Court Canvas

Sketch a play, hit play to watch it move, then text it to your student as a GIF. A tennis tactics board for coaches, quick enough to use between points.

Draw up a tennis play in about ten seconds, watch it animate, and send it to your student before the water break is over.

That's really the whole idea. Court Canvas is a tactics board for tennis coaches. You drop your players on the court, draw the shots, and drag a player to show where they should move between hits. Press play and it animates. When it looks right, send it as a GIF. No account, no login, nothing parked on a server.

It's built for coaching on the court, not at a desk. You can work one-handed, and nothing's buried behind menus.

What you can do:

• Drawing is fast. Tap the court to drop an X or a circle, drag to draw a shot or a movement arrow. No mode to switch.
• Shots can curve. Bend your drag and the arrow bends with it, so a slice looks like a slice and a lob looks like a lob.
• Write on the court. Drop a short cue like "split step" or "recover middle" right where it happens, and the play explains itself once you send it.
• Don't start from a blank court. There are real tennis patterns you can copy and tweak, and I add more with each update.
• Players move during playback. Drag a player mid-play and they walk to the new spot when you press play, so the footwork is part of the story instead of an afterthought.
• A ball travels along each shot on playback, so it reads like a point and not a diagram.
• Pause and scrub. Stop anywhere in the play, drag the timeline, or step one shot at a time while you talk a player through it.
• Shared GIFs open on a title card with the play's name, then animate. The free version adds a small Court Canvas mark and a link so whoever you send it to can find the app.
• Every play has a notes field for the why: when to run it, who it works on.
• Keep as many plays as you want and switch with a tap. It all saves on its own.
• Singles or doubles, one tap.
• Two-finger swipe to undo.
• It handles padel and pickleball too, with the right court for each.
• Pro is a one-time $4.99. It puts your name or your academy on the plays you share instead of the Court Canvas mark, and adds dark mode. No subscription.

I built this because I coach, and I got tired of waving my hands around or drawing on a napkin to explain a pattern. I wanted something I could pull out on court, sketch in a few seconds, and hand over. It keeps getting better as other coaches tell me what's missing.

Your plays stay on your phone. Nothing syncs to a cloud. The app keeps anonymous, non-personal usage stats so I can tell what's worth working on next.

Privacy policy: courtcanvas.com/privacy