Play designer · Sideline caller · Season record
Your playbook, from the whiteboard to the wrist.
ShinyPlaybook is a football play designer built for coaches who actually stand on a sideline. Draw plays on a real field, share the book with your staff, print the numbered wristband, push the call to a watch, run the practice and keep the game log while you keep the score — then find out what your team is genuinely good at.
iPhone · iPad · Android phone & tablet · Apple Watch · Wear OS · English & français
01 — DRAW IT
A real field, not a blank rectangle
The canvas is a football field with yard lines, hash marks and a line of scrimmage sized for the level you actually coach. Everything you draw is stored in field coordinates, so a play looks identical on a phone in a pocket, a tablet on the bench, a printed page and a watch face.
Eight tools, one thumb
Everything the whiteboard does, without the smudge.
- Straight — down & in, down & out, go
- Curve — drag the handle to shape a hook or an option
- Freehand — draw it exactly the way you say it
- Zone — coverage circles, ovals or boxes for the defensive install
- Text — "read 1", "hot", "if Cover 2" right on the field
- Select, add player, erase
Lasso a group to move, recolour or copy it into the next play. Snap puts players on whole yards and the hashes. Flip mirrors the whole play left ↔ right — and swaps Right/Left in its name while it does. Undo and redo walk back every step, so trying something costs nothing.
The notation your team already reads
Offense as circles, defense as crosses, plus squares and triangles when you need them — each token labelled and coloured by you. Every line says what it is — a route, a block, pre-snap motion (drawn as the zigzag your playbook already uses) or the path of the ball — with colour, dash and end cap on top. Number the reads and the badge shows on the token.
Sized for your league
Type how many players a side — anywhere from 1 to 12 — and say whether you play flag or tackle. The field, the personnel and the positions on offer all follow, so a 6v6 league gets a 6v6 book rather than a 7v7 book with a spare. Zoom the downfield distance in yards, or fit the whole play, so a 5-yard flat route and a 40-yard shot both get the space they need.
League moves from 7v7 to 6v6? Change the book's format rather than starting again. The plays keep the players they were drawn with, and the ones that no longer fit are marked in the list for you to fix — nobody is quietly deleted from a play.
Watch it run before they do
Play the routes back in motion, right on the canvas. It is the fastest way to catch two receivers arriving in the same window — and the fastest way to show an eight-year-old what "clear it out" means.
It runs in the order the real snap does: motion first, then the snap, then the ball, thrown so it arrives when the receiver does. Each player moves at their own speed — mark your burner fast and your lineman slow — and timing is measured in real yards, so a deep route takes longer than a flat.
Books, not a pile of drawings
Group plays into playbooks — a base install, a red-zone package, a two-minute sheet — and into your own categories inside each. Filter offense from defense, duplicate a play to make the variant, rename, delete. Everything shows as a thumbnail of the real diagram.
Tag plays the way you think about them — "red zone", "vs blitz", "4th down" — and filter by tag with one tap. Search reads names, categories, notes and tags, and a number finds the play wearing it on the wristband: type 23, get play 23.
Start from a set, not an empty field
Built-in formations for every common count — Spread, Trips, Bunch, Stack, Empty, I-Form, each with its mirrored twin — plus the ones you save yourself. Apply one to a play that already exists and everybody slides over with their routes still attached.
The play library goes further: coached NFL FLAG 5v5 plays with the reasoning written in, and tackle special teams — punt, field goal, kickoff and their return units.
The clip, attached to the play
Record a rep on the phone, pick one from the camera roll, or paste a Hudl or YouTube link — it hangs off the play itself, where you will look for it. Links travel with a shared book; clips stay on the device that filmed them.
The between-series whiteboard
A field with no formation, no players and no book attached — just ink. Draw the adjustment on the sideline in ten seconds, keep it if it was any good, and find it still there next time you open the tab.
For your team: every coach on your staff draws in the same notation, at the same scale, on the same field — so the install you hand your assistants is the install they teach.
02 — GET IT TO THEM
Four ways off the screen
A play only helps if it reaches the player. ShinyPlaybook ships every route out of the app that a youth football sideline actually uses — paper, a picture, a watch and the screen in the room — so you are never dependent on the one your league happens to ban.
Numbered wristbands, and the sheet that reads them
Five documents come out of any playbook. Print them, or save a PDF and email it to the staff.
