User Guide

Get the camera right, and the analysis takes care of itself.

HoopAxis reads your form, arc, and makes on your phone — but its accuracy is only as good as the shot it can see. This is how to set up your phone, your court, and your session so every shot gets scored the way you took it.

Start here

Three camera modes, three jobs

Pick the mode for what you want to learn today. Each frames the shooter differently, so each measures different things — and only Side gives you form and makes together.

Side Scores makes

The all-rounder. Full arc in view, so it grades form and calls makes & misses.

  • Place90° to your shooting side
  • Distance10–16 ft · 3–5 m at 1×
  • Zoom0.5× or 1× — fit the whole arc
  • HeightTripod height
  • FrameLandscape
  • GradesKnee bend, arm extension, follow-through + shot result
Front Form only

Faces you head-on. Best view of alignment — but the hoop is behind the camera, so it can't score makes.

  • PlaceDirectly facing the shooter
  • Distance10–13 ft · 3–4 m at 1×
  • Zoom1× (0.5× in tight space)
  • HeightTripod height
  • FramePortrait
  • GradesElbow flare, lateral alignment, stance width
Scoreboard Scores makes

The stat-keeper. Shooter and hoop both in frame. Tracks attempts, makes, and where you shoot from — no form grading.

  • PlaceBehind you, shooter + hoop both visible
  • Distance10–16 ft · 3–5 m at 1×
  • Zoom1×; 2× reaches a far hoop
  • HeightTripod height
  • FrameLandscape
  • GradesAttempts, makes, shot location

Where the camera goes — from above

Camera + view cone Shooter (facing hoop) Hoop Don’t line up
90° 10–16 ft 3–5 m Shooter Hoop Camera
Side. Square to the shot — 90° off the shooter→hoop line — so the whole arc, from release to rim, stays in the cone. Set up on your shooting-hand side.
hoop behind camera 10–13 ft 3–4 m Camera Shooter
Front. Head-on, facing the shooter from 10–13 ft. The hoop sits behind the camera, so this view grades form only — no make scoring.
10–16 ft Hoop Shooter Camera
Scoreboard. Behind you with both hoop and shooter in frame — but offset from the straight phone→shooter→hoop line, or the ball hides behind the shooter.
Rule of thumb

Working on mechanics? Use Front or Side. Want a make/miss stat sheet? Use Side or Scoreboard. Want everything at once? Side is the one mode that does form and makes together.

The ten-second version

Golden rules

If you read nothing else, do these. Every one fixes a real failure mode in the tracker.

1
Always use a tripodHandheld motion blurs the ball and breaks tracking. A phone that moves mid-session stops the session.
2
Tripod at 1.5–1.8 m · 5–6 ftAround 1.65 m is the sweet spot. Higher flattens the shot and removes the depth cues the tracker needs.
3
Camera on your shooting-hand sideRight-handed? Set up on the right. It keeps the ball and release hand unobscured by your body.
4
Shoot an orange ballThe detector is tuned for a classic orange basketball. Odd colors and worn balls detect poorly.
5
One shooter in frameExtra people confuse who's shooting. A rebounder is fine — just keep them out of the shooting motion.
6
Keep the phone out of direct sunGlare wrecks detection and heat throttles the tracker. Shade the phone, not the shooter.
7
Tap the hoop before you startMakes can't be scored until the app knows where the rim is. Confirm the auto-detected hoop each session.
8
Don't line up phone → shooter → hoopIn Scoreboard, offset the camera. A straight line hides the ball behind the shooter.
Best practice · 01

Camera & tripod

Placement is the single biggest lever on accuracy. Get this right and most other problems disappear.

