Built for rosters of minors, from the first line of code
Most training software is built for adults and has consent bolted on afterwards. If your roster is fourteen-year-olds, that difference is yours to answer for. Forge treats an athlete's age as the thing that decides what the platform may do, not as a field on a form.
What that actually means
An under-18 account does not work until a guardian claims it
Not a checkbox the athlete ticks, and not a warning a coach can click past. The athlete signs in to a screen telling them to wait. A parent or legal guardian claims their own linked account, and the moment they do, Forge records what they agreed to and the exact text they were shown.
Three age tiers, with different rules
Under 13, 13 to 17, and adult are separate tiers with separate handling, because the obligations genuinely differ. An under-13 gets the strictest treatment automatically, on their date of birth, with no one having to remember.
Consent is a dated record, not a flag
Every agreement stores the document text as it stood at the moment it was accepted. If a policy changes later, what someone actually agreed to is still retrievable, and they are asked again rather than being silently moved onto new terms. Withdrawal writes its own dated record.
Coaches see their athletes. Nobody else does.
A coach sees their own roster by name, because that is what coaching is. Every platform-wide screen on the operator side shows group numbers with the names removed and a per-report code that maps back to nobody. Small groups are suppressed rather than shown.
Questions an athletic director should ask any vendor
Where does the data physically live?
One provider, in the United States: the database and every uploaded video and document. Payment details go to Stripe and never touch Forge's servers. Our AI features send the text of a request to the model at the moment it is asked and it is not stored there.
What happens to video?
Form-check clips are kept to a per-athlete limit and then aged out. When a video is removed, the measurements taken from it survive, an athlete does not lose their training history because a file was cleaned up.
Can a parent get their child out?
Yes, and in two separate ways, because they are separate questions. Camera collection can be switched off for an athlete at a guardian's request while they keep using everything else. Account deletion is its own action and removes the account outright.
Is this a student record?
Forge receives a name, age, gender, sport and position. No grades, no transcripts, nothing from a student information system. If your district's procurement needs an addendum, send it to us.
Questions athletic directors ask
Short answers, each one a fact about what the software does. The documents behind them are on the site to read before anyone signs.
What does Forge cost a school?
$4 per athlete per month, in roster bands, with no per-coach fee. A school picks its band at signup by typing how many athletes it expects, and can change it any time.
What happens when an athlete under 18 is added to a roster?
The account is created inert. It cannot log a workout, open a program or use the camera until a parent or legal guardian claims a linked account from an email and agrees to the documents on the child's behalf. The coach attests to the guardian relationship when adding the athlete, and the guardian's own claim is what the record shows as the consent.
Does Forge handle school records under FERPA?
No. Forge receives a name, gender, age, sport and position, which is directory information, the category schools already disclose about their athletes. It never receives grades, transcripts, discipline or anything from a student information system. A data-processing addendum a particular district requires can be signed; it is procurement paperwork, not a change to what Forge holds.
Where does our athletes' data live?
On Render, in the United States: the database and every uploaded video and document. Stripe sees payment details and Apple sees sign-in. The AI provider receives the text of a request at the moment a coaching question is asked and stores nothing. No data is sold and none is used for advertising.
Can more than one coach work a team?
Yes. A head coach adds assistant coaches to the staff with an invite code, and can assign coaches to specific teams so an assistant sees only their own athletes. A staff coach with no assignment sees the whole program, which is how most small staffs run.
What does the camera actually measure today?
Bar velocity, range of motion and power for a filmed set, and jump height for a jump. back squat, bench press, pendlay row and box jump have been checked against a bar sensor; every other movement is unvalidated and the app says so wherever a camera number appears. The video itself records and plays back correctly for form review regardless.
Does the camera tell athletes where to stand?
No. An athlete films from any angle and the app measures what it can; nothing after a take tells anyone their angle was wrong. A number that may be off is shown with a notice, never withheld.
How long is video kept?
A team's form-check videos are kept under a per-athlete cap (10 clips, 5 of them favourited) unless the school adds storage. When a clip is purged the measurements taken from it stay; only the file goes.
What happens when an athlete leaves or deletes their account?
Deleting the account removes the account and everything that cascades from it. The one exception is an athlete who opted in to anonymised research and agreed, in that consent, that the de-identified record survives deletion; withdrawing from research first, then deleting, leaves nothing.
Which documents does a school sign?
A primary coach fills in and signs the Service Agreement in the app, or uploads a signed paper copy. Athletes and guardians agree to the Terms of Use, the Assumption of Risk and the Video and Biometric Consent at signup or claim. Every document is on the site to read and download before anyone signs anything.
If you are buying this for the camera tracking, read this first.
Camera records fine, but tracked metrics (velocity, range of motion, power) aren't accurate right now, we're calibrating.
Four movements have been validated against real lifts. We publish the full list, including what has not been tested.