Climbing coach plans without spreadsheets or WhatsApp

Short answer

Put each climber's plan where they train from, and have their training come back to the same place. In Blok Sessions you write the plan in the coach area and it shows up in the climber's app session by session. Change a day and it changes on their phone. They log what they did, and a short check-in before training tells you who has a sore finger, so the group chat goes back to being for lifts and beta. It's free for 5 climbers, then €10 a month or €99 a year for up to 25.

Why it stops working

Most climbing coaches start the same way: a plan in a spreadsheet or a PDF, sent in a chat, and reports back as messages. With three climbers it's fine. Somewhere around ten it starts to fail in predictable ways.

The plan isn't where they train. A climber at the gym opens their training app, not a file you sent three weeks ago. So they ask you what's on, or they guess.
Changes don't reach them. You move Thursday's session in your copy, and theirs still says Thursday.
Nothing comes back by itself. You find out what they did by asking, and the answer is a voice note between twenty other messages.
A sore finger arrives late. It gets mentioned after the session it should have changed.
Your evenings go to admin. Reading chats, updating cells, chasing people who went quiet.

What to move, and what to keep

Move the plan and the reporting. Keep the chat for being a coach: encouragement, beta, the odd voice note. In the coach area that looks like this:

Adding a climber in the coach area: their name, then Add them, then their own page. — Adding a climber by name. Their page is ready before they join. Demo data.

Add each climber by name. You can write their plan before they've joined; it waits for them.
Send each one their own link. They join in the app and agree to what you'll see.
Write the block once. Put it in your library, send it to the climbers it fits, then change each copy where one climber needs something different.
Read their page instead of the chat. Their logged sessions, boulders, tests and Workload, the check-in before each session, and which planned sessions they did.
Change today when you need to. A sore finger in this morning's check-in? Change today's session from their page, and it changes in their app before they warm up.

Making a plan in the coach area: pick the training days, open Monday and add exercises. — Writing a plan: pick the days, open one, add exercises. Demo data.

What it doesn't replace

It isn't a chat, it doesn't take payments from your climbers, and it doesn't write plans for you. If you send a monthly invoice and talk every day on WhatsApp, both of those stay where they are.

Start with the climbers you have

Five climbers are free, with no time limit. Move the ones you coach most closely first, run one block, and see how much of the chat you still need.

Questions

Can I keep using WhatsApp with my climbers?

Yes. Keep it for talking. What moves is the plan and the reporting back, so a voice note about a sore finger isn't the only place you hear about it.

Can I copy my spreadsheet plans in?

There's no spreadsheet import. Write a plan once in your library and send it to every climber it fits, then change each one's copy. A week can be copied to every week of the block, so a four-week block is one week's work.

What if a climber won't use another app?

Then they won't log, and you're back to asking. Most climbers already open an app to train, and the plan in theirs saves them asking you what's on today. Until the Android app is out (it's in review at Google), climbers on Android use the web app at bloksessions.com/app.

Do my climbers pay?

No. They use the free app. On a paid coach plan they also get the guided timer for the plans you send, and their own Workload.

How to stop sending climbing plans in spreadsheets and WhatsApp