Do Set the phone up like this

  • Mount it on a tripod. A cheap phone tripod beats the best handheld hold — handheld blurs the analysis.
  • Height 1.5–1.8 m (5–6 ft). Around 1.65 m is the sweet spot, and the same height works for every mode.
  • Match the distance to the mode. Side and Scoreboard: 10–16 ft. Front: 10–13 ft. Close enough to see detail, far enough to hold the whole shot.
  • Orient correctly. Landscape for Side and Scoreboard (to catch the full arc), portrait for Front (facing the shooter).
  • Frame the full arc in Side. The ball must stay visible from release to the rim. If it clips out near the top, back up or drop to the ultra-wide (0.5×) lens.
  • Match zoom to distance. The ranges above assume 1×. Too cramped to back up? Go 0.5× to widen. Set up far with a tiny-looking ball or rim? Use 2× to magnify it. Pick the zoom before you start — it locks mid-session.

Avoid These placement mistakes

  • Raising the tripod up high to "see more." It flattens the shot and strips the depth information make/miss detection relies on.
  • Setting up on your off-hand side. Your body ends up between the camera and the ball at release.
  • Bumping or moving the phone mid-session. It invalidates the hoop and court calibration, and the app stops tracking to protect your stats.
  • Cutting the arc off. If the top of the shot leaves the frame, the tracker loses the ball and the shot goes uncounted.
1.8 m 1.5 m 0 sweet spot ≈ 1.65 m tripod + phone player (to scale)
Tripod height. Anywhere from 1.5–1.8 m (5–6 ft) — about chest-to-eye height on most players. Around 1.65 m is the sweet spot; raising it higher flattens the shot and strips the depth cues make/miss detection relies on. Same height for every mode.

Zoom and distance go together

How far back you stand and which zoom you pick are the same decision — both set how much of the shot fits in frame. The distances on the mode cards are measured at 1×; change the zoom and the working distance changes with it. HoopAxis gives you three zooms, the same as the iOS Camera app.

ZoomLensField of viewReach for it when…
0.5×Ultra-wideWidestYou're close, a tight gym won't let you back up, or the full arc keeps clipping out of frame
1×WideStandardYour default — the mode-card distances are measured at this zoom
2×TeleNarrowest, magnifiedYou have to set up far back and the ball or rim looks small in frame
0.5× 1× 2× the shot one camera spot
Same spot, three zooms. A wider zoom takes in more of the court: 0.5× grabs the whole scene up close, 2× magnifies a far, small target but sees the least, and 1× is the baseline. So stand closer and go wider, or stand back and zoom in — whichever frames the whole shot with a little margin. (Phones without an ultra-wide lens show only 1× and 2×.)
If the camera moves

HoopAxis detects when the view changes and shows “Camera view changed,” then stops tracking so stale geometry can't mis-score later shots. End the session, start a new one, and re-confirm the hoop. The cure is a stable tripod on solid ground.

Best practice · 02

Light, weather & heat

Computer vision lives on clean pixels — and phones throttle when they get hot. Both are environment problems you control before you shoot.

Lighting Even, bright, glare-free

  • Bright and even beats bright and harsh. A gym or open shade both work well.
  • Keep the sun behind the camera, not behind the shooter — backlight silhouettes the player and hides the ball.
  • Wipe the lens. A smudge scatters light into glare across the whole frame.
  • Direct sun into the lens or off a glossy backboard — glare reads as false balls and washes out the real one.
  • Low, flickery indoor light at dusk. If it looks murky to you, it looks murkier to the tracker.

Thermal Keep the phone cool

HoopAxis runs live AI analysis on every frame. That heats the phone, and iOS responds by throttling — which the app tells you about on screen:

  • “Device is warm” — the frame rate drops and some shots may be missed. Tracking still runs.
  • “Device is hot” — ball tracking pauses to let the phone recover. If it fully overheats, the session saves and ends itself.
  • Keep the phone shaded and out of a hot car / direct summer sun before you start.
  • Take a thick case off for long outdoor sessions so it can shed heat.
  • Plug in if you can — a low battery (under 10%) also ends the session automatically.
Best practice · 03

The ball & the net

Two pieces of equipment the tracker actually watches. Small choices here move your make/miss accuracy more than you'd expect.

