About the project
Coach Planner is the bespoke web application we designed and built for Netball Kids — a UK multi-franchise business delivering structured netball coaching to children aged 2–11. The brief was simple but specific: replace spreadsheets, WhatsApp groups and printed-out lesson plans with one tool that lets coaches build sessions from a shared library, schedule them, and deliver them on a phone, on court, in any weather.
The app serves three distinct user types: coaches who plan and deliver sessions, franchisees who run a local franchise and oversee their coaching team, and the franchisor (head office) who manages the entire network. Each has a different view, different permissions, and a different job to do — all sitting on top of one shared library of activities.
What we delivered
- Shared activity library — a catalogue of individual exercises and games (e.g. "Animal Walk Parade", "Roll the Ball") with descriptions, durations, age groups and coaching tips, contributed to and used by everyone
- Guided plan-building wizard — walks the user through the right session structure for each age group (Warm Up → Drill → Relay → Game → Parachute Game for younger kids; a different shape for older ones) so every session has the right balance
- Plan-to-session scheduling — plans are assigned to a coach on a specific date, becoming a scheduled session that appears on the coach's dashboard (This week / Upcoming / History)
- Courtside mode — full-screen, phone-friendly session viewer that walks the coach through one activity at a time, swipe-to-advance, screen-stays-awake, designed for cold-court use on a phone
- Three-tier role-based access (Coach / Franchisee / Franchisor) with permissions, dashboards and reports tuned to each
- PDF export of any plan for printing or sharing
- Reports for managers — sessions delivered, plans in library, coach activity
- Branded transactional emails for invites, password resets and assignments
- Installable as a home-screen app (PWA) for one-tap access from a coach's phone
- Mobile-first responsive UI throughout — the app is used primarily on small screens, so the design started there
See it live
Coach Planner is in active production across the Netball Kids franchise network. Visit the platform to see the franchisor-tier dashboard live.
Why it works
Most coaching software is built for adults playing serious sports — tactics boards, drill libraries, video analysis. Coach Planner is designed around a completely different reality: someone delivering thirty minutes of structured fun to a circle of five-year-olds on a windswept sports hall floor, with a phone in one hand and a netball in the other. Every interaction is large-tap, glove-friendly, and built to survive being half-watched. The shared activity library means a new coach is never starting from scratch; the guided wizard means even brand-new franchises run age-appropriate, structurally-balanced sessions from day one.
Could we build your project next?
Jabu Designs is a website design and bespoke software development agency based in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. We build production software — not prototypes — for ambitious businesses across the UK. Alongside website design, we offer bespoke software, web application development, custom CRM development, custom booking systems and mobile apps — making us a genuine one-stop digital partner.
