into committee meetings, the AGM and the bar. The treasurer asking for a contribution to 3G costs gets a frosty reply from a coach who thinks his team got the worst slot. Written rules and a visible record take the heat out of it, because the answer to 'why did we get Wednesday at half eight?' is on the page, not in someone's memory of a meeting.
A training rota built on the committee's rules
We build a training rota for the winter, which the committee controls and coaches use.
- Each training space is set up with its slots, capacity (how many teams at once) and hourly cost, for example floodlit area and school 3G.
- The committee writes the priority rules: for example, every team gets at least one session, particular age groups share, and senior teams get a second session only after everyone has one.
- Coaches request slots, with preferences, before a deadline in the autumn.
- The rota proposes an allocation that follows the rules; the committee reviews and publishes it.
- Swaps are done through the rota, so the timetable stays true, and a coach can offer an unused slot to other teams.
- Each team's usage is recorded against the hire cost, so the treasurer can see or recharge each team's share, and the key holder sees who is last on each night.
| Rule (example set by the committee) | Why it helps |
|---|---|
| Every team gets one session before anyone gets two | New teams are not squeezed out |
| Age groups next to each other share a slot | Uses a two-team space efficiently |
| Swaps only through the rota | Timetable stays accurate |
| Frost cancellations are reallocated | Missed sessions are shared fairly |
| Cost shared by hours used | Heavy users contribute more |
The winter, week to week
Coaches look at the rota on their phones to see their slot. A coach who cannot use Thursday posts it, and another team takes it; the rota updates. The key holder sees who is last on and locks up. At the end of the winter, the treasurer knows each team's usage, and the committee has a record to set next year's rules from, rather than starting the argument again.
Is your winter training this messy?
- Floodlit slots are argued over every autumn.
- Coaches swap slots by text and the timetable is out of date.
- Some teams have no winter slot at all.
- Hire costs are not shared by how much each team uses.
- The key holder does not know when the last session finishes.