Step-by-step help for everything in the app, from adding your first player to keeping the book on game day.
Install the app, look around a demo team, and set up your own in about two minutes. No account needed.
Get Sixth Man from Google Play on an Android phone or tablet. An iPhone version comes later.
The app is free: game day, stats, the play builder, and exports never cost anything. Sixth Man Pro adds extras like more teams and practice plans.
There’s no account to make. Everything you enter stays on your phone.
The first time you open Sixth Man, tap Set up my team. Setup has six short steps, and every one can be skipped and changed later.
Tap Create team on the last step. You land on Home with your team on screen.
Skipping a step keeps what you typed, but skipping Colors goes back to the default colors, and skipping Level and rules uses Youth and 8U rec.
A demo team is full of made-up players, finished games, and plays, so you can try everything before setting up your own.
A demo’s name, colors, rules, and roster are locked, and a demo never counts as one of your teams. To bring one back later, go to Team › Settings › Take the tour (Dragons) or Team › Settings › High school demo (Eagles). To remove one, see Delete a team.
The tour is seven cards on the Demo Dragons. Each one takes you to the part of the app it’s about: Home, a box score, game day, a play, season stats, and Settings.
Four tabs run along the bottom. On a tablet held sideways, they run down the left side.
| Tab | What’s there |
|---|---|
| Home | Your next game, a live game to go back to, and shortcuts to the roster, rules, colors, and playbook. |
| Game | Start a game, what’s up next on the schedule, and the game log of finished games. |
| Plays | Your playbook. |
| Team | Roster, Schedule, Practices, Attendance, Season stats, and Settings. |
Settings is the gear at the top right of the Team tab (or the Settings row at its bottom). It has everything about how the team and the app are set up: stats, rules, colors, backups, and Pro. In this guide, a path like Team › Settings › League rules means: tap the Team tab, tap the gear, then tap League rules.
Settings has a search box. Type what you’re looking for, like “dark” or “bonus”, and it opens the right screen. See Find a setting.
With the season pass, a card at the top lets you know before it renews or if a payment didn’t go through. On a tablet held sideways, Home also shows a Season card with your record and top scorers.
Players, parent contacts, your team’s look, and more than one team.
If another player already wears that number, the app says so. Two players can share a number, but scoring is easier when every number is different.
Setting up a new team? Setup’s roster step takes the whole roster at once. Type a number, press Next, type a name, press Next, and keep going.
The roster sorts itself: active players by number, then players without a number, then inactive players.
An inactive player keeps their stats but is left out of game day, attendance, and messages to parents. It’s the right choice for a player who left the team mid-season.
Inactive players move to their own part of the roster. Turn Active back on to bring them back.
A player who’s hurt for one game doesn’t need to be inactive. See A player is hurt or goes home.
The player goes to Team › Settings › Recently deleted for 30 days. Games they played in still show their name and stats.
With it on, players show as “Maya Rivera” in the roster, box scores, and PDFs. With it off, they show as “Maya R.” Youth teams start with it off; every other level starts with it on.
Players added with only an initial keep showing it until you type their last name. Play diagrams never show names, only numbers.
Parent contacts stay on your phone (and in your backup file). They’re never sent anywhere else.
With parent contacts on, the top of Team › Roster has:
Nothing is sent until you send it from your messages or email app. Inactive players’ parents are left out.
The whole screen previews the new colors, in light and dark, before you save. If the two colors are hard to tell apart, including for people who are color-blind, the app says so; tap Adjust secondary to fix it. Every color is adjusted so text stays readable.
Free teams get a monogram badge: the team’s initials in its colors. With Pro, you can use your own logo.
If Pro ends, the monogram comes back, and your logo is kept for when Pro is back.
It applies to every team on the phone. Your team colors work in both.
Turn on only what you use. Go to Team › Settings and, under Features:
These are for the team on screen; each team has its own.
A team with a game going shows a Live tag.
Demo teams never count as one of your teams.
Its roster, games, plays, and practices are erased for good; a deleted team doesn’t go to Recently deleted. Save a backup file first if you might want it back. You can’t delete your only team: add another one first. This is also how you remove a demo team.
