Match day

1. Open the scorer

Open Freeball Scorer from the tablet's home screen. A paired tablet goes straight to its match list. A tablet that has never been paired asks to be paired first; see Devices and pairing.

Do this once on wifi before you leave, even if the gym has no signal. The tablet needs wifi exactly once, to pull the day's matches, the rosters and the rule sets. After that it is on its own.

2. Pick the match

The match list is grouped Today, Upcoming and In progress, and it shows everything this tablet has been given, online or not. With wifi, the tablet pulls the matches and rosters again by itself each time this list opens, and Refresh does the same on demand; neither ever drops a match you created on the tablet or loses scoring.

If a match is not there, you can make one on the tablet with the New match form on that screen: team, opponent, date, rule set and the four tracking toggles. The toggles start the way your last match had them. It is created on the tablet and uploaded when the tablet is next online, with the same visibility as your last match.

JV and Varsity on the same night are two matches on the same tablet. Ending one and opening the next needs no wifi, and each uploads on its own.

3. Set setup

Before every set the tablet asks for four things.

• Serving team for this set.
• The starting lineup: your six by position, 1 through 6. Position 1 is right back and serves; 2, 3 and 4 are the front row; 5 and 6 are the rest of the back row.
• Liberos, up to the number the rule set allows.
• The setters, which is what makes the rotation number mean something.

For set 1 the screen prefills from the team's last match, and says so: "Prefilled from the last match; change what is different". Every control stays editable. Set 2 onward carries the previous set's lineup forward, rotated back to the starting rotation. If the opponent's touches are being tracked, their lineup by jersey is asked for here too.

Setters and the 5-1, 6-2 and 4-2 presets

There is one Setter select and one Second setter (6-2) select, with a row of preset buttons above them. The preset that matches what you have picked is highlighted.

• 5-1: one setter for all six rotations. It clears the second setter.
• 6-2: two setters, each setting in the rotations where she is in the back row.
• 4-2: two setters, each setting in the rotations where she is in the front row, which is exactly the other half of the 6-2 when the two are opposite each other.

Choosing a second setter opens six rotation buttons, one per rotation, each toggling between the two setters, so an unusual arrangement can be typed in by hand. Both two-setter presets need a second setter chosen first; the screen says so rather than guessing.

Why it matters: the rotation number Freeball reports is anchored on the first setter's position, and the setter for the current rotation is who gets the assist on a kill when nobody tapped Set. The court marks that player with (S). If you got it wrong, Fix then Setters during the set changes the assignment without restarting the set.

4. Scoring the set

The fast path is two taps: tap the player, then tap what she did. The rest, the score, the serve, the rotation, the substitution count, the box score, follows on its own.

The scorer explains its own buttons. Tap the ? on the toolbar, or More then Help: how to score, and you get the whole action grid, the team switch on the scoreboard, blocks and assists, substitutions, liberos, timeouts, undo and the Fix menu, described button by button on the screen where you need it. That help is the reference; this page does not repeat it.

Last recorded, the line just above Undo, shows what the scorer recorded last and which side it was for. It is exactly what Undo would take back, so a scorer can see that a tap landed, and what is about to be undone, without opening anything.

Liberos and Sub are different buttons. A libero coming on for a back row player is the Libero button; its three choices are the back row in the order they sit on the court, 5, 6 and 1. If you reach for Sub with a libero instead, the confirm box says so in red before anything is recorded: a substitution spends one of your allowance, puts her in the lineup as an ordinary player for the rest of the set, and stops the app warning you when she has to come out.

Three things worth knowing before the first serve:

• Undo is always available and can be repeated to go back further. Nothing is ever deleted: the score and the stats are worked out again without the thing you took back.
• Warnings never block you. Going past the substitution or timeout allowance, or a lineup that does not match, records a warning and carries on. The referee decides what is legal; the app records what happened.
• Match view, on the scoreboard when the tablet is online, opens the coach's match page in another tab, which is useful on a timeout. Scoring is untouched when you come back.