The ball Orange, and only one

  • Use a standard orange basketball. Detection is tuned for that color and contrast.
  • One ball in play. A second ball rolling in frame competes for the tracker's attention and can steal a shot.
  • Off-color, novelty, or heavily worn balls. Faded, dark, or non-orange balls detect unreliably.

The net A net helps — string helps most

  • Shoot on a hoop with a net. The net's whip on a make is a strong, independent make signal on top of the ball's path.
  • A white string net gives the clearest read — its motion and shape change are easy to see.
  • Steel / chain nets work too, but their motion is subtler, so the app leans more on the ball trajectory there.
  • A bare rim with no net is the hardest case — makes and near-misses look almost identical, so expect the occasional wrong call.
Best practice · 04

One shooter, or a shooter and a rebounder

HoopAxis tracks one shooter at a time — but you don't have to be alone. The classic setup of one shooter plus a helper who rebounds and passes back works well, as long as the helper stays out of the way.

Do Keep it clean

  • One person shooting. If more than one person is in frame, the app shows “Multiple people in frame — keep one shooter for accurate tracking.”
  • A rebounder is welcome. Have them catch the ball, pass it back, and step aside before the next shot.
  • Rebounder waits low and wide — near the hoop or off to the side, not between the shooter and the rim.

Avoid Confusing the tracker

  • Two people taking shots in the same session — the tracker will keep switching between them.
  • Dribbling or passing during a shot. Ball-handling by the helper looks like shot motion and can pull tracking off the real shooter.
In the app

Setting up a session

Once the phone is placed, a few taps calibrate the app to your court. Do them once per setup and your stats stay honest.

  1. Pick your mode and mount the phone.Front, Side, or Scoreboard. The placement tip under the picker reminds you where to stand it.
  2. Set your zoom first.Pick 0.5×, 1×, or 2× so the shot just fits with a little margin. Do this before placing the hoop or calibrating — Side and Scoreboard lock the zoom once you start, and changing it afterward shifts the framing, which throws off the hoop and court positions you're about to set.
  3. Confirm the hoop.In Side and Scoreboard, HoopAxis auto-detects the rim and shows a marker — tap Confirm Hoop Position, or tap the rim yourself to move it. Front mode skips this (the hoop is behind the camera).
  4. Calibrate the court (optional but recommended).Tap the four corners of the paint. This unlocks the shot map and the on-screen detection zone, and the app confirms which sideline the camera sits on so you can catch a mirrored tap.
  5. Check the detection zone, then start.After calibrating, a translucent green area shows where shots are reliably tracked, with a bright line at the far limit — shoot inside it. Tap Start when you're set.
Reusing a setup

Calibration is saved per mode and reloaded next time — you'll see “Using saved calibration — recalibrate if it moved.” Same tripod spot? You're good. Moved even a little? Recalibrate.

On your Apple Watch Coming soon

No tripod, no problem. Open HoopAxis on your Apple Watch to run a standalone shot counter — tap or Double Tap for makes and misses, set a shot goal, and use the built-in rest timer, all without the phone. When a phone session is running, the watch instead mirrors it live (makes, attempts, FG%, streak) and can flip a miscalled shot or end the session for you. Finish and you get a recap on your wrist; optional heart-rate tracking runs during the workout, and with Pro you can see your make rate at each heart-rate level.

Best practice · 05

Voice coaching & audio

HoopAxis can talk you through a session with spoken, hands-free coaching. A couple of settings make it sound better and fit how you train.

Get a better voice

Out of the box the coach uses your device's default system voice, which can sound robotic. The higher-quality Enhanced and Premium voices aren't bundled with iOS — you download them once, then pick them in HoopAxis.

