Coaching guides for grassroots sport
Nobody hands you a manual with the team list. These are the things volunteer coaches ask about most, answered properly — with the awkward bits left in.
The five that come up most
Fair playing time
What "fair" means when the numbers do not divide evenly, and how to decide before the game rather than during it.
Player rotations
How to plan a rotation you can actually follow on a sideline, for squads of any size.
Team selection
Picking a side fairly, including what to do when development and winning genuinely pull apart.
Talking to parents
Setting expectations early so playing time never becomes a carpark conversation.
Volunteer coaching
A starting point for your first season, from someone else who was handed a team list in February.
Why these five
Almost every difficulty a junior coach runs into traces back to one of two things: a decision about who plays, or a conversation about a decision about who plays. The guides above are ordered roughly that way — the first three are about making the decision well, the last two about everything around it.
They are deliberately not a coaching-technique library. Drills, session structure and skill progressions live in the Training Hub, and the rules and formats for each sport are free to read at /learn. This section is about the judgement calls that no drill book covers.
If you only have a minute
The short version of each guide. Each row links to the full thing.
| Question | Short answer |
|---|---|
| How much game time should each child get? | In junior grades, aim for equal time as the default and treat any deviation as something you have to justify. Where the numbers do not divide evenly, keep the gap to one period and rotate who carries it. |
| When should I plan the rotation? | Before the game, in writing. A rotation improvised at half time is where the same child ends up missing out repeatedly without anyone intending it. |
| Should I pick the strongest team? | Depends on the grade and what you told everyone at the start of the season. The failure is not choosing either way — it is being unclear about which you are doing. |
| What do I say when a parent complains? | Have the numbers, and have had the conversation already. Most playing-time complaints are really about not knowing what the approach is. |
| I have never coached before. Where do I start? | Learn the format your grade plays, get a plan for the first three trainings, and decide your playing-time approach before round one. |
Common questions
Are these guides specific to New Zealand?
The principles apply anywhere, but the examples use NZ formats and terminology — futureFERNS netball, Kiwi Sticks hockey, Flippa Ball water polo, school year levels rather than grades. If you coach elsewhere the maths is identical; the format names will differ. There is NZ-specific material at <a href="/nz">Squaddie for New Zealand sport</a>.
What age groups do these cover?
Mainly junior and intermediate sport, roughly ages 5 to 15, which is where playing-time and selection questions are hardest. Some of it applies to senior social grades too. Once you are into competitive secondary or club-representative sport the balance shifts, and the guides say so where it matters.
Who writes these?
Squaddie is a small New Zealand team, and the guides come out of coaching junior netball and football in Tasman plus conversations with the coaches, schools and clubs who use the product. Where something is a matter of opinion rather than established practice, it is written as an opinion.
Also useful
Every kid deserves their turn.
Squaddie keeps the record that makes fair game time provable rather than promised.
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