Roles and permissions
What each role can do, how multiple roles work, and how roles are granted.
A MatComp account holds a list of roles rather than a single one. Someone can be a parent with two children at an academy, a coach at that same academy, and an event organiser — all from one login.
The six roles
Parent
Manage profiles for children under 18 and register them with an academy.
Child profiles have no login of their own. They are managed entirely from the parent's account, which is deliberate — MatComp never collects credentials from a minor.
A parent also joins academies in their own right, and that membership is approved by the academy owner. Being approved at an academy is what lets you add your children there.
Athlete
Compete under your own account. Intended for athletes aged 18 and over.
If you are under 18, ask a parent to add you from their account instead.
Coach
Work at an academy, run its class timetable, and follow your athletes into competition.
A coach can belong to more than one academy. Each membership is approved separately by that academy's owner.
Academy owner
Run an academy: approve the coaches, athletes and parents who ask to join, approve the children parents add, set the class timetable, and manage the academy's details.
Event organiser
Publish competitions, build the division presets they run on, draw them and record results. Events are always published under a verified organiser company, never under a personal account.
An organiser may run events independently, or under a federation — the latter requires that federation's approval first.
Federation owner
Run a sanctioning body. A federation does two things nothing else on the platform can:
- It decides which event organisers may publish events under its banner.
- It requires membership to enter those events, and may charge for it.
A federation may also define its own belt ladder, which replaces the platform's default for its own events — federations that grade differently need their divisions to mean what they say.
Global roles versus academy membership
There are two separate ideas, and keeping them apart is what makes multiple roles work:
- Roles are global capability flags on your account. They decide what you can reach.
- Academy memberships are scoped relationships. They record that you are an approved coach, athlete or parent at a specific academy.
The clearest illustration is a child under 18. They have an academy membership — the club has approved them, and they appear in its member list — but no account and therefore no role at all. Membership and capability really are separate things.
How roles are granted
No role can be self-assigned. Each one has a gate:
| Role | Granted by |
|---|---|
| Parent | Automatic on signup |
| Athlete | The academy owner approving your join request |
| Coach | The academy owner approving your join request |
| Academy owner | An administrator approving your verification application |
| Event organiser | An administrator approving your verification application |
| Federation owner | An administrator approving your verification application |
The Parent row is the one worth reading twice: the role arrives automatically at signup, but a parent's membership at an academy still has to be approved by that academy's owner.
Adding a role later
You are not restricted to the role you chose at signup:
- To join an academy as a parent, coach or athlete, open the academy and request to join — or, for a parent, use Join an academy on your profile.
- To register an academy, become an organiser, or start a federation, begin a verification application from your profile.
Approval grants the new role and leaves your existing ones untouched.
Federation membership is not a role
Belonging to a federation is a membership, exactly as belonging to an academy is — not a role. It records that a particular athlete is on that federation's books, carries a membership number and an expiry, and is what the platform checks when they try to enter one of that federation's events.
Joining is self-serve: nobody approves it. What a paid federation withholds is not permission but activation — the membership exists immediately and starts working once the federation records the payment.