A coach does three jobs that rarely sit in one tool. You teach skills, which means drills that athletes can watch, copy and repeat. You watch progress, which means knowing who has done the work and who has stalled. And you run the calendar, which means telling a squad where to be and when. Most programmes cover these with a video folder, a notebook and a group chat that nobody can search.
A WordPress site can hold all three in one place. This guide maps each job to a Wbcom plugin: Learnomy for the drill library, WB Gamification for visible progress, and Eventonomy for training and fixtures, with BuddyNext as the community layer underneath, all running on the Reign theme. Free and Pro scope is labelled as we go.
Which tool does which coaching job
Before you install anything, write down what each part of your programme is, because the plugins split along those lines.
| Coaching job | Where it lives | Free or Pro |
|---|---|---|
| A library of drills and sessions | Learnomy course with sections and lessons | Free |
| Reaching a skill level before moving on | Course prerequisites and sequential lessons | Free |
| Coach signs off a skill | Manual completion rule | Free |
| Time-released programmes (week by week) | Drip by days after enrolment | Pro |
| Squad discussion and announcements | BuddyNext spaces | Free |
| Weekly training and match calendar | Eventonomy, recurring events and RSVPs | Free |
| Points, badges, streaks, challenges | WB Gamification | Free, no Pro plan |
| Door check-in at sessions | Eventonomy check-in | Pro |
Keep this table handy. The plugins overlap less than they seem to once the jobs are named.
Turning a drill library into a course
A drill library is a good fit for an LMS because a drill is a repeatable unit with content, order and a “done” state. In Learnomy, a course holds optional sections and then lessons. Sections suit your skill areas, such as “Passing”, “Footwork” or “Set pieces”, and lessons are individual drills.
Choose the right lesson type for each drill
Each lesson has a content type that decides how it is delivered.
| Lesson content type | Good for |
|---|---|
| Text | The coaching points, the setup, the progressions |
| Video and Embed | A demonstration clip; Embed accepts a pasted page address from YouTube, Vimeo and other providers WordPress already supports |
| A printable session plan or diagram | |
| Download | A worksheet or a full season plan as a file |
| Audio | A talk-through for athletes who listen while stretching |
| Live | A scheduled session that links out to Zoom, Meet or Teams |
For consistency, use the same lesson template every time. A drill page that always answers the same questions is easier to follow than a collection of one-offs: the purpose of the drill, the equipment, how to set it up, what to look for, how to make it easier or harder, and any safety point.
Control the order athletes work in
Three free settings give a drill library its shape:
- Course prerequisites. Require athletes to complete one or more other courses before they can enrol. A “Foundations” course can gate “Advanced attacking”.
- Lock next lesson until complete. Ticked on a lesson, the next one stays locked until the athlete marks this one done. A course-level sequential setting does the same for every lesson.
- Available date. A lesson can be released on a fixed date and time, which suits a pre-season plan.
Releasing lessons a set number of days after each athlete enrols, or after a prerequisite lesson, is the drip feature in Learnomy Pro. If you only need the same date for everyone, free is enough.
Add a difficulty level (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced or Expert) and a short “who this is for” note on each course, so athletes can choose without asking.
Who gets in
Pricing and access are free and flexible. A course can be free, a one-time purchase, time-limited, a recurring subscription, members-only, or invite only, where you add athletes yourself, individually or by CSV, and nothing is for sale. Invite only is the natural model for a club’s own squads. Stripe and PayPal checkout, membership plans and coupons are all in Learnomy’s free plan, so selling a public programme does not need Pro either.
Showing athletes where they stand
Progress is where most coaching sites fall down, because it has to be both honest and encouraging. Learnomy and WB Gamification each cover a different half.
What Learnomy tracks by itself
Athletes see a progress bar at the top of the curriculum, with a checkmark against each lesson. You choose how a course counts as finished, with four completion rules:
- All lessons completed.
- All lessons completed and a passing quiz result.
- A percentage of the content, useful when the last drills are optional.
- Manual completion, where only an instructor or admin marks a student complete.
Manual completion matters for physical skills. A quiz can test whether an athlete knows the offside rule, but only you can see whether they can do the movement. Use the manual rule on skill courses and let the coach sign off. Quizzes have a Practice mode that scores but never blocks completion, which suits a low-stakes self-check, and a Graded mode when you want a pass mark.
Instructors also get a Students roster, in the free plan, listing everyone enrolled across their courses. Search it by name or email and open an athlete to see their progress percentage in each course and when they enrolled. It is paginated, so it stays quick with a large squad. Fuller reporting and analytics are Pro.
What WB Gamification adds
Gamification turns practice into something athletes can see accumulating. WB Gamification has no Pro plan, and every mechanic is in the free plugin. It connects to Learnomy so that finishing a lesson, passing a quiz, completing a course and earning a certificate can each award points, and you set what each is worth.
The mechanics that suit a coaching programme:
- Streaks count consecutive active days, with a configurable grace period of up to three days. Good for a daily home-practice habit.
- Challenges are time-bound goals with bonus points, such as “complete five drills this month”. Members see a live progress bar.
- Community challenges share one progress bar across the squad, and everyone who contributed earns the bonus if the target is hit. This rewards a team more than a star.
- Submissions let an athlete claim something the system cannot see, such as a session done away from the site, with a photo or link as evidence. An admin approves it before points are awarded.
