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Practice planning

Prepare the session with your own exercises, check who is available by position and publish the plan in the event: the team reads it only when you decide.

Version 2.2.0 availability
  • Web app available now at www.volleycontrolcenter.app.
  • iPhone and Android version 2.2.0 submitted to the stores and awaiting approval: the features appear once the app is updated.

Some new labels may still appear in Italian in the app while translations are completed: the Italian name is shown in brackets the first time.

Where it is and who uses it

Session planning is a Coach tool. Two entry points lead to the same session:

The coach who created the session writes and publishes it. Other coaches, staff and athletes of the team only read the published version. The library is personal and isn't shared with other coaches.

If you open an event and see a message saying the session belongs to another coach, you can read its published plan but not edit it.

Your first session, step by step

  1. Create the practice in the calendar (see Events and schedule), open it and tap Prepare the exercises. Alternatively start from More → Practices → Sessions: you can begin without an event and link it later.
  2. In the Session area (Seduta) check the event and date, choose the season phase and write the session goal.
  3. Move to the Exercises area (Esercizi) and add the first exercise: title, description, focus, duration and participants. Drawing and equipment are optional.
  4. Repeat for the other exercises, or copy the ones you already saved in My exercises. Check the order and the total time.
  5. Open the Sharing area (Condivisione), look at the preview and publish the plan. From then on, team staff and athletes find it in the event.

Until you publish, everything you write is a draft visible only to you. On the web app the draft is saved automatically; in the iPhone and Android apps use Save when the button is shown. Before switching to another device, check that the draft shows as saved and synced. A session that already has exercises opens on Exercises; an empty one opens on Session. Switching areas doesn't lose what you typed.

  1. 1 · SessionEvent, phase, goal, physical work before/after, equipment to prepare.
  2. 2 · ExercisesOrdered sequence with title, focus, duration, participants, optional drawing and equipment.
  3. 3 · SharingSession check, team preview and publishing.

Illustrative diagram of the three areas, not a screenshot of the app.

Session area: event, phase, physical work and equipment

Linking to the event

A session can stay a draft without an event. To publish it, it must be linked to a practice event of the same team. Each event has at most one plan. If you link the session to a different event, publish again for the plan to appear in the new event.

If the event is deleted or changes type (for example from practice to match), the session isn't deleted: it stays among your sessions, unlinked, and you can link it to another practice.

Season phase

Choose competitive, pre-competitive, transition or custom, with a name of your choice. The phase is context: it doesn't change durations, intensity or loads on its own.

Physical work before and after court time

In the collapsible physical preparation section you can add blocks before and/or after the court work, with duration, participants and notes. If needed, link an existing weight training plan.

Linking a weight training plan doesn't change the athlete's sets, loads or logs. The shared plan can say, for example, "Individual weights before the session"; the plan details stay visible only to people who already have permission to see them.

Equipment to prepare

Also in the Session area you'll find the private equipment list, split into two groups:

Each item has quantity, note and a ready checkmark. A quantity of zero is valid; if the quantity is missing, the item stays "to be defined". When two stations run at the same time, the list considers the simultaneous need; the final quantity stays editable, because the app doesn't know your club's storage. The list is for the coach only and doesn't appear in the shared plan.

Available players and planned absences

While you plan, a compact bar shows available players grouped by position: setters, outside hitters, middle blockers, opposites, liberos, universals and "position to be defined". Tap it for details; it stays reachable while you choose exercises or draw.

It's based on the active roster and considers the event date, planned absences and any attendance, late arrivals or absences already recorded for that event.

What you seeWhat it means
Expected availableNo known absence. It is not a confirmed attendance.
Planned absenceThe reported absence includes the session date (first and last day included).
LateA late arrival was recorded: consider it for the first exercises.
To checkTwo pieces of information conflict, for example an attendance and a planned absence. The app doesn't choose for you.

The count of planned absences relevant to the session opens to show the names. Absence reasons aren't shown here and never enter the plan or the PDF.

Availability is for planning: it doesn't write attendance or change the register. Attendance is still recorded from Attendance or the event detail. If absences change while you work, the app tells you but doesn't delete your choices: review the participants yourself.

Exercises area: building the sequence

Exercises appear in chronological order. Each exercise editor is split into Description, Participants, Drawings and Equipment (Descrizione, Partecipanti, Disegni, Materiale); use Done (Fine) to confirm the exercise and go back to the session.