Nothing is hardcoded. Set your league’s periods, clock, timeouts, fouls, and subs once, and pick what the scorekeeper tracks.
Go to Team › Settings › League rules. You can also tap the Rules tile on Home, or League rules on the new game screen.
The chips at the top (Level, Periods, Clock, Timeouts, Fouls, Scoring, Subs, Playing time) jump to each part. Changes save as you make them; there’s no Save button.
Each game keeps the rules it started with. A change here applies to your next game and never rewrites a game that’s already been played.
The level is Youth, Middle school, High school, College, or Adult (pro rules are under Adult). You pick it when you set up the team, and you can change it at the top of Team › Settings › League rules.
Picking a level shows that level’s rule templates. It doesn’t change any rules until you apply a template.
| Template | Game | Clock | Fouls | Stats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8U rec | 4 × 6 min | Running | Out at 5, no bonus | Points and fouls; subs every 3 min, equal time |
| 10U rec | 4 × 7 min | Running, stopped the last 2 min | Out at 5, bonus at 7, double at 10 | Points and fouls; 10-minute minimum |
| Middle school | 4 × 6 min | Stop | Out at 5, two shots from the 5th each quarter | Shooting |
| High school | 4 × 8 min | Stop | Out at 5, two shots from the 5th each quarter | Full stats and shot locations; three 60s and two 30s timeouts |
| College men | 2 × 20 min | Stop | One-and-one from the 7th, two shots from the 10th | Full stats and shot locations |
| College women | 4 × 10 min | Stop | Two shots from the 5th each quarter | Full stats and shot locations |
| Adult rec | 2 × 20 min | Running, stopped the last 2 min | Out at 5, bonus at 7, double at 10 | Points and fouls |
| Pro | 4 × 12 min | Stop | Out at 6, two shots from the 5th each quarter | Full stats and shot locations |
In Team › Settings › League rules:
In Team › Settings › League rules › Timeouts:
In Team › Settings › League rules › Fouls:
The scoreboard shows each team’s fouls and marks the bonus when it’s reached.
In Team › Settings › League rules › Scoring:
In Team › Settings › League rules › Substitutions:
In Team › Settings › League rules › Playing time:
With a goal on, box scores show each player’s minutes against the average, and season stats show each player’s fair share.
This is what the scorekeeper logs. A game kept in coach mode tracks points and fouls either way. Stats are free.
Each game’s shot chart is free in its box score. Season shot charts are part of Pro.
With Full stats on, go to Team › Settings › Stats and shot charts and turn on Follow-up questions. After a make, the scorekeeper is asked who assisted; after a miss, who got the rebound. Turn it off to log those yourself with the AST and REB buttons.
Add the season’s games once. The next one shows on Home, and starting it fills in the opponent for you.
You can also add a game from the Game tab: under Up next, tap Add games.
Go to Team › Schedule. Coming up lists every game, soonest first, with its date, time, home or away, and where. The Game tab shows the next three under Up next, and your next game is on Home.
A scheduled game whose date has passed without being started moves to Past, not played at the bottom of Team › Schedule. Tap it to give it a new date, start it anyway, or remove it.
The new game screen opens with the opponent and home or away filled in, and the game comes off the schedule. It uses your league rules as they are at tip-off.
Go to Team › Settings and, under Features, turn off Schedule. The Schedule row, Up next, and the next game on Home go away, and you start each game on the spot. Games you’d scheduled are kept for when you turn it back on.
Start a game, keep score from the bench or the book, sub fairly, and fix mistakes as you go. Everything on game day is free.
The game keeps a copy of your league rules from this moment, so changing them later never rewrites it. One game can be live per team at a time.
On the new game screen:
The button at the bottom says how many more starters to pick, then becomes Tip off. With fewer players here than your league puts on the court, you start short. Who’s here also counts toward season attendance.
Each game, pick who keeps it:
A team that tracks shooting starts on Scorekeeper. Shooting percentages and full stats only come from games kept by a scorekeeper. What the scorekeeper tracks is set in Team › Settings › Stats and shot charts.