With Grade serves on, when we are about to serve three extra buttons appear under the grid: Serve 1, Serve 2 and Serve 3 for the known server. Tap one to grade how badly the opponent handled it, 1 being a perfect pass by them and 3 being out of system. Ace and Serve err work the same as always and carry no grade.

Attack err, Ball handling, Dig err, Other fault and Kill open a short strip under the context bar with a few extra buttons, so the detail costs one tap and never a trip through a menu. Attack err offers Spike / Tip / Dump / Down ball; Ball handling offers Double contact / Set error / 2nd ball / 3rd ball / Whose ball?; Dig err offers Dig / Free ball; Other fault offers Under / Over the net / Foot fault; and Kill offers Setter assist / Other assist / Tip / Dump / Down ball. Net and Rotation open nothing, because those buttons already say which fault it was. Tapping one is optional: the point is recorded either way.

With Track attack detail on, a Kill, Attack err or Hit in play opens a box over the buttons with two rows: Hard / Tip / Roll / Back row / No specific on top, L / M / R / Back below. Tap one of each, or nothing at all. No specific is for a swing with no particular type: the kill is recorded with nothing added to it.

Every one of these boxes stays up until you tap Done, or tap the screen outside it. None of them times out, and nothing is lost while one is open, because the point is already recorded. Tapping a button that is already lit clears it, and one Undo still takes back the whole point, detail and all.

The buttons on each player. The big grid holds the twelve buttons that end a rally. Everything that keeps a rally going sits on the players instead: every player on the court carries six small buttons, three above her and three below, and so does every jersey on the other side. Above are the pass grades P1 P2 P3, worst to best, which read R1 R2 R3 while the other team is serving because that ball is a serve receive. Below are D for a dig, HIP for a hit still in play and S for a set. They record the same things the big grid does, charged to that player, in one tap and with no need to select her first. They dim for a team whose touches the match does not track, and tapping a player then a button on the grid still works exactly as it always has.

The other team. Tap the other team's score at the top of the screen (their side fills in dark) and the twelve buttons do not move, they just mean their kill, their serve error, their net fault and the rest. What changes is the panel above. With Track opponent touches on, and their starting six entered, their side looks like ours: their six on court with the same six buttons each, a bench, and subs through the same Sub button. With it off, their side is simply a grid of their numbers, because without a lineup there is no rotation to follow and nothing in a rally to record for them.

Tap + in their numbers to add one you do not have yet, on a small keypad; it is kept for the rest of the match, so their roster can be built as you learn it. Tapping one of their numbers is always optional: tap a jersey and the next thing you record is charged to her, or tap nothing and the point is recorded without naming anybody.

Classic capture layout

The tablet has two capture layouts and each device picks its own. Switch with More then Capture layout during a match, or with the Layout button on the match list before one. The change is instant, it never leaves the match, and both layouts record exactly the same things, so a match can be scored half in one and half in the other and the box score cannot tell.

Freeball is the default: the court, the bench and the action grid described above. Classic is a four-column capture screen that will be familiar to SoloStats 123 users: the whole roster down the left as numbered buttons, and IN-RALLY, EARNED, ERRORS and FAULTS across the right.

• Three taps to a point: tap the player, tap what happened, then ENTER. The box above the buttons shows PLAYER, ACTION and POINT before you commit, so you can see what you are about to record.
• Or two taps: tapping the same action a second time commits it, so a fast scorer never reaches for ENTER.
• CLEAR empties the pending box. Tapping a different player, or a different action, simply replaces the one waiting.
• THEIR PLAYER puts the next event on the other team: their earned buttons are their point, their errors and faults are ours. Tap it again to come back.
• SERVER #N is a reminder, not a control. Freeball works the server out of the lineup, so there is nothing to enter; tapping it opens Fix, for the score or the rotation.

