FAQs

Q: This is awesome! Why did you make it?

A: Every other sport has software made for them, and I thought it would be a fun challenge to try to create one with no programming knowledge and only using AI.

Q: It isn't working!

A: That is not a question, but please email me at zdschmoll@gmail.com. Please describe the exact nature of the problem. Most problems are going to be able to be solved by running the program in Google Chrome. It is the most consistent in the trials I have done for some reason. If that does not solve your problem, please let me know. I have tried to break it in every way I can, but there are always new ways to break things.

Q: If I make a play, will anybody else be able to see it?

A: After you leave the browser window, the play you have created is not saved anywhere. There is no way to save any files online. Therefore, if you create something but might want to edit it later, make sure that you download the .json version. That is the only version that works with the Load Play button, allowing you to reopen a play and edit it again.

Q: I want my teammates to see what I have made. What should I do?

A: If you want your teammates to be able to edit what you have done, email the .json. They will then be able to edit it, export their own .json and email it back to you. If you do not want them to edit it, probably the PDF is the most efficient way. You can also download just the images if you want to import them into Microsoft Word or some other format that your team uses to share.

Q: How do I make it animate?

A: Animation is achieved through the slides feature when the video, .webm, file is exported. For example, if on your first slide you have a player on the left side of the box but you want him to move to the right, add a second slide and move that marker to the right; that animation will be applied when you export the video. Typically, when I create animations, I create the first slide and add arrows to indicate what is about to happen. I will then add a slide, move everybody to the positions they need to be in, and draw more arrows if I need to indicate what will happen on the third slide. Drawing arrows does not automatically move or rotate the figures; they still need to be moved and rotated manually. However, from a coaching perspective, I find the arrows helpful.

Q: I want to share a play or a drill to post on the website. How would I do that?

A: Email me the PNG files. My email is zdschmoll@gmail.com. Also, describe to me how the drill ought to be run. I may edit your writing for spelling and clarity. I will also attribute you as the contributor who decided to submit. I want to have a giant library of drills, appropriately labeled and searchable so that teams are able to run better practices. 

Q: I don't want anyone else to see our team's strategies, so I don't want to submit them to the blog. Can I submit other plays?

A: I entirely understand; I would feel the same way as would my team. However, with all of the footage on YouTube now, no one is saying that if you see an awesome play in the World Cup, you cannot draw that and submit it. If you do something like that, please email me the timestamp from the video as well so that I can link to that in the website as well. Then people can see the diagram and what it looks like in real life.

Q: The wheelchairs do not necessarily pivot like normal, rear-wheel drive chairs; the rotation point seems to be in the middle. Can you change the rotational axis? The curved line doesn't necessarily look perfect, what's the deal?

A: I am continually going to be trying to make this more and more realistic as we go, but the more specific details I work on, the longer they seem to take. As a result, I am going to continue polishing, but it is perfectly functional right now, and I will continue working on the polish.

Q: Is everything to scale?

A: The playing field is 28 m x 15 m, a standard basketball court per the laws of the game. Everything has been created to proportion, including the length of the various parts of the wheelchairs. I measured them off of my real life wheelchair and created the various parts to scale. I know there is some variation in wheelchair size, but I chose mine just because I know that it fits within the rules of the game which was my benchmark.

Q: Why can I only export the WebM animation from the last slide?

A:  I was having an error where if I tried to generate the animation from any other slide, it would overwrite the previous slide with the last slide. This seemed to be the most reliable and consistent solution.