When your league subs in shifts or by period, the new game screen plans the whole game for you.
During the game, Next five follows the plan at each sub time, skipping anyone who fouled out or left. The plan covers regulation, not overtime.
Every period starts with the clock stopped: tap Start at tip-off. A timeout stops the clock. In stop-clock leagues (and a running clock’s final stop-clock minutes), a foul stops it too. At 0:00 the period ends by itself.
In a league with no clock, the app counts time played for minutes, and you end each period from the Game menu.
In coach mode:
The player stays picked, so a second basket is one tap. Tap the tile again to unpick them. +1 shows when your league shoots free throws, and +3 when it counts threes.
A dot fills on their tile, the team foul count goes up, and the bonus shows when it’s reached. At the foul limit, the app says the player fouled out and asks you to sub someone in.
Under the bench, the other team’s row has +1, +2, +3, Foul, and Timeout. In coach mode, a tap is all it takes. A scorekeeper also enters their jersey number: see Enter the other team’s jersey numbers.
When a scorekeeper keeps a team that tracks shooting, the pad has two rows:
There’s no −1 on this pad: use Undo or fix the entry. Plus-minus adds itself up from who was on the court.
With Shot locations on, after each made or missed 2 or 3 the pad turns into a half court titled Where from?.
Every marked shot goes on the game’s shot chart. Free throws aren’t charted.
With Follow-up questions on, a question shows under the pad after some shots:
Offensive and defensive rebounds sort themselves out. To skip a question, tap × or carry on scoring.
When a scorekeeper logs anything for the other team, the jersey pad opens.
Players with two or more fouls show as chips, like #23 · 2 fouls, so you can see foul trouble. The box score lists the other team by number. Closing the pad logs nothing.
The clock stops and a countdown appears under the team that called it. At 0:15 it turns amber and the phone buzzes. Undo takes back a timeout and its clock stop.
Players who stay keep their spot on screen. With too few players left, the sheet says you play short.
One alert shows at a time, the most important first:
| Alert | What to do |
|---|---|
| End of Q1 | Tap Next five to sub, then Start Q2. |
| #5 fouled out | Tap Sub to bring someone in. |
| Sub time | The shift is over. Tap Next five, or Later. |
| Shift change in 0:25 | A heads-up 30 seconds before. Preview shows the next group. |
| #4 is 2:30 behind on minutes | Tap Sub in. |
| Tap Start at tip-off | A reminder that the clock isn’t running yet. |
The phone buzzes at the heads-up, at sub time, and at the end of a period.
With a playing-time goal on in your league rules, the app watches minutes all game:
Tap Sub in on the alert to bring them in. The bench shows everyone’s minutes, and the sub sheet suggests fewest minutes first.
Tap Undo at the bottom right. It names what it will undo, like +2 #5 Cal. Tap it again to undo the entry before that.
Undo covers baskets, misses, stats, fouls, timeouts, subs, arrivals, and players out. It doesn’t undo clock starts and stops or the end of a period.
In coach mode, the small −1 on the left of the scoring row takes a point back from the picked player. Use it when a 3 was really a 2, without undoing everything since. It never takes a player below zero.
The full play-by-play has the same buttons: tap All next to it (scorekeeper), or Fix an entry on a tablet.
A player marked fouled out by mistake? Press and hold their bench spot and remove the foul.
They count as at the game for attendance and fair minutes. Not on the list? Add them in Team › Roster first.
Sub and playing-time reminders skip them until they’re back. When they are, open A player is out again and tap them.
Tap the Game menu (⋯), then Box score so far: every player’s points, fouls, and minutes, plus whatever else the game tracks. On a tablet, the box score is on screen all game.
The screen turns into the final box score, and the game goes in the game log and season stats. Need to fix something later? See Fix a finished game.
The clock keeps running while you’re away. Every tap is saved as it happens, so if the phone restarts or the app closes, the game picks up where it was. The screen stays on during a game.
On a tablet, a game always turns sideways:
The box score writes itself. Share it, fix it, and watch the season add up.
Right after you end a game, its box score opens by itself.