Exercise editor on iPhone with Description, Participants, Drawings and Equipment sections, focus, duration and description, in Italian
Screenshots with sample data (Italian interface)
2D drawing of an exercise on iPhone with a libero, a dashed arrow and ball machine symbols
Screenshots with sample data (Italian interface)

For each one you fill in:

FieldHow to use it
TitleShort and recognisable, e.g. "Three-player reception in zones 1-6". It also helps you find it in the library.
DescriptionOrganisation and execution. Paragraphs are kept and read well on a phone.
FocusWhat you want to work on, e.g. "platform angled towards zone 2". In the published plan it appears with the Focus label.
DurationMinutes and seconds. If you leave it empty, the exercise is to be defined and the session total is shown as partial.
ParticipantsAll available players (default), one or more positions, or individual athletes, including those without an account.
Drawing and equipmentOptional: see the next sections.

The sequence can also include breaks and station work. For simultaneous stations, time counts as the group that finishes last, not the sum of the groups. If the total exceeds the event's available time, the overrun is flagged. If the same athlete is assigned to two simultaneous activities, the app highlights it without blocking you.

Think in blocks: activation, technical work, game situations, wrap-up. It's just a useful habit: the app doesn't impose a method.

Optional 2D and 3D drawings

An exercise can have one or more static frames, for example "starting position" and "development". For each frame choose the background (full court, half court or board) and the view with the 2D / 3D switch: from above, in perspective or both. They are two views of the same drawing: switching doesn't move anything. There are no animations. At the top you see how many objects you've used against the drawing limit (for example 5/150).

Tools open from the bottom panel:

Adding the ball machine symbol to the drawing does not add the machine to the equipment. If you actually need it in the gym, add it to the exercise's equipment.

Equipment and ball machine

  1. Open the exercise and go to its equipment.
  2. Choose the type, for example balls, carts, boxes or Ball machine.
  3. Set quantity and an optional note ("2 full carts at the net").

Equipment is always optional: a new session and a new exercise start with no equipment and no ball machine. Copying the exercise or saving it to the library keeps its equipment. It then appears in the From exercises group of the Session area list.

My exercises: your personal library

In More → Practices → My exercises you keep the exercises you reuse: title, description, focus, duration, drawings and equipment.

Sharing area: preview and publishing

Before publishing, the Sharing area shows what still needs checking: timing, incomplete exercises, participants no longer available. The preview uses exactly the data the team will see.

  1. Check the session is linked to the right event.
  2. Open the preview and check order, focus, drawings and participants.
  3. Publish. A connection is required: without network, publishing doesn't start and the draft isn't presented as shared.

After publishing you see the version number and date. If you edit the session, the changes stay in draft: the team keeps reading the last published version until you publish the update.

Publishing doesn't send a dedicated push notification. If you changed the plan at the last minute, let the team know through your usual channel.

If you edit the same session from two devices, the app doesn't silently overwrite the most recent work: it asks which version to keep. If the app closes before saving, changes not yet sent can be recovered only on that device, for the same account and team: they aren't on the server yet and other devices don't see them.

What athletes and staff see

Team staff and athletes find the published plan in the event detail, read-only: goal, phase, any physical blocks, sequence with durations, description with focus, participants and drawings, which they can enlarge. They can download the PDF of the published version. Athletes also see Today's practice (Allenamento di oggi) on the Dashboard, with the See the exercises button (Vedi gli esercizi).

Shared with the teamNever shared
Published version, drawings, focus, participants, PDFDrafts and unpublished changes, personal library, private equipment list, absences and their reasons, private notes

Choosing an exercise's participants says who does it, not who can read it: the published plan can be read by team members who have access to the event. Supporters don't see it. If an event has no published plan, the section doesn't appear.

A PDF that has already been downloaded stays on that person's device: publishing a new version doesn't update it.

Frequent questions and issues

I can't see the Prepare the exercises button

Check that the event type is Practice, that you are a coach of the team and that the app is on version 2.2.0 (it's already available on the web app).

Athletes say they can't see the plan

Make sure you published (not just saved the draft) and that the session is linked to the right event. If you edited after publishing, publish the update.

The session total says "partial"

At least one exercise has no duration: fill it in or knowingly leave it to be defined.

The ball machine appears in the equipment list but I don't need it

It was chosen in an exercise's equipment: open that exercise and remove it. The symbol in the drawing can stay.

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