Berkshire Royals Coaching Plan 2025/26

The club has grown a lot very quickly and there needs to be a bigger infrastructure to ensure we can provide something for everyone. The competitive team coaches last year were a good start towards developing the infrastructure and experience we need, so this year the plan is to expand how many people we have focusing on different things and to make it easier for them to make changes that benefit their area.

Goals

Ensure we have something for everyone, whether that’s once a month social players to those who are playing at every opportunity.
Long term sustained club wide development.
Clear path for everyone to develop to where they want to be.
Team selection to be communicated clearly and fairly, with those who know the most about a team being the ones making the decisions.

Focus areas

Ideally this would be coordinated by one or two people, who would be largely responsible for planning Tuesday social sessions and developing new players. The aim is to keep it fun and welcoming, with lots of opportunity to try something different.

Examples of what they might do:

Fun competitions (Rec league).
Foam.
Plan for onboarding new players.
Maintain a Tuesday training calendar.
Reach out to the club for fresh ideas.

Regionals

This season British dodgeball has decided to remove regional leagues in favour of regional tournaments, with these BD regional tournaments and other non-BD events we will be using them for development. Priority will be for those not playing in nationals, where possible we will also try to add some more experienced players in to help with development.

Womens

While the club overall has grown a lot the women’s team has stayed at a similar size so we do need a different approach and focus to see this grow and develop. For this we need two complementary roles, a women’s team coach and a women’s development coordinator (Women’s hype coordinator?).

Women’s coach:

Ideally NOT playing in the women’s team.
Develop the women’s team tactically.
Organise women’s training sessions.
In the coaching box at women’s team competitions making subs and supporting etc.

Women’s development coordinator:

Ideally playing in the women’s team.
Bring the hype and passion for the women’s team.
Reach out to women’s interest groups for taster sessions (e.g. women’s cricket).
Organise Womens socials.
Coordinate with schemes like ‘Girls dodge too’ and ‘This girl can’.
Help plan training so that it is more friendly and accessible to women.
Reach out to the BD community to get ideas and collaborate on developing the women’s game.
Try new things!

National league

National league is the most competitive competition the club will be entering this year, the aim is for all three teams to improve on their league positions from last year. With three national league teams we will need at least 3 coaches.

Ideally NOT playing in the team they are coaching.
Ideally the most experienced and highest attending club members.
Contribute to team selection.
Contribute to the planning and running of competitive training sessions.
Get ideas from their team about what they want to practice.
In the coaching box at their teams meets making subs and supporting etc.

Mixed league

Last season was the first season Berkshire entered mixed league, the aim this year is to improve on the league position.

Mixed team coach:

Ideally NOT playing in the team they are coaching.
Ideally one of the more experienced and highest attending club members.
Contribute to team selection.
Contribute to the planning and running of competitive training sessions.
In the coaching box at their teams meets making subs and supporting etc.

Team selection

For teams where we expect there to be more players than there are spaces on a regular basis there needs to be a clear and fair way that teams are selected.

The main selection criteria will be:

Attendance - How often are they at training?
Attitude - What kind of teammate are they?
Ability - How good are they tactically?

The balance of the criteria will change depending on the competition, for example:

For NL and ML attendance to development training will have a greater weight than social training.
For NL ability is going to be a key driver.
Regional competitions will be prioritised for those who are not playing in the NL.

How selection is organised:

Selection decided through discussions between the club coach and the team coaches.
Team coaches approved via the management committee.
Club coach role is to ensure fairness and selection is coherent with long term club development.
Team coach’s role is to make decisions about their team as they will know their players best.
Fluid selection, team selection is announced 2-4 weeks before a meet.
Ideally 8 players per team per meet.

Michael Nunn (Head Coach)