- Full playbook — every play at readable size, as a coaching handout
- Wristband — the plays numbered and laid out as the forearm sheet, with dashed cut guides
- Coach sheet — number → play, so you can call "23" and mean it
- Call sheet — a box per situation: 1st down, 2nd & long, red zone, two-minute
- Study cards — for a position, or for one player on your roster: their spot ringed on every play they are in
- Any of them in colour for your copy, black & white for the twelve at the library
Keep more than one numbering per book — a shuffled "Band B" at halftime means the numbers the other sideline wrote down in the first quarter are worth nothing.
Text a play — or hand over a copy
Export any play as a clean PNG and send it wherever your team already talks — the group chat, a parent's phone, your coordinator's email. The parent who missed practice gets the diagram in ten seconds, not a description of it.
Coaching together? Invite them to the book itself — see Your staff. Handing a copy to a coach from another team is a file: a whole playbook, or a single play, saved as a .shinyplaybook. They open it from Mail or Files and it lands in their app as their own copy, with nothing shared that you didn't send. Rosters never travel: those are children's names.
The play on a wrist
Native companions for Apple Watch and Wear OS, feature-for-feature the same. The watch carries your whole library and lets a player scroll it between drives — and when you send a call from the phone, that play appears on the watch immediately.
- Send from the play editor, the play list, or the live scoreboard
- Diagrams render on demand and stay cached on the watch
- A watch-face complication shows the last call — on Wear OS today; the Apple Watch one is waiting on portal setup
The install, on the big screen
Full-screen play-by-play for the team meeting: swipe through the book, run the animation, and draw over the top with a pen when somebody asks where they line up. Mirror the tablet to a TV and the room sees what you see.
For your team: the quarterback stops jogging to the sideline to be told. You get the call in front of them while the huddle is still forming — and if your league only allows paper, the same book prints a numbered wristband that says exactly the same thing.
03 — CALL IT
A scoreboard that remembers the game
Game day is one screen, designed to be used standing up, in the cold, between whistles. Nothing you need on a normal snap is hidden behind a menu.
Set up in four taps
Choose the books you are calling from — a base install and a red-zone package can both be live in the same game — then downs per series (three or four), halves or quarters, period length, and whether your league's clock counts up or down.
Down, distance, clock, score
Everything moves with one tap: gain, first down, turnover, score, flip possession, next period. The clock is derived from a timestamp rather than ticked into a field — lock the phone for two minutes and it comes back showing two minutes gone.
The next three, lined up
During a timeout, or while the other side has the ball, pick the next two or three plays from the books in the game. They wait in order on the scoreboard; as the snaps come you send them one at a time, and each one leaves the queue as it goes. What is left is what is still to come — and the queue is saved with the game.
What you called, and where
Every call is logged with the situation it was called in — "Q3 4:12 · 2nd & 7" — the book it came from, and the result you tapped in afterwards. Read it backwards from the last snap while you decide the next one.
The team, typed once
Paste the whole team as a list of names and the roster works out initials for you, keeping them unique. Give each player a jersey number and the positions they play on offense and on defense, and group them into lines — "Offense A", "D line", whatever you actually say. Keep a roster for each team you coach, and it never leaves the device: rosters are children's names.
Who's on the field, and who's owed a series
Take attendance at kickoff, then keep the on-field group on a panel you drag players around. It follows possession, so a turnover doesn't cost you a re-shuffle, and the bench sorts by fewest snaps — the kid who has been standing there longest is at the top.
Send a whole line in with one tap. Every snap records who was on for it.
Call "23" and mean it
The plays carry their wristband numbers on the sheet you pick from, in the toast that confirms the call, and in the text that goes out. Turn on numbers-only texting and the message reads "Jeu 23" — useful when the other sideline can see the phone you're texting.
Log what they showed
After a snap, tap what the other team was in: man, Cover 2, Cover 3, other zone, blitz or prevent when you have the ball; spread, trips, bunch, empty, tight, motion or trick when they do. Plus how many they rushed. All optional — "nobody looked" is a valid answer and the default.
Yards, in one sheet
Yards gained, touchdown, first down, turnover, penalty, incomplete — recorded as taps on a sheet sized for a glove, not typed into a form. Miss one and nothing breaks; every average the app shows you is over the snaps you actually recorded. Tapped the wrong one? Fix it from the play log, or from the game's page in history after the final whistle.
Survives the pocket
The game is written to disk as it happens. The app being killed mid-quarter by a cold phone is treated as the normal case, not the exception — reopen it and the score, the clock and every call are exactly where you left them.
For your team: one person on your sideline keeps the scoreboard, and by doing so accidentally produces a complete, situational record of the game — with no clipboard, no spreadsheet, and nothing to type up on Sunday.