  1. Open iOS Settings.The Download more voices… button on HoopAxis's Assistant Voice screen takes you straight there.
  2. Go to Accessibility › Spoken Content › Voices.These are the same voices VoiceOver and Spoken Content use, shared across the whole system.
  3. Download an English voice.Look for one marked Enhanced or Premium — a larger download, but dramatically more natural.
  4. Return to HoopAxis and select it.In Assistant Voice, tap the play icon to preview each one; “Automatic” always picks the best voice you have installed.

Tune what the coach says

Each player has their own settings in Profile › Voice Feedback:

  • Voice Coaching — the master switch. Turn it off for a silent session.
  • Voice Pack — pick a personality: Standard, or the Fight and Street packs Pro.
  • Progress Updates — announce makes and attempts every N shots and/or every N minutes.
  • Time Reminder — “5 minutes in,” on an interval you set.
  • Streak & Milestone Callouts — hype on hot streaks and personal records (Side and Scoreboard).
  • Voice Correction — lets you fix a wrong make/miss call by voice (see below).
Best practice · 06

Fixing a wrong call

No tracker is perfect. When HoopAxis calls a make a miss (or the other way round), correct it on the spot so your stats stay honest.

  1. Turn on Voice Correction.In Profile › Voice Feedback, switch on Voice Correction. The microphone is used only during a training session, and audio is never recorded.
  2. Say “flip result” after the shot.The last shot's make/miss flips. You can say it naturally — “that was a make, flip result” works too.
  3. Keep shooting.No need to walk to the phone. The corrected call is what your stats use.
Why it matters

Corrections keep your accuracy and streaks true — and fewer wrong calls usually means a setup fix is due. If you're flipping a lot, check the arc is fully in frame and the hoop has a net.

Best practice · 07

Analyzing footage you already have Pro

No court time? Import a clip from your photo library and HoopAxis breaks it down frame by frame with the same form scoring and shot arc as a live session.

  • For a Side breakdown, import a landscape clip that captures the full arc — it scores makes & misses just like live.
  • For a Front breakdown, import a vertical clip shot facing the shooter — form only, no make scoring.
  • The same rules apply to your footage: orange ball, steady camera, one shooter, the whole arc in frame.
Not supported

Scoreboard / half-court footage can't be imported — the app can't segment shots from that framing. Capture those live in Scoreboard mode instead.

Quick reference

When something's off

The most common symptoms, what usually causes them, and the fastest fix.

SymptomMost likely causeFix
Shots aren't being countedArc leaves the frame, zoom too tight, or the hoop wasn't confirmedBack up or drop to 0.5× so the whole arc fits; re-confirm the hoop
Makes called as misses (or vice-versa)No net, or a chain net with subtle motionSay “flip result” to fix the call; add a string net and keep the ball path fully in frame
“Multiple people in frame” bannerA second person is being trackedClear the frame to one shooter; rebounder steps aside between shots
Tracking stopped mid-sessionThe phone was bumped — calibration invalidatedEnd & restart the session; steady the tripod
“Device is warm / hot” bannerThermal throttlingShade the phone, remove the case, plug in, let it cool
Ball detected in the wrong spotGlare, a second ball, or a non-orange ballKill glare, one orange ball only, wipe the lens
Ball or rim too small / far to trackSet up far away at 1×Move closer, or switch to 2× to magnify the target
Session ended on its ownOverheating, battery < 10%, low storage, or 15 min idleCharge / free up space / cool down, then start fresh
Coach sounds roboticDefault compact system voiceDownload an Enhanced/Premium voice in iOS Settings
“Flip result” does nothingVoice Correction is off, or microphone / speech permission was deniedTurn on Voice Correction in Profile › Voice Feedback; allow Microphone and Speech Recognition in iOS Settings › HoopAxis

Analysis runs on your device. HoopAxis analyzes your form and shots on the phone itself, and your video stays there unless you choose to back it up. The best results come from the basics on this page: a steady tripod at 1.5–1.8 m, an orange ball, a net, one shooter, good light, and a cool phone.