User guide

Everything you need to score, analyze and share your matches with HandStat.

1. Discover HandStat in two minutes

HandStat supports you at two distinct moments:

• During the match, pitch-side: you log every action (goals, shots, turnovers, saves…) in a few taps, and the score and timer keep themselves up to date.
• After the match, at your own pace: you analyse the statistics, review the actions on video, check the shot map and share the match sheet.

You can also use HandStat to scout an opponent from a video (file or YouTube), tagging their actions at your own pace.

No account is required. Your data stays on your device.

HandStat is available in French, English, German, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian: the app follows your device's language.

2. Preparing a match

On opening the app, choose New match.

The teams

Enter your team's name and the opponent's, or use the team library: on each card, Choose reloads a saved team (yours or an opponent you follow regularly) and Save stores the name, category (U16…), roster and goalkeepers.

If the saved roster has more players than the match (for example 20 for 12 spots), the Match squad window opens: tick the players who are present. The previous match's squad is already ticked, so you just swap one player for another. When you save the team again, players absent from this match stay in the roster (option can be turned off).

The players

For each team, add players by their jersey number (the Add a player button). Tick Goalkeeper to identify the goalkeeper(s): they show up with a distinctive badge.

Player names: tap a number to give it a name (e.g. "9 · Leo"). The name then shows in the tagging grid, the history, the report, the exports and the season stats. It is saved with the match (handy for a team that changes numbers from one game to the next) and with the team in the library.

The video source (optional)

If the video starts before kickoff, enter the offset in seconds: all your actions will be automatically synced to the right moment in the video.

You can also continue without video: the timer is authoritative, and you can attach a video later (for example the match footage retrieved that same evening) — the actions will realign automatically.

When everything's ready: Start the match.

3. Scoring the match live

The match screen shows the score, the timer, and the action buttons for each team.

Recording an action

Tap the action button in the relevant team's column:

Then select the player involved. Depending on the action, a follow-up is asked:

• Goal / Missed shot → the shot court opens: tap the spot the shot was taken from. The zone (Wing, Pivot, Back, Centre…) is detected automatically. For a penalty, use the 🎯 7m throw button.
• Goalkeeper save → specify the type of shot saved (wing, long-range, 6m, 7m), then the goal zone the ball was heading towards.
• Foul → choose the sanction: 🟨 Yellow, ⏱️ 2 min, 🟥 Red, 🟦 Blue.

The score increments automatically on a goal. Every action is timestamped against the timer and the video, if a source is loaded.

Missed shot: save or off target in one step

After a missed shot (player, then shooting zone), a goal view opens: tap inside the goal and the save is recorded automatically for the opposing goalkeeper on net, with the shot type deduced from the zone (wing, long shot, 6 m, 7 m). Tap around it for an off-target shot (over, wide left or right), or choose Post / crossbar or Blocked. ↩ Undo removes the missed shot and the save together. The Save button is still there for those who prefer to log the save separately.

The shot court

This is one of HandStat's strengths: instead of picking a zone from a list, you tap the actual spot the shot was taken from on a drawn half-court. The app records both the zone (for reports) and the precise position (for the shot map). You can also optionally specify the phase of play: fast break or set attack — handy for later filtering the shot map by this criterion.

Two special cases: the From own half button records a shot taken from your own half (a direct throw from the goalkeeper, a very long shot), and the Empty net box means the opponent had pulled their goalkeeper: the goal then doesn't count against the goalkeeper and the goal zone isn't asked.

Goalkeeper stats: goal zone and goalkeeper on net

On a goal conceded, as well as on a save, a second small screen offers to tap the goal zone the ball went to (top/middle/bottom × left/centre/right) — it's optional, a Skip button lets you ignore it. Accumulated in the report, this information reveals the zones where your goalkeeper is most comfortable, and those worth working on.

If a team has several goalkeepers (2 or more), goalkeeper on net chips appear under "Defence / Goalkeeper": indicate who's currently between the posts. Every goal conceded while they're on net is then attributed to them, which allows a true save percentage per goalkeeper to be calculated — not just a mixed total across both. With a single goalkeeper on the roster, this setting doesn't appear: everything is attributed to them automatically.

Making a mistake, correcting it

The ↩ Undo button removes the last recorded action (and corrects the score if it was a goal).

Match moments

• Timeout: records a timeout in the timeline.
• Half-time: marks the end of the first period (reports distinguish half 1 / half 2).
• End of match: closes the game and offers to save it.