From top to bottom:
A game kept in coach mode shows points, fouls, and minutes. See Stat abbreviations for what each column means.
Under the court, At the rim, Midrange, and 3-pointers show each zone’s percentage. Each game’s chart is free. See How shot zones work.
With a playing-time goal on in your league rules, the box score ends with Playing time: every player’s minutes as a bar, and the average per player. Anyone 2 or more minutes under the average is highlighted. It’s the report that settles questions after the game.
When a scorekeeper entered the other team’s jersey numbers, the box score lists them by number: points and fouls, plus shooting when it was kept.
All of these are free.
You can’t reopen a game while another one is live.
The game leaves the game log and season stats, and waits in Team › Settings › Recently deleted for 30 days.
Go to Team › Season stats, or tap Season stats under the game log on the Game tab. At the top are your Record, PPG (points per game), and Opp PPG. Below, switch between Table and Cards.
Percentages only count games that kept shooting, so a game kept in coach mode doesn’t pull anyone’s numbers down. GP counts the games a player actually played in.
Tap Cards in season stats. Each card shows a player’s games, starts, points, minutes, and fouls, a small chart of their points game by game, and their shooting and stats when they were kept.
With a playing-time goal on, each card has a fair share bar. A player’s fair share is the team’s court time in each game they were at, split evenly among everyone who was there. The card says “Right at a fair share of minutes”, or how far over or under.
Every marked shot from every game goes on one court, by player. With Pro, each player card and the season PDFs get the charts too.
Without Pro, you’ll see how many shots have been marked and a See Pro button. Each game’s own chart stays free in its box score.
Exports follow the order on screen. They’re free; with Pro, the season PDFs include the shot charts.
| Label | Means |
|---|---|
| PTS | Points |
| PF | Personal fouls |
| MIN | Minutes played |
| GP | Games played (games the player was in, not only at) |
| PPG | Points per game |
| Opp PPG | Points per game the other teams scored |
| MPG | Minutes per game |
| FG | Field goals made and attempted (2s and 3s) |
| 3PT | 3-pointers made and attempted |
| FT | Free throws made and attempted |
| FG%, 3P%, FT% | Shooting percentages, from games that kept shooting |
| REB | Rebounds (offensive and defensive) |
| AST | Assists |
| STL | Steals |
| BLK | Blocks |
| TO | Turnovers |
| +/− | Plus-minus: the score’s swing while the player was on the court |
| ● | Started the game |
| T | The game’s total, in By period |
Draw plays on a real court, watch them run step by step, and show them to the team. Everything here is free except the starter playbook.
The Plays tab is your playbook. The buttons at the top, from left to right:
Under them, the folder chips (All, Offense, Defense, Inbounds, Press break) filter the list. Each card shows the play’s starting spots and its first step. The play you edited last comes first. Tap a card to open it.
The folder you pick also decides what goes in the playbook PDF.
Every play uses the same marks, on screen and in the PDF. The basket is at the top, and left and right are as the diagram reads.
| Mark | What it means |
|---|---|
| Filled circle with a number | An offensive player. The number is a position (1–5) or a jersey number, never a name. |
| X with a small number | A defender, when defense is on. |
| Small orange ball | Who has the ball. After a shot it sits at the basket. |
| Solid line with an arrow | A cut. |
| Zigzag line with an arrow | A dribble. Only the player with the ball dribbles. |
| Dashed line with an arrow | A pass. It ends where the catcher finishes the step. |
| Line ending in a flat bar | A screen. |
| Dotted curve to the basket | A shot. |
The tutorial walks you through every tool on a practice play in about a minute. Nothing in it is saved.
You can open the tutorial again from any play: tap ⋯ (Play options), then Play maker tutorial.
The starting set also picks the folder: the three offensive sets go in Offense, Box and Stack go in Inbounds, and Press break gets its own folder. In the inbounds sets and Press break, player 1 starts out of bounds to inbound the ball. Defense starts off, and the circles show positions 1–5. You can change all of it later under ⋯.
If defense is on, drag the X’s at Start to place them. They don’t follow later changes to the offense.
