Be there.
Catch the details.

Set the plan together

Before the match, you and your child pick up to three things to focus on. Not goals. Not a scoreline. Focuses — the handful of things that actually matter for this match. It mirrors the pre-match talk you already have walking to the court, and it turns that conversation into the frame the whole match is charted against.

Then, after each set, you rate one thing about each focus — how well they held it:

Notice what that question is, and what it isn't. It's "did they stick to the plan," never "did they win the point" or "did it work." A kid can stick to their first-serve targets and still get passed. They stuck to it. That's the thing worth seeing, worth saying on the drive home, and worth building on next week.

CourtSide organizes charting around your child. Prompts identify your player and the opponent, so you can follow the point without keeping a separate mental tally of whose shot you are recording.

Your child’s shots, the opponent’s response, and the outcome become a record you can review together. The parent brings observations; the coach decides how to use them.

Score Only records games: tap who won each game. You keep the match score without entering individual point details.

Basic, Detailed, and Full record points. Basic captures the serve and outcome. Detailed adds shot type, direction, and rally length. Full adds placement and optional charted mental state.

You can change depth during a match. The record keeps the detail you already entered; changing depth does not fill in information you did not chart.

In the point-charting modes, start with who won the point. Then record the outcome and the detail that your chosen depth asks for. A winner, an unforced error, and a forced error describe different parts of the point.

The prompts name your child or the opponent. At the deeper levels, shot type and direction help you remember how the point unfolded.

Six ways a point can end

These examples describe point charting. The extra shot details depend on your chosen depth; record what you can see.

Your child can create the winning chance even when the final shot is an opponent’s error. CourtSide’s deeper charting records the forcing shot alongside that error.

For example, a heavy forehand forces a stretched reply into the net. Record the forehand and its direction, then the opponent’s miss. When your child is forced into an error, the opponent’s forcing shot provides context too.

It is still your judgment from the stands. Record what you can see and leave uncertain details out.

The best junior baseliners run around their backhand to hit a forehand instead. It's a tell — it means the player is aggressively looking for their weapon. A plain "forehand, cross-court" can't capture that the kid moved their feet to make it happen.

So on a forehand, the direction choice isn't three options — it's five:

• Cross-court
• Down-the-line
• Middle
• Inside-out
• Inside-in

Inside-out and inside-in are forehands hit after running around the backhand — one captures direction and footwork in a single tap.

A note at the changeover

At a changeover, CourtSide gives you one optional, quiet place to write down what you actually see in your child — and pair it with a cause. Not a stat. A read.

The scoreboard already tells you they're down a break. What it can't tell you is why, or whether they're still in it. You can. "Rattled after the double faults," "settled once they started moving their feet," "tight, gripping the racket" — that's the read only the person who knows this kid can make, and it's the context that makes the numbers mean something six matches from now.

The single most confusing moment in charting is "wait — whose error was that?" We removed the guesswork entirely: every prompt says the name out loud.

Forced and unforced errors are judgments, not measurements. CourtSide uses familiar tennis terms and leaves that call with the person watching.

You do not need to capture everything. Choose a simpler depth when you want fewer decisions, and discuss recurring patterns with your coach rather than treating one point as a conclusion.

• No "Player 1 / Player 2." No neutral, two-sided model. Your child is always the subject.
• No rankings, leaderboards, or "who's better." CourtSide compares your child to themselves over time — never to other kids.
• No gamification. No streaks, trophies, or confetti. Calm clipboard at the fence, not a slot machine.
• Record once, view two ways. Every shot is stored consistently against whoever hit it. A simple "My child / Both players" toggle on the summary lets you widen the view without ever changing what was recorded — so your season-long trends can never be corrupted by charting one match differently than the next.

The record connects the match to the work between matches. Consider an illustrative match: your child wins, but you chart ten double faults. The score alone would miss a useful question for the coach: does the second serve need attention in practice?

The coach considers that match alongside the player’s wider history and chooses the work. Return to later records together to look for change, rather than treating one match as a verdict.

A loss can sit alongside progress, too: following a serve target more consistently or staying with the agreed match focus. The record gives you and your child something to recognize beyond the result. It does not prove what caused a change.

The forcing-shot and run-around-forehand details belong to the individual match record. Do not assume every charted detail also appears in season trends or AI summaries.

We are developing the longer-term view carefully. Access and availability are confirmed as part of early access, rather than promised for a date on this page.

Keep score game by game, or choose point charting when you want more detail. Set a focus before play, record what you can see, and make space for reflection afterward. Bring the match record to your coach, focus the next practice, and look back over time to see what is changing.

Charted mental-state observations are part of the performance record visible to connected academy staff. Written changeover notes, journals, and reflections stay private to your family.