A Club development plan is an excellent tool which can give a real strategic focus to your club.  This will help you to successfully work towards your club's short and longer term goals.

Developing a plan should be seen as an exciting and engaging process that really helps to give everyone at the club clear ideas of where things are going. An effective club development plan will be developed in consultation with lots of volunteers and participants and regulary reviewed to ensure that things are on track or aspects need adapting.

Our tips below will help you create and use the perfect club development plan for your club. Watch our video with Eagle Canoe Club, as they discuss the benefits their club has experienced from having a clear development plan.

Steps to create a club development plan

  • Think about who should be involved
  • Consider where your club is at now
  • Where do you want your club to be in the future?
  • What are your aims and objectives?
  • What content needs to be in your plan?
  • Use and review your plan regularly

The video opens with the Club Matters logo shown in the centre of a white screen, with the National Lottery and Sport England logos underneath it. Upbeat music plays and continues in the background throughout the video. 
The video switches to a scene of a gymnastics centre with various mats, an exercise ball, and apparatus on display. One child is tumbling across mats, one is stretching with her feet on the exercise ball and a coach is spotting the landing of another child. The screen changes to show a male coach assisting a boy with his positioning in the air as he tumbles. 
The screen focuses on a man standing in front of gymnastic equipment. In the background a group of children and another coach can be seen. There is a caption to the right of the screen introducing him as ‘Rob, Revolution Gymnastics’. As he starts talking, subtitles come up onscreen. Subtitles are used throughout the video to display all narration as text. 
Rob: My name is Rob Owen and we’re at Revolution Gymnastics in Birmingham. 
The screen changes to show another angle of the gymnastic centre, where a boy is tumbling, and two girls are talking to one another. A male coach is overseeing the session. The screen changes to show a girl swinging on a bar being helped by a female coach. 
Rob’s voiceover: In terms of being part of Revolution, you can be any age from walking ability up into your 70’s but the most popular age group, I would say is around 5-11 years. 
The screen shows several girls doing the splits on blue mats and a coach overseeing them. In the background, two trampolines can be seen. The screen switches to show a girl on the uneven bars jumping from one bar to swing on the other. Several other young girls look on and a coach is supervising. Other gymnasts and coaches can be seen in the background. 
Onscreen a caption appears on the right-hand side with the text ‘Revolution Gymnastics currently has over 1000 registered members’. The camera pans around the gymnastics centre showing a variety of sessions in progress including bar work and tumbling. 
Rob’s voiceover: For a lot of the participation kids, there’s lots of local competitions within the West Midlands that they can take part in. Specifically the tumbling, they compete nationally, and sometimes internationally, so it’s a big, broad spectrum of competitions that we offer. 
The screen changes to show a girl tumbling down a red track. On the side of the track, a coach supervises several children who are doing floor exercises with their toes pointed forward in the air and arms stretched. The screen changes to show a boy tumbling, with some other gymnasts in the background. The girl tumbling on the red track is then shown again as she finishes her routine, landing on a blue mat. 
The screen changes to show the back of a female gymnast. A wide spectrum of gymnastic equipment can be seen. The screen changes to show her face and then her putting chalk onto her hands. The screen cuts to the same gymnast, now wearing a navy t-shirt with GBR on the front right-hand side. A caption on the left of the screen displays her name as ‘Amy’ as she talks.    
Amy’s voiceover: I started my gym sessions when I was about 4 years old. My main event is tumbling, and I chose it because I’m a powerful gymnast and I have a lot of energy. Tumbling has actually made me feel more confident so if I have a stressful day at school and I come to the gym after school I feel 10 times more relaxed. 
The screen changes to show Amy tumbling down a black mat, while Rob watches on. Other, younger gymnasts can be seen training to the side of the screen. The screen changes to show Amy talking with Rob and another male coach. The screen focuses in on the other coach and shows him laughing. The camera then pans around the gymnastics centre showing a variety of equipment including mats and foam pits under the bars. On the screen, a caption appears on the right-hand side with the text ‘Revolution Gymnastics is 30,000sq/ft’
Rob’s voiceover: A high about being a part of Revolution, aside from competitive results? I’d say, most recently in Christmas and January time, when we took the big move from our old facility to our new facility. It was the sheer amount of people that were here to lend a hand. 
The screen shows the top half of a girl standing with her arms raised, she then leans backwards. The camera pans back to show her on a beam doing a back walkover. The screen changes to show a number of black obstacle blocks outlined in fluorescent yellow. A male gymnast somersaults from one obstacle to the other. He is then shown running up the sloped wall of a block and flipping backwards. The screen then shows the back of him walking away from the equipment towards the main gymnastic centre area. The screen cuts to show another female gymnast tumbling.  
Rob’s voiceover: The community has developed over the years, I think mostly because we’re more like a family. The kids often become very good friends with each other, and it’s just a really nice environment that people like to be a part of and help out with.
Rob is shown onscreen talking to the camera. In the background, some gymnasts and a coach can be seen. The screen changes to show Rob assisting a boy with his positioning in the air as he tumbles, as another boy walks across the screen, before a younger girl is shown with a female coach helping her as she tumbles backwards along a low beam. The screen changes to show a girl tumbling on the high beam watched by a coach. Other young gymnasts are seen around the beam area.
Amy’s voiceover: I would love to achieve going to the World Championships again. But, for now, inspiring and encouraging our younger tumblers to keep going and pushing through. 
The video cuts to show Amy talking to the camera. Behind her, the foam pits and uneven bars can be seen. The screen then shows a female gymnast tumbling down a blue mat, watched by Rob. Several other gymnasts can be seen waiting their turn at the start of the mat. The screen changes to show another gymnast tumbling down a red mat, watched by Rob, with several younger children sitting and stretching by the side of the mat. The screen then shows a female gymnast tumbling on the blue mats and landing, before the video returns to show Rob talking to the camera. 
Rob’s voiceover: It’s quite difficult to envision what the future looks like for Revolution.  If I had to hazard a guess and a prediction, I’d like to say within 10 years we’ll have doubled our participation numbers at the club, we’ll continue to increase our standards at competition level, and just make a larger impact on Birmingham as a whole.
The screen shows a gymnast tumbling down a red mat to land on a large blue mat, with younger gymnasts seated and stretching alongside. The screen changes to show a female coach assisting a girl swinging on the bars. The screen then cuts to show a male gymnast somersaulting off of a black obstacle block.   
The video closes with the Club Matters logo shown in the centre of a white screen. Underneath it, the text ‘Search Club Matters for more information.’ is displayed. The Sport England logo is displayed in the top left hand of the screen. The video ends.



While you may already have some ideas about creating your own club's development plan, our step by step club development plan guide and template will help you structure this. Our club improvement tool is also a great way to create a structured plan, based on how your club is currently performing and where you would like it to be in the future.

Last modified: Saturday, 25 February 2023, 6:03 PM