Dragging a player back to where they started the step also removes their move. The player with the ball always dribbles: see Dribble, and pass on the move.
Every move in the step has a dot halfway along its line. A hollow dot means the path is straight; a filled one means it’s curved.
The pass line runs from the passer to where the catcher ends the step, so a pass to a cutter meets them on the move. When it plays, the ball leaves halfway through the step.
Each step can have one pass or one shot. To take it back, tap Remove pass to #2 or Remove shot. After a shot, nobody has the ball, so later steps can’t pass or shoot.
The line zigzags until the ball leaves halfway through the step, then runs straight, the same as it plays.
Tap the curved arrow (Undo last change) at the top of the builder. It goes back up to 60 changes while you’re on the play. Leaving the play clears it.
Undo covers moves, passes, shots, steps, defense, and mirroring. It doesn’t undo step notes, step speed, or changes to the name, folder, or numbers.
If your phone’s Reduce motion setting is on, playback starts at 0.5×.
Present mode shows the play big, with nothing to edit, for a timeout huddle or a tablet at practice.
Present mode runs at 0.75× speed, shows each step’s note in large type, and keeps the screen on.
Open the play and tap ⋯ (Play options) at the top right.
Turning defense off removes the defenders’ moves. Undo brings them back.
The court only ever shows numbers, never players’ names.
The other coach gets a small file (like play-give-and-go.json) to open in Sixth Man with Import a play.
A file from a newer version of Sixth Man still comes in; anything this version doesn’t know is left out.
Each play gets a page: its setup and every step as diagrams, with the step notes.
Seven simple, proven sets, each with a note on every step. Add one, then make it yours.
| Play | What it does |
|---|---|
| Give and go | Pass to the wing, cut to the rim, get it back for a layup. |
| Pass and screen away | Pass one way, screen the other way, and the shooter pops open up top. |
| 5-out pass and cut | Space the floor, pass, cut, and everyone fills the open spot. |
| Defense: jump to the ball | On every pass, defenders move: one closes out, everyone else helps. |
| Box: screen down, cut to the rim | Under-the-basket inbounds: an elbow screens down, the other cuts. |
| Stack: everybody breaks | Line up in a stack, then all break on the slap. |
| Press break: sideline | Meet the pass, then attack up the sideline. |
Without Pro, the books icon opens Pro on this feature. Once you buy, you land back here.
The court style shows in the play builder, present mode, and the playbook PDF. In dark mode, the whiteboard becomes a chalkboard.
The play goes to Team › Settings › Recently deleted for 30 days, where you can put it back.
With TalkBack on, the court reads each step aloud, like “Step 2: 1 cuts to the right block. 2 passes to 1.”
Plan practices by the minute, run them on a drill timer, and see who came all season. Part of Pro; anyone can look through the ready-made practices.
Twelve full practices, four for each age group, timed to the minute with a coaching note for every drill.
| Ages | Practices | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 6 to 9 | First practice · Dribbling day · Layups and shooting · Game-week practice | 60 min |
| 10 to 12 | Ball handling and finishing · Man-to-man defense · Passing and moving · Game-week practice | 60 min |
| 13 and up | Early season: fundamentals · Defense and rebounding · Transition day · Game-week practice | 90 min |
Youth teams see the younger ages first; other levels see 13 and up first.
Without Pro, you can look through all twelve, with the coaching notes for the first drill of each. Pro opens every note and lets you use them.
Everything saves as you go. Coming up and Past on the Practices screen list them all.
The plan’s total length and each drill’s start time update as you go.
When you run the practice, each linked play has a button that opens it in present mode.
The horn plays even with the phone on silent. Tap the speaker button at the top right to turn it off. The screen stays on while run mode is open.
It counts toward season attendance. Clear attendance takes the roll call off.
Open the practice and tap Duplicate practice. A copy goes on the same day and time next week, with the same drills, plays, place, and notes. Attendance starts fresh.
Open the practice, tap Delete practice, then Tap again to delete this practice. It goes to Team › Settings › Recently deleted for 30 days.
Go to Team › Attendance. Each active player has a bar for Games and one for Practices, like “9/11”.