Half-time recap

Once half-time is declared (and a video is loaded), a dedicated icon appears in the top bar: it immediately plays, fullscreen and with no settings needed, the goals conceded and turnovers from the first period (up to 4 clips). A quick way to show the squad 2-3 key moments during the break, without going through the Analysis screen.

Custom actions

On top of the 6 fixed actions, add your own (the + Add an action button, below the standard buttons): a name, a colour, and they immediately appear in the team's column. They're included in the history, exports and reports just like the others.

Your custom actions can be exported (share icon, next to the add button) then imported on another device (download icon) — handy for keeping the same setup on your phone and your tablet, without re-entering everything.

They also appear in the per-player detail of the report and the PDF, and stay visible in older matches even if you later remove them from your list.

In case of interruption

HandStat saves your match continuously, quietly, in the background. If the app closes (battery, phone call, accidental gesture), on restart it detects the interrupted match and offers to resume it right where you left off.

Voice tagging (iPhone, iPad and Android)

An amber microphone button, used with a press-and-hold, lets you tag an action by voice without taking your eyes off the game: press and hold the button (it turns red), say a short phrase, then release.

The exact moment of the action is captured as soon as you press, not at the end of the phrase: talking longer doesn't shift the marker.

Voice tagging follows the app's language: it also understands German, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and French (e.g. "goal number 9", "Tor Nummer 9", "mål nummer 9").

4. The match report

During or after the match, the Report button shows, for each team, an automatic summary written in your app's language — a few sentences generated from the match statistics (efficiency, strongest half, standout player, area to work on, discipline) — followed by the detailed figures:

• the team summary: goals / shots and efficiency, turnovers, saves, with the detail per half;
• the detail per player: goals, shots, individual efficiency, turnovers, saves, sanctions;
• if the team has goalkeepers set, a Goalkeepers section: saves, goals conceded, save percentage and the least well-defended goal zone, calculated per goalkeeper when several share the net.

From the report, View as charts opens the visual statistics: shot-efficiency gauges, team comparison, top scorers, and access to the shot map. On each row of the per-player detail, a playlist icon opens that player's highlights directly, without going through the Analysis screen.

Named players appear with their name, and the per-player detail also lists their custom actions (e.g. "2-min suspension ×1").

5. The shot map

Accessible from the visual statistics, the shot map shows the half-court with:

• one dot per shot at its real position: green = goal, red = missed shot;
• each zone's background coloured by efficiency: green where you score a lot from that zone, red where you struggle;
• an efficiency table by zone (Left wing, Pivot, Right wing, Back left, Centre, Back right).

Filter by team then by player to answer concrete questions: where do we score the most from? Where is #7 most dangerous? In which zone is the opponent struggling?

Shot zones in the goal

The Shot zones in the goal button, under "Goalkeeper statistics", shows where each player aims: the goal split into 9 zones, seen from the shooter, with for each one the goals out of shots on target (goals + saved shots) and the success rate. A summary gives their favourite zone and where the goalkeeper stops them most, and off-target shots (over, wide, post) are counted below the goal. Filter by player and by phase of play (fast break, set attack, 7 m throw): perfect for talking about shooting habits with a player.

6. Video analysis

From My matches, open a match in Video analysis mode ("Review, filter, highlights").

Reviewing a specific action

Every action in the timeline is clickable: the video jumps straight to that moment. No more scrubbing around looking for the goal from the 43rd minute.

Voice note on an action

Next to each action in the list, a microphone icon lets you record a short voice comment on that specific action (for example: "poor defensive positioning"). The microphone lights up amber as soon as a note exists; tap it to play it back, replace it or delete it. This is different from a voice note attached to a sequence (see below): this one is about a single, specific action.

Precise keyboard navigation

On desktop (macOS, Windows, Linux), the ← / → arrow keys move the video back or forward by one second. Hold Shift for a faster move (5 s), or Alt/Option to fine-tune down to a tenth of a second — handy for pinpointing the exact moment of a gesture before marking a sequence or an annotation.

Filtering

Filter the list by team, by player or by action type — for example "all missed shots by #9" or "all opponent turnovers".

Highlights

The Play highlights button automatically plays through all the filtered actions, like an instant video montage. Perfect for a team debrief: filter "Goals", play, comment.

