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Playbooks & PlaysCreating a Playbook

Creating a Playbook

Every great offense starts with a plan. In UltiStackr, that plan lives inside a playbook — a structured collection of plays that your team can study, practice, and execute on game day.

This guide walks you through creating your first playbook, adding plays to it, and organizing everything so your handlers and cutters always know what’s coming next.

Creating a New Playbook

To create a playbook:

  1. Navigate to Playbooks from the main sidebar
  2. Click the + New Playbook button in the top-right corner
  3. Fill in the playbook details:
    • Name — Give it a clear, descriptive name (e.g., “2026 Offensive Sets”, “Zone Defense Package”, “Endzone Plays”)
    • Description — Optional but recommended. Summarize what this playbook covers so teammates can quickly understand its purpose
  4. Click Create

Your new playbook is created and ready for plays.

Choose names that are specific enough to be useful at a glance. “Plays” is not as helpful as “Vertical Stack Offense” or “Junk Zone Looks” when your team is flipping through playbooks on the sideline.

Adding Plays to a Playbook

Once your playbook exists, you can start adding plays:

  1. Open the playbook by tapping on it
  2. Click + New Play inside the playbook
  3. Enter a play name (e.g., “Ho Stack Initiation”, “Endzone Dish”, “Trap Zone Rotation”)
  4. You’ll be taken directly into the Play Designer where you can build out the play visually

You can also add existing plays to a playbook:

  • Use the Copy action on any play to duplicate it into a different playbook
  • Plays can exist in multiple playbooks if needed

Each play belongs to a playbook. If you want to reuse a play across multiple playbooks, duplicate it — this way you can tweak each copy independently without affecting the original.

Organizing Plays Within a Playbook

As your playbook grows, keeping it organized makes a big difference — especially when you’re trying to pull up the right endzone set during a timeout.

Reordering Plays

Drag and drop plays within a playbook to reorder them. A common approach:

  1. Pull plays at the top (what happens right after the pull)
  2. Mid-field flow plays in the middle
  3. Endzone plays toward the bottom
  4. Defensive sets in their own dedicated playbook

Naming Conventions

Establish a naming system your team understands. Some ideas:

  • Prefix with the type: O: Ho Stack, D: 3-3-1 Zone, EZ: Flood Right
  • Number your plays: Play 1 - Vertical Initiation, Play 2 - Side Stack Reset
  • Use your team’s existing call names so the playbook matches what you shout on the field

Personal vs Team Playbooks

UltiStackr supports two kinds of playbooks:

Personal Playbooks

  • Created by you, visible only to you by default
  • Great for drafting plays before sharing them with the team
  • Useful for personal study, scouting notes, or experimental ideas
  • Can be shared later with specific users or teams when you’re ready

Team Playbooks

  • Associated with a specific team in UltiStackr
  • Automatically accessible to team members based on their role and the playbook’s sharing settings
  • The standard choice for any playbook the team needs to study or reference
  • Team admins and coaches can manage access and permissions

Start with a personal playbook while you’re drafting and experimenting. Once the plays are polished, share the playbook with your team or move the plays into a team playbook. No one needs to see your first attempt at diagramming a scoober play.

Moving Between Personal and Team

To move a playbook between personal and team scope, use the Copy or Clone action:

  1. Open the playbook you want to move
  2. Use the Copy to Team option to clone it into a team playbook, or Copy to Personal to clone a team playbook into your personal library
  3. The original playbook remains in its current scope — you can delete it after verifying the copy

This approach lets you review and adjust the copy before making it available in the new scope.

For more details on sharing and permissions, see Sharing Playbooks.

What’s Next

Now that you have a playbook with plays, it’s time to design your first play:

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