# Timeline keys, annotations and freezes

Canonical: https://rufiostats.com/help/court/timeline-and-annotations
Reviewed: 2026-10-13

Adjust a player at a particular moment and add saved coaching arrows, zones, labels or freezes.

## Hand edits and the timeline

- **Drag a player** on the court to move them at the current moment. Dragging sets a key at the playhead, or updates the one that is already there. Hold **Shift** while dragging to bypass snapping.
- Press **K** to add a key for the selected player at the playhead.
- The **timeline** at the bottom has a lane for each player and one for the ball. Drag a key to retime it. Drag across keys to select several, and copy and paste them with Ctrl/Cmd+C and Ctrl/Cmd+V.
- Press **S** to turn snapping on or off. It snaps to zone centers and a half-meter grid.
- Press **I** to show or hide the inspector, where you can set a player's number, position, label, and build, and edit exact key times and positions. Settings for the whole play (title, court, venue, branding, players, teams and your defaults for new plays) are in the **Settings** dialog: tap the gear in the header, or click the play title.

**Hand edits win**

In a play built from touches, a key you change by hand is kept when you change the touch list afterwards, and it wins at its own moment. The Edit touches panel shows how many hand-edited keys are being kept. Deleting a key the Court generated does not stick, because the touch list rebuilds it.

- **Clear hand edits:** the **Clear** button in the Hand edits section drops your manual keys and lets the touch list drive everything again.
- **Detach from touch script:** keeps the play exactly as it is, as plain keys, and drops the touch list. Use it when you want full manual control. It can be undone.

## Annotations and freezes

Pick an annotation tool in the left toolbar, then click on the court:

| Tool | Key | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Arrow | A | A run or ball-path arrow. |
| Zone | Z | Highlights an area of the court. |
| Text callout | T | A label floating over the court. |
| Cone | C | A training cone, for drills. |
| Ghost | G | A faint figure showing where a player should be, with an arrow from where they actually are. |

Annotations appear at the playhead and can be retimed in the inspector.

A **freeze** pauses the action at a moment so you can make a point. Press **F** (or tap **Freeze** on the timeline) to add one at the playhead, then write a caption in the inspector. The caption shows in the Court and is burned into shared clips as a lower-third.

Freeze right at contact and add a ghost for where the passer should have been. It reads clearly even on a phone screen.

## Temporary marks or saved annotations

View mode’s coaching marks help explain the current replay. Switch to **Edit mode** to add annotations to the play itself. Save that play if the arrows or captions need to be there next time.

Before exporting, scrub through the annotation’s appearance and disappearance times. The [clip preview](https://rufiostats.com/help/court/exporting-clips) is the place to check what the viewer will see.