Opponent scouting

The same mechanism works to prepare for a match: create a "match" with a future opponent's YouTube video, tag their actions at your own pace, then generate their report, shot map and highlights.

Isolating a play sequence

Unlike actions (a single instant), a sequence has a start and an end: it's used to find a defensive pattern worth remembering, an attacking combination, or any other passage worth reviewing precisely. During playback, use the bookmark button at the top left of the video: a first tap marks the start, a second marks the end and offers a label (Defence, Attack, Transition, or free text), as well as an optional voice note (microphone button) to comment on the sequence out loud rather than in writing. Find all your sequences afterwards in the Sequences tab of the Analysis screen, filterable by label and playable on a loop — a sequence's individual button and the "Play sequences" button both open the same player, with the voice note.

Drawing on the video

The pencil button, next to the bookmark, opens drawing mode: draw an arrow or a freehand line directly on the frame, with your finger on tablet and phone, with the mouse on desktop. Useful for showing a player's movement or annotating a pattern. The drawing stays fixed on screen while the video keeps playing behind it — it doesn't follow a moving player. You can draw on a single paused frame (find it afterwards in the Annotations tab), or while marking a sequence: the strokes are then attached to the sequence and reappear at the exact moment you drew them on every replay, like an animation. A display duration selector (1 s / 2 s / 3 s / 5 s / always), next to the colours, lets each stroke fade out automatically after a delay instead of staying on screen until the end of the clip.

Correcting video sync

The match timer stops on every break in play (timeout, a suspension to be announced…) whereas a continuously-filmed video never stops. HandStat compensates for this drift automatically: every action quietly records the real time it was tagged at, and realigning an associated video afterwards is based on this real time (which advances at a constant rate, like the video) rather than on the timer — so the gap no longer builds up over the course of the match.

If a marker still lands slightly off (a small clock difference between the device and the camera), open Adjust the timestamp on the action in question, tweak the displayed position if needed, then Confirm this video anchor. This point then acts as a reliable anchor: neighbouring actions realign automatically around it. You can set several anchors within the same match (for example one per half). This same manual-marker mechanism also works on an older match, based this time on the timer.

Special case: the camera is switched off at half-time. Automatic realignment assumes the video runs without interruption. If it keeps filming continuously during the break (even a static shot of the empty pitch), everything realigns normally. But if you stop the camera to save battery or storage and then restart it, a real chunk of video is missing: every action in the 2nd half will then be offset as a block, by the exact length of the gap. The fix: confirm a video anchor on the first action resumed after the break (and ideally a second one on the last action before the stop, to bracket the gap on both sides) — the rest of the half will then realign around them.

HandStat-Cam: the HandStat camera box (coming soon)

A HandStat camera box is in development: two wide-angle cameras, mounted about 4 m high at the middle of the court side (the 4 m telescopic stand is supplied), film the whole court. Recording is started and stopped from the HandStat app (Bluetooth).

After the match, on a computer, the camera icon on the setup screen opens HandStat Camera → Retrieve recordings: the app finds the box on the Wi-Fi, downloads the match, then the Process video button automatically produces two videos, with sound and the HandStat logo: one follows the play like a camera operator, the other shows the whole court as a panorama. Attach it to the match with Attach a video: the offset between your statistics and the video is suggested automatically. During analysis, the button at the top right of the video switches between the camera-operator view and the panorama without losing the current moment. Recommended computer: a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later), 16 GB of memory; processing takes from one to several hours, ideally started in the evening.

Pairing. Each box has its own pairing code, printed on the label under the box together with a QR code. The app asks for it only once per device: on phones and tablets, tap Scan the QR code and point at the label; on a computer, type the code. Communication with the box is encrypted (AES-256). From Camera box videos, the menu lets you change the pairing code (for example after losing a phone: other devices will need to enter the new code), reset the camera and, when one is offered, update the camera software. Show pairing code displays the stored code; Forget this camera erases it from this device only (lent device, camera sold on): it will be asked again.

7. Season stats

Accessible from My matches, season stats aggregate the history of every saved match for your team, with two views:

• Player view: a player's cumulative statistics (goals, shots, efficiency, turnovers, saves, sanctions) across every match they were logged in.
• Team view: overall wins/draws/losses record, goals scored and conceded, goal difference — with a filter by opponent (head-to-head) as soon as several distinct opponents appear in your history.