Staff, coming to Pro, puts two more coaches on your team, seeing every change as it happens. Until then, share plays and backups as files: see Share a play with another coach and Send your team to a co-coach.
Game day, stats, the play builder, and exports are free for good. Pro adds the extras, as a yearly season pass or a one-time lifetime purchase.
| Free, for good | Pro |
|---|---|
| 1 team | Up to 3 teams, and more with team spots |
| Game day: score, clock, fouls, timeouts, subs, playing time, rotation plans | Starter playbook: seven simple, proven sets |
| Shooting, full stats, and each game’s shot chart | Season shot charts, by player, with hot and cold zones |
| The play builder, present mode, and sharing plays | Practice plans: 12 ready-made practices and a drill timer |
| Schedule, game log, box scores, and season stats | Attendance for games and practices |
| PDF and spreadsheet exports, and backups | Your own team logo |
| Parent contacts and a monogram badge |
There are no ads, in either version.
If you opened Pro from a feature, you land back on it, unlocked. Prices show in your own currency once Google Play loads them. A payment that’s pending, like cash at a store, turns Pro on by itself once Google Play confirms it.
Pro is for the teams you own, and it works offline.
Pro covers 3 teams. Each team spot adds one more for $2.99, paid once, up to 8 teams in all.
Spots are yours for good, but they count only while you have Pro. Demo teams never count toward your teams.
Pro follows the Google account you bought it with, not the phone or a backup file.
Team spots come back the same way.
Cancelling keeps Pro until the end of the year you paid for. The app shows when the pass renews, or when it ends after you cancel.
The season pass never renews by surprise. A card at the top of Home lets you know:
Tap × to hide a card. If you allow notifications after buying the season pass, your phone also reminds you 3 days before it renews or ends. Lifetime never sees any of these.
Within 48 hours of buying, you can request a refund yourself from your Google Play order history. After that, email support@centristudios.com and we’ll sort it out.
Nothing is deleted. Every team, game, and play stays.
Everything lives on your phone: no account, no cloud. A backup file is how it survives a lost phone or gets to a new one.
One file holds every team on the phone: rosters, games, plays, practices, logos, and Recently deleted. It never carries Pro; that comes back with Restore purchases.
If it’s been more than 7 days since your last backup, a finished game’s box score reminds you with Back up now. Android also keeps an automatic copy with your Google account backup, but the file is the one you control.
A restore replaces everything on this phone with what’s in the file. Save a backup of this phone first if you might need what’s on it.
A backup from a newer version of Sixth Man asks you to update the app first. If anything goes wrong, nothing on the phone changes.
Without Staff, coaches share by file:
Deleted players, plays, practices, and games wait here for 30 days.
Empty now, then tap again, erases everything here for good. A deleted team doesn’t go here; it’s gone for good. Recently deleted is per team, and it’s locked on demo teams.
Sixth Man has no accounts and no servers for your team’s information. Rosters, games, plays, and parent contacts stay on your phone, and in backup files you choose to save. There are no ads, no tracking, and no analytics. The privacy policy has the details.
The delete your data page has more.
Find any setting fast, get help from a person, and use Sixth Man your way.
Team › Settings is grouped by what each setting is for:
| Part | What’s there |
|---|---|
| The team (This team only) | Stats and shot charts, League rules, Name and colors, Recently deleted, the Features switches, and Delete this team |
| This phone (Every team) | Appearance, and Backup and restore |
| Sixth Man | Pro, Help and feedback, the tour, the high school demo, and the app’s version at the bottom |
Nothing is sent until you send it, and you can read everything in the message first. A person reads every email, and we reply within 2 days. You can also write to support@centristudios.com. If a screen fails to load, its Tell us what happened button sends the same email.
Either one opens the demo you have, or makes it if you deleted it.
On a tablet held sideways, Sixth Man uses the room:
Scroll to the bottom of Team › Settings. The version is under the Sixth Man logo. Help emails include it for you.
Try a shorter word, or the name of a button in the app. Or ask us: support@centristudios.com.
Email support@centristudios.com. A person reads every message, and we reply within 2 days.