Everything that is not capture is shared and has not moved: subs, libero, timeouts, Fix, More, Undo and the ? help are the same bottom toolbar in both layouts, and the scoreboard, the serving dot and the rotation number sit above both. The scorer's own help sheet has a Classic layout section as well.

Voice calls (experimental)

More, then Voice calls (experimental), then On turns on hands-free calling for this tablet. The first time, it downloads a small voice model over wifi, about 40 MB; after that it needs no connection at all, same as everything else here. A Talk button appears at the right end of the bottom toolbar, next to the question mark, once it is ready.

Hold the button, say what happened, then let go, one call per press. (With Click to talk, below, you click once instead of holding.) Every call has the same shape: [their] ACTION [NUMBER] [DETAIL words]. Say their first for their point, then what happened, then a jersey number if there is one (a whole number like "twelve" or two digits like "one two"), then any detail words, in any order. Only numbers on tonight's rosters are recorded.

Records	Say any of
Points for us
Kill	kill, spike, tool
Ace	ace
Block	block, stuff
Our errors
Attack error	attack error, hitting error, out
Serve error	serve error, service error, missed serve
Receive error	receive error, shank
Ball handling	ball handling, double
Block error	block error
Dig error	dig error
Faults
Net	net
Rotation	rotation, out of rotation
Other fault	fault
Touches, only while this match tracks them
Pass 1 / Pass 2 / Pass 3	pass one, pass two, pass three
Dig	dig
Set	set
Hit in play	hit, hit in play
Serve grades, only while grading serves and this team is about to serve
Serve 1 / Serve 2 / Serve 3	serve one, serve two, serve three
Undo
Undo	undo
Their
Any of the above, charged to the other team	their, said first: "their kill twelve"

Detail words are optional and come after the action and the number, in any order: say as many or as few as you like. Anything you do not say stays blank, and Fix can add it later.

• After a Kill: hard, tip, roll, back row (the swing); dump, down ball (also the swing); setter or setter assist, other assist or no assist (who gets the assist); left, middle, right or back (where she hit from). "Kill twelve tip setter" records a kill for 12, a tip, with the setter's assist.
• After an Attack error: spike, tip, dump, down ball.
• After a Ball handling, Dig error or a Fault: double contact, set error, second ball, third ball, whose ball (ball handling); dig, free ball (dig error); under or centerline, over the net or over, foot fault or foot (a fault).

Two quick rising beeps means it was heard and recorded, with what it heard shown in the context bar for a few seconds. One low buzz means say it again; try the same call once more, plainer and a touch slower.

Voice log, in More while voice calls are on, lists everything the tablet heard this match, most recent first: the time, the words it understood, whether it recorded a stat or asked you to repeat yourself, and how long you held the button. Use it after a match if a stat looks wrong, to see what the tablet actually heard. Clear this match's log at the bottom erases only that list on this tablet; it never changes a score or a stat.

While Talk is listening, a dark Listening box sits over the buttons with the shape of a call, the words this match accepts, and what the tablet is hearing as you speak. It never blocks a tap, and it goes away when the call ends. Once you know the words, turn it off under Call guide while listening in the voice test.

A Bluetooth clicker, a page-turner for sheet music or a presentation remote, can stand in for the button, so a coach never has to look down at the tablet at all. It is extra, not a replacement: every voice call is the same event a tap would have recorded, and every button still works by hand.

Hold to talk or Click to talk

Some clickers, most presentation remotes among them, only tell the tablet about a click and never about a held button. The sign is Talk flashing for an instant when you let go, followed by "Say again". For those, switch to Click to talk: click once, say the call, and it stops by itself about a second after your last word. Click again to stop sooner. If nothing is said it gives up after five seconds, and no call runs longer than nine. The setting covers the Talk button and the clicker alike, and it is remembered on this tablet.