SEE IT — SCREENS
The actual app
Captured on an Android phone, driven by MAUI DevFlow, over a made-up season: three books, a U12 roster, a practice and three games logged. The plays come from the app’s own play library, not drawings made for a screenshot. The call at the top was captured on the iPhone and Apple Watch simulators.
Assistant
A coordinator who has read your playbook
The assistant never invents a play in front of your team. On the sideline it recommends your own plays — the ones your kids have already practised — and tells you why. When it does draw something new, it hands it to you as a suggestion to accept or throw away.
A whole install, from a short form
Answer what it asks about your team — flag or tackle, players on the field, how many seconds the rusher counts, how far your quarterback throws accurately, whether your back is a burner, who needs bracketing, how much man versus zone you want — and it designs a full playbook, offense and defense, drawn on your field in your notation.
What your book can't answer
Point it at a playbook you already have. It reads your actual plays — how deep you ask the quarterback to throw, whether you play man or zone, how many are on the field — so you are not re-answering questions your book already answers. Then it tells you what the unit has no answer for and proposes the plays that would fix it. Nothing is saved until you tick it.
Three calls, best first, with reasons
On the scoreboard, one button. It reads the down, the distance, the clock, the score, the unit on the field, what the other team has been showing you all night — and what your own plays have actually gained against that look — then hands you three plays from your books, drawn out, each with a sentence on why. Send one to the watch, or ignore all three.
For your team: a volunteer parent coaching their first season gets a second opinion that only ever suggests plays their own team has practised — and an experienced coordinator gets a fast second read on a night when the other team keeps sending four.
The assistant runs on the ShinyPlaybook server, so it needs a connection. Every other feature on this page works with no network at all.
CATALOG — START FROM A FINISHED BOOK
A playbook for your format, ready before practice
The Catalog tab holds complete playbooks for every common format — 5v5 to 8v8 flag, 7v7 to 11v11 tackle — at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels, each built around a style: a quick passing game, run first, balanced, a bag of trick plays.
Pick by format and level
Filter to the format your league plays and read the list before you take it — every play's name, how many offence and defence plays it has, and what it is built to do.
One tap, and it's your book
A downloaded playbook becomes yours, exactly like one you drew: rename it, cut plays, add your own, print the wristband, share it with your staff. It is on your phone from then on, offline like everything else.
Designed by AI, read by a coach
The plays are drawn by the same assistant that builds playbooks in the app, on the same fields and in the same notation — and every book is looked over before it is published.
04 — LEARN FROM IT
The season, totalled honestly
Every finished game is kept: the final score, the full call log, and what the other team was doing. Across the season it adds up into the two reports that actually change how you call a game — what your plays do, and what beats them.
Play usage
Every play you have ever called, totalled over every game on the device — so a staple you run in nine games reads differently to one loud Saturday.
Opponent tendencies
The point is the crossing, not the counting. "Cover 3 on seven snaps" is a note. "You have averaged 8.1 against Cover 3 and 2.0 against man" is an adjustment.
Thursday, on the clock
Script the session: timed periods, the plays each one reps, which lines are in it, and what you are installing that day. It prints as a practice sheet with the new plays drawn out at the bottom, and it takes attendance from the roster while you're there.
Snaps, per player, per game
Because every snap knows who was on the field, the game detail can tell a parent exactly how many their kid played, on which side of the ball — without anybody keeping a tally on the back of a card.
"Draw your route"
Pick a position, or one player on your roster and every position they play, and hand them the tablet. The plays come up shuffled: they see the formation with their spot ringed and trace what they run. It scores the drawing against the real route in yards, then shows them the play. It is the fastest way to find out who is guessing.
For your team: you stop arguing about which plays work. At the end of the year you can show a parent, a coordinator or a board exactly what your offense did and against what — how many snaps each kid played — and you go into next season having cut the six plays nobody could run.
WHO IT HELPS
One app, five jobs on your sideline
A youth football staff is usually four adults, two of whom found out on Tuesday that they were coaching. Here is what each of them gets.
One book everyone works from
Build the install once and share the book with your staff — coordinators who can edit it, assistants who can only look. Everyone carries the same plays, and at the end of the season the history tells you what to keep — not what you remember keeping.
Call from several books at once
Keep a base install, a red-zone package and a two-minute sheet as separate books and put all three in play at kickoff. The tendencies report tells you when to stop calling into the look that is stopping you.
The call, before the huddle breaks
The play arrives on the watch, or as a number on the wristband in exactly the same notation as the drawing they learned it from. Between drives they can scroll the whole book themselves — and at home the study cards show only their own assignments.