If you follow several teams, a filter at the top of the screen limits the season to one of them. Named players are tracked by name: a player who changes number, or plays for two teams, gets all their stats combined. From a player's view, Shot zones in the goal adds up their shots over the whole season.

8. Saving, finding, exporting

My matches

At the end of a match, it's saved in My matches: the library of all your games. From this list you can reopen a match in match mode (to finish scoring it), open it in video analysis, rename it or delete it.

A match's menu also offers Assign to a team, to file a match recorded before the team library. Older matches whose team name matches are assigned automatically.

Full match export and import

An entire match (actions, sequences, annotations, settings) can be exported as a .json file, shared by any means (messaging, email, cloud storage), then imported on another device via My matches → Import a match — handy for transferring a match between the phone used during the game and the tablet used for analysis, or for keeping an external backup.

The team library can be exported and imported the same way (Export / Import buttons in the team selection window), to get your rosters on another device.

Exports and sharing

• CSV: every timestamped action (minute, team, player, action), to open in Excel/Numbers for your own spreadsheets.
• PDF — Match sheet: a report ready to print or share, with the score, team summary, per-player detail and visual statistics.

Sharing a match with your players (Player Mode, Club licence)

In My matches, a match's menu offers Share with players. The video must first be attached to the match. Enter the club name and, if needed, the video link: an unlisted YouTube link, or a direct link to the file on the club's storage (NAS, home router sharing…). Options: numbers only (player names are hidden) and include your voice notes (off by default). Access lasts until 30 June of the season. The players' consent, and parents' for minors, is requested before sharing.

How the video reaches players. The video is never sent inside the file: only its address is stored there. Put the “players” version of the video (the …_joueurs.mp4 file, about 1.5 GB per match, produced by HandStat-Cam) on the club's storage, then create a share link: from your NAS, internet router or storage service (usually: right-click the video → Share or Create link), then copy the link. The link must point directly to the video file. Paste it into the Video link field of “Share with players”: HandStat stores it inside the .handstat file, together with the actions and the score. Each player therefore receives a single file: when they open it, the app reads the address and starts the video by itself, with nothing to link on their side. An unlisted YouTube link works the same way.

HandStat creates a .handstat file to send by message, email or WhatsApp. The player installs HandStat (free) and taps the file: the match opens directly, read-only, with a “Read only — shared by…” banner. They can replay the video, browse the actions, use the filters, play highlights, view the summary and, with My actions, find all their own actions in one tap (their number is remembered). Nothing can be edited, and the match does not count in your season statistics. On a phone held upright, a dedicated layout shows the video and then the list of actions.

9. Free and Pro

Pro pricing: €3.99/month (single platform), €5.99/month (multi-platform), €15.99/month (club, unlimited use).

In-app payment isn't active yet; in the meantime, all Pro features are offered for free until 31 December 2026.

10. Frequently asked questions

Are my videos copied into the app?

No. HandStat references your video (file or link) and attaches time markers to it. Your files stay wherever you keep them, and the app stays lightweight. If a video is moved or deleted, your statistics stay intact; only the footage stops displaying.

Where does my data go?

It's saved locally on your device. Nothing is sent to a server, nothing is resold. Exports never leave the device unless you choose to share them.

I closed the app in the middle of a match!

Reopen it: it will offer to resume the interrupted match, with the score, timer and every action already logged.

Can I score without video and add the footage later?

Yes, that's a supported workflow: score against the timer during the match, then "Attach a video" that evening — every action realigns automatically (with an offset setting if needed).

YouTube mode doesn't show up on my computer?

On Windows and Linux, YouTube playback isn't available (a technical limitation); File and Live modes work normally. YouTube remains available on Mac, iPad and Android.

A player scored but I tapped the wrong button?

Use ↩ Undo immediately: the last action is removed and the score corrected. Then log the right action.

Voice tagging doesn't work on my computer?

That's expected: this feature is limited to iPhone, iPad and Android.

An action lands slightly off in the video, what do I do?

See section 6: open "Adjust the timestamp" on the action in question and confirm the right video anchor once adjusted.

A player changes number, or plays for two teams?

Give them a name (tap their number on the team card): their season stats are then grouped under that name, whatever the number worn and the team.

How do I know a new version of HandStat is out?

On iPhone, iPad and Android, updates come through the App Store and Google Play. On a computer (Mac, Windows, Linux), HandStat shows a A new version of HandStat is available banner at startup: Download opens the download page, Later hides it for 7 days. The banner never appears during a match.