Test voice and clicker

More, then Test voice and clicker (shown while voice calls are on) opens Voice test. Nothing you do there changes the match.

• Microphone: a bar that moves as you talk, with a mark at the loudest recent moment and a line underneath saying whether the level is quiet, good or very loud. It also names the microphone in use, which matters with a headset, and says whether this tablet has been allowed to use the microphone. If the microphone is blocked or missing, the reason is shown in red with a Try again button to press once you have allowed it.
• Clicker: press the clicker button, hold it for a full second, and let go. The line shows which key it sent and for how long, and tells you whether the clicker reports holds or needs Click to talk.
• Talk button and clicker: Hold to talk or Click to talk.
• Call guide while listening: On or Off.
• Try a call: a Talk button, and the clicker, that show what the tablet heard and what that would record, without recording anything.

5. Between sets

When a set reaches its target with the required lead, the tablet shows the result and an End set button. Pressing it opens set setup for the next set.

Above the lineup on that screen sits the set summary card for the set just played: a few sentences about what happened and two or three suggestions for the next set, written by AI from that set's stats. It arrives collapsed, as "Set N summary is ready"; tap it to read it.

• If it is still being written the card says so and keeps checking for about two minutes.
• If there is none, or the last attempt failed, there is a Write set N summary button.
• Offline it says summaries need a connection, and nothing else. Setting up the next set never waits on it.

What is sent is jersey numbers and stats. No names, no notes, and the opponent is never named.

6. Ending the match

When one team has won the number of sets the rule set requires, ending that last set ends the match instead of opening another setup screen. The match's status becomes completed, and the result and the set scores appear on the match page and in the match list.

Then go back to the match list for the next match of the night, or just leave the app. Nothing needs to be saved: every tap was written down as it happened.

7. Syncing and offline

The tablet saves every tap on the tablet itself, so a reload, a crash or a flat battery resumes exactly where it left off. Uploading is separate and happens whenever the tablet has a connection.

The line near the scoreboard tells you where you stand: online or offline, how many taps are still queued, and when the last upload was. A gym with no signal at all is a normal night; the queue simply grows and empties on the bus.

Re-pair needed means the device was revoked on the Devices page. Re-pairing from the Matches screen keeps everything already on the tablet, including anything not yet uploaded.

8. What the coach sees afterwards

Open the match from Matches. Going down the page:

• Match details, the rule set snapshot the match was played under, and the opponent players card.
• Match roster: starters, liberos and bench, and a Setters list saying who set which rotations in each set.
• Box score: the set scores, then the full per-player line for the match. Every abbreviation is defined in Stat definitions.
• Rotation (us): side-out and point-scoring, made and attempted, for each of rotations 1 to 6.
• Sets: the same box score per set, each headed with that set's first-ball side-out.
• Score progression: a chart per set of both scores rally by rally, with that set's runs of three or more points listed underneath.
• Rally log: every rally with its score, server, winner, reason and the player it is charged to, plus the longest serve run per set. Each rally expands into the play-by-play behind it.
• Set summaries: the AI summaries, with Generate or Regenerate for a coach on any completed set.
• At the bottom, Download box score CSV, MaxPreps export, Hudl export and Print.

If something was recorded against the wrong player, expand the rally in the rally log and use Edit or Remove. See corrections.

A banner above the box score warns when something unusual was recorded during the match. It does not mean the numbers are wrong; the rally log is where to look.

9. What the fans see

While the tablet is scoring and online, a public or unlisted match has a live page on Freeball Live. It shows the score and set count, a court diagram with who is on court, the last rally, a running play-by-play, the set scores and a box score, and it updates as the bench scores. How current it is depends on the tablet's signal: with no wifi in the gym, nothing reaches the live page until the tablet is back online.

Fans do not sign in and do not install anything to read it. Installing Freeball Live to a phone's home screen adds one thing: a notification when a followed match starts. See Live.