- Kudos let teammates thank each other directly.
Be careful with leaderboards
Public rankings motivate some athletes and flatten others. With younger or newer athletes, a ranked list of points can say “you are behind” every time the page loads. Consider showing streaks and personal badges, and keep the leaderboard to a squad or turn it off. Members can also opt out of the leaderboard or hide their rank from their profile.
If you only need the coach to hand out a recognition, the admin has a manual Award Points screen. It lives in wp-admin and is gated by its own capability, so plan who gets that access before you promise assistant coaches they can hand out points.
For deeper design guidance on streaks and challenges, including how to avoid anxiety and cheating, see our guide to streaks and challenges that bring members back.
Team schedules without a spreadsheet
Eventonomy handles a squad calendar in its free plan.
Training that repeats
Create a training session once, set Repeats to Weekly with an interval, and every date shows on the calendar. One RSVP covers the whole series: an athlete answers “Going”, “Maybe” or “No” once for the run of sessions, not per date. For a one-off match or trial, create a separate event. Set a capacity if the pitch or pool has a limit, and switch on the waitlist.
Add custom RSVP questions where they genuinely help you plan, such as “Do you need a lift?” or “Which kit size?”. Stay away from medical details. Collecting health information carries obligations of its own, so keep injury and medical records in the system your club already uses for that.
Reminders go out one day and one hour before each session with no setup, and each event page offers Add to calendar for Google, Outlook and Apple calendars.
A few limits to know about
| Need | What exists | Note |
|---|---|---|
| One schedule per squad | Event categories, with a list block limited to one category | The calendar feed is site-wide |
| Subscribable calendar feed | One site-wide feed of public events | No per-team feed, and private events are left out |
| Fixtures at different venues | A shared venue catalogue | Add a venue once and reuse it |
| Members-only schedule | A private event is unlisted but anyone with the link can open it | It is not login-protected unless a developer adds that |
| Check-in at the door | QR check-in | Pro |
| Week and Day grid views, map view | Pro | Free has Grid, List, Month and Upcoming |
If you also run BuddyNext Pro, Eventonomy events appear in the feed and a space can have an Events tab, so a squad space can show its own fixtures. Points for an RSVP come from WB Gamification’s Eventonomy support and are awarded when someone reserves a place. Points for actually attending are tied to check-in, which needs Eventonomy Pro.
A short safeguarding note for programmes with minors
If any of your athletes are under the age of majority where you are, treat the following as general practice and not as legal or regulatory advice. Check the rules of your governing body, your insurer and your local law before you launch.
- Parental consent and privacy. Get consent from a parent or guardian before a child is registered, and tell families what you collect and why. The plugins give you controls such as private spaces and invite-only courses, but the documentation does not describe a parental-consent or age-verification flow, so that process has to happen outside the software.
- Collect less. Do not publish children’s full names, school names, home areas or identifying photos on public pages. Keep squad spaces private and approved.
- Be deliberate about private messages. Some governing bodies restrict one-to-one private contact between adults and young athletes. BuddyNext lets you set the site-wide messaging level as low as Nobody, and members can only choose that level or a stricter one. Decide your policy first, then set it.
- Name a responsible person and publish how families can raise a concern.
A launch order that works
- Write the drill template and build one course with five or six lessons before you build more.
- Choose completion rules: manual for skills, lessons plus quiz for theory.
- Create a private squad space for each age group, with approval to join.
- Add the recurring training events, with capacity and waitlists where space is limited.
- Switch on WB Gamification with two streak or challenge ideas, not twenty.
- Review the Students roster after the first month and adjust the rules.
You can compare what is included at each tier on the plugins free versus Pro page, and the course community build guide shows how a course and a community fit together. If you want to issue completion certificates, our guide to course certificates on WordPress explains how they are verified. For a club where families also organise their own meetups, see a local parents network.
Frequently asked questions
Can I run a coaching programme on the free plugins?
Yes, for most of it. Courses, lessons, quizzes, prerequisites, manual completion, Stripe and PayPal checkout, the instructor roster, recurring events with RSVPs and waitlists, and all of WB Gamification are free. Drip by days after enrolment, advanced reporting, QR check-in and paid event tickets need Pro.
How do I mark that an athlete has mastered a skill?
Set the course’s completion rule to Manual. The course never completes by itself, and an instructor or admin marks each athlete complete once they have seen the skill performed.
Can athletes see how they compare with teammates?
They can, if you enable leaderboards or cohort-style competition, but you do not have to. Many programmes get better results showing personal streaks and badges. Members can also opt out of the leaderboard.
Can I give each squad its own schedule?
Use event categories, one per squad, and place an Events list or Upcoming block limited to that category on each squad page. The subscribable calendar feed covers the whole site rather than one squad, so tell athletes to add individual events or use the on-page view.
Should I use the community features for under-18s?
That depends on your governing body, your local law and your own risk assessment. If you do, keep spaces private and approved, collect as little as possible, set a deliberate messaging policy, and get consent from parents or guardians.
Do I need BuddyNext?
Not to sell a course or run a calendar. BuddyNext adds profiles, squad spaces, messages and the feed. Learnomy’s tie-in that lets completions and certificates appear in the feed, and Eventonomy’s feed surfacing, both need BuddyNext Pro.