Never stuck for a call
Ask for three plays and get them drawn out, with the reasoning written down — always from the book your team has practised. Download a finished playbook for your format and level from the catalog, or build one from a short form on the drive to the first practice.
The diagram, not a description
Text the play straight into the team chat, or hand over the whole book as a file. The kid who missed Thursday sees the same drawing everyone else did, can be quizzed on their own route on the tablet, and the parent walking them through it in the driveway has it on their phone.
YOUR STAFF, YOUR DATA
Sign in once. Every book, on every device.
Your playbooks, rosters, games and scribbles are saved to your account and kept on the device. Nothing waits on the network: you draw, call and score offline, and changes go up the next time there is a connection.
The field doesn't need a signal
Every play is on the phone in your hand. Edit with no bars at all — the change waits on the device and goes up on its own once you're back in range. Draw on the tablet at home, call from the phone on Saturday: iPhone, iPad and Android share one library.
View only, or view and edit
Invite your staff to a playbook by email. Editors change plays, wristbands and practice plans; viewers carry the book without being able to change it. Only you can share it or delete it, and anyone can leave. Someone without the app yet finds the book waiting when they sign up with that email.
Rosters are yours alone
Sharing a playbook shares its plays, wristbands and practice plans — never your rosters, games or scribbles. Those are children's names and your sideline notes, and they go to nobody else's phone. Delete your account from Settings and it all goes.
QUESTIONS
Before you put it on a wrist
Is a watch legal in my league?
Check before game day, and assume the answer is league-by-league. The NFL FLAG rulebook prohibits electronic communication between a player and a coach during league and tournament play, and NFHS added a 2025 rule banning devices that record or transmit audio or video. A watch showing a diagram is arguably neither — but an official can rule against you on the field, so ask your commissioner first. This is exactly why the app ships the printed wristband and the shared PNG as well: use the watch for practice, walkthroughs, scrimmages and 7v7, and paper wherever your league says paper.
Does it work with no signal?
Yes. Sign in once with a connection; after that, drawing, printing, the watch link, the scoreboard and the whole history are on-device and work in airplane mode. Changes you make offline go up on their own when you are back in range. Only the AI assistant, the catalog and inviting coaches need a connection.
Will the assistant invent plays my team hasn't practised?
Not when it is calling a game. Sideline advice only ever picks from the playbooks you put in play at kickoff, so the diagram it shows you is one your team has already run. The playbook builder and the gap analysis do draw new plays — but those are proposals you review, edit and choose to save.
Can I share a playbook with another coach?
Yes, two ways. To coach from the same book, invite them by email from the playbook's menu, as view only or view and edit — it appears on their devices and stays in step with yours. To hand over a copy instead, save the book (or a single play) as a .shinyplaybook file; it imports as their own, keeping the format, the formations and the wristband numbers. Rosters are never shared either way.
How many watches can a coach send to?
One — the watch paired to the phone doing the calling. That is a phone-to-watch link, not a broadcast, so today the pattern is a single watch worn by the quarterback. Sending to every player's watch at once is planned, not shipped, and we would rather say so here than in a review.
Do I need an account?
Yes — an email and a password, once per device. That is what puts your books on all of your devices, iPhone and Android alike, and what lets you share a book with your staff. Your plays still live on the device, so the account never stands between you and a call on a field with no signal.
Is it in French?
Yes — the whole app, in Canadian French, on any device set to French. Verges, essais, quart-arrière: the football words are the ones used on a Québec sideline, and the printed sheets come out in the same language. Your play names stay exactly as you typed them.
Does it do special teams?
For tackle, yes: punt, field goal and kickoff formations with their return and block units, and a few coached plays to start from. Flag has no kicking game, so a flag book is never cluttered with it.
Where does game film live?
A clip you record or pick stays on that device — video is far too big to sync — so it isn't on your other devices or in a shared book either. Paste a Hudl, YouTube or Drive link instead and it travels with the play.
What is it built with?
.NET MAUI on iOS and Android, drawing on a plain graphics canvas with no third-party rendering engine, storing plays as JSON documents in SQLite on the device and syncing them to a .NET server on PostgreSQL. The Apple Watch companion is native SwiftUI; the Wear OS companion is a .NET Android app. Both watches speak the same feature set.
CONTACT
Got a question or an idea?
A league rule the app gets wrong, a feature your staff needs, a bug from last Saturday — send it here and it comes straight to us.
GET IT
Draw it Thursday. Call it Saturday. Know why it worked by Sunday.
ShinyPlaybook is in TestFlight on iOS, with Android and the store releases to follow.