For Coaches: Getting started
You coach players at a school, club, academy, or federation and want to see whether Smashpoint fits before you commit your program to it. The first thing to settle is which kind of account you need, because it changes where you start. After that, the steps are the same for everyone.
First, decide: personal account or Organization?
A personal account is all you need if you track alone, or if parents and other trackers send you match data. You add your players, track or log their matches yourself, connect with the parents who score matches courtside, and everything lands on your home stream. You can rank your players in a Group. Nobody else needs to be set up, and there’s nothing to administer. Every new personal account starts with a 7-day trial of all features. When it ends, your account switches to View mode: everything you tracked stays visible and you can still add players and courts, but entering new match or practice results needs Pro.
An Organization is a must if you manage a team, or if more than one person tracks for you. Assistant coaches, players, and parents become Members and their results land under your school, club, or academy, not in anyone’s personal account. That’s also what unlocks ladders (Leapfrog or Accrual), tournament brackets, scheduled practice sessions, side-by-side player comparison, and the Leaders view. The roster, rankings, and history stay with the program from season to season, whoever is coaching. Organizations get a 14-day trial of all features, no credit card required, and every member who tracks gets Pro included.
If you need an Organization, set it up in the web app first (see Create an Organization and start your 14-day trial), then come back here: the steps below work the same inside an Organization, with your Members and Guests in place of basic players.
Steps
Step 1: Add a few players, then track a match
Your players don’t need accounts. Go to Players and add a few of them by name only. Smashpoint calls these basic players. You need at least two players before you can track a match, so start with the two who are playing next.
Then tap New Match, pick the two players, choose a format (best of three sets is the default), and select Live Tracking. Smashpoint has five tracking styles. Start with Games, which only asks for the score as games and sets finish. Track a practice set, or a match you’re watching from the fence. Everything you record is private until you choose to share it.
Step 2: Add the rest of the team and try point-level tracking
Add the rest of your roster under Players. Results build up under each name just as they would for a player with an account. When a player later creates their own account, add their email address to their player entry (or connect with them) and everything you tracked is merged into their account. The same is true inside an Organization: a member added without an email or account gets their full history the moment their account exists.
Track your next match with a point-level style: Points, Serve & Points, Point Outcomes, or Full shot tracking. It takes a couple of taps per point and unlocks the Match Profile, momentum, and pressure stats you’ll want as a coach.
Step 3: Read the results
Open one of the matches you tracked. The saved match has five tabs: Info, Analysis, Patterns, Stats, and History. Analysis and Patterns are where the coaching value is: point endings, wing balance, Aggression Ratio, and Clutch Delta show how the match was won, not just that it was.
Under Insights you’ll find each player’s ELO rating and head-to-head records. A player’s ELO moves with every completed match, whether you logged the score or tracked it live. Tracking adds the story behind the number, including how the player handled the pressure points.
Step 4: Put the team in a Group
Go to Groups and create one for your team or squad. Pick singles or doubles, and set the season’s start and end dates.
Add your players. From now on, any match between two members of the Group is pulled in automatically, and the Group shows a ranking by win/loss and ELO. On a personal account this is your challenge ladder in practice, with no spreadsheet. Inside an Organization, the same Group can be run as a Leapfrog or Accrual ladder.
Step 5: Record the big points on video
When you track with Points or a deeper style, Smashpoint prompts you at set points, match points, and break points to record the next point on video. Hold your phone up, record, then enter the outcome as usual. The clip is attached to that point.
Watch the replays later on your iPhone, iPad, Android device, Apple TV, or in the browser with the web app. Open the match, go to the Replays tab, or tap the replay chip on a point in History. Replays are never shown on public match pages; they’re visible only inside Smashpoint to you and the people you’re connected with.
Step 6: Share a match, and connect with your trackers
Every match has a shareable page. Open a match, tap Share, and send the link to a parent or player. They see the score and stats without needing an account. Sharing is per match and opt-in; nothing is public unless you share it.
Then connect with the parents and trackers who score your players’ matches. When they track a match, the result appears on your home stream automatically and counts toward the player’s Group ranking. On a personal account this is how match data reaches you without anyone else being set up.
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