# Manual Tracking — Tagging Shots Yourself

> Our recommended two-pass workflow for tagging by hand: time the shots first, then classify them.

Source: https://getgoodatbadminton.com/docs/manual-tracking
Updated: 2026-10-04
Answers: How do I tag shots myself? / What's the best way to tag a match by hand? / How do game dividers and score increments work?

## What manual tracking is

Manual tracking is when you tag the shots yourself in the editor, instead of sending the whole match for automatic tracking. It gives you full control over the data, and it has a nice side benefit: because you've supplied the shot timings, you can hand off the rest and we'll finish the match for about half the cost. See [Tracking and Tokens](https://getgoodatbadminton.com/docs/auto-tracking-tokens) for how that pricing works.

## Our recommended workflow

We tag matches in two passes — time the shots first, then classify them. Doing one job at a time is faster and more accurate than trying to do everything in a single pass.

### Pass 1 — Time the shots

Play the video and tap a player key at the exact moment the racket meets the shuttle. By default, **X tags a shot for player 1** and **Z tags a shot for player 2** on whichever side is active. Each tap drops a shot at that moment — don't worry about what kind of shot it is yet.

With alternation on, the active side flips automatically after each shot, so you mostly just alternate between your keys as the rally goes back and forth. You can switch sides by hand whenever you need to, and you can rebind these keys if the defaults don't suit you.

The goal of this pass is simple: land a marker right on each shuttle contact, for the right player. Aim for the moment of contact, not the start of the swing or where the shuttle lands.

### Pass 2 — Classify the shots

Once your timings are in, go back through the rally and fill in what each shot actually was. For each shot you'll set the striking side, the family (the broad type of shot), the variant, and the direction. The keyboard moves you through these quickly, and you can set up presets to bundle several of them under a single key.

### Find the shots you missed

Beside the toolbar, the editor counts the shots that still have an empty field. Press **Shift + ↑** to jump to the next one and **Shift + ↓** to go back. The video seeks to that shot, and the panel on the right tells you what it is missing. On the timeline, those shots carry a small dot above their marker.

Fill a shot in and it drops out of the count. Keep going until the counter reads "All shots fully tracked".

A shot counts as fully tracked when it has a striker, a striking side, a family and a direction. Net, lift, drive and block shots also need a contact point. A serve needs its variant (Short, Long or Drive) and a placement instead of a direction. On every other shot the variant is optional. The counter is a guide: it never stops you from finishing your own match.

## Game dividers and score increments

Two buttons on the timeline toolbar that most matches never need.

- **Game divider** marks where a new game starts. Drop it between the last rally of one game and the first serve of the next, never at the start of the first game. Rallies after it count toward the next game, and its score starts from 0–0. Dividers can only be added while tracking, not in review.
- **Score increment** awards a point that wasn't won in a rally, such as a red card, a walkover or a forfeit. Choose the side and the moment it happened, then run **Mark for review** again so the scores after it update.

## Tips

- Timing first, classifying second keeps you focused — one decision at a time.
- If a rally is fast or messy, watch it once before you tag it.
- Keep your eyes on the contact point and let alternation handle the sides for you.
- Don't want to classify at all? Tag just the timings and hand the match off — we'll fill in the rest for about half the cost.

## Related guides

- [See the full workflow in the guided demo](https://getgoodatbadminton.com/demo)
- [Match Tracker](https://getgoodatbadminton.com/docs/match-tracker)
- [Automatic Tracking and Tokens](https://getgoodatbadminton.com/docs/auto-tracking-tokens)
- [Recording Your Matches](https://getgoodatbadminton.com/docs/recording-matches)
- [Glossary](https://getgoodatbadminton.com/docs/glossary)