Benchcard works out who is on the floor for every minute of the game, then prints it on a card that fits in your pocket. There is no account, and your roster never leaves your device.

Choosing a plan

Even

Everybody plays as close to the same number of minutes as the clock allows. This is what most rec and youth leagues expect, and it is the right answer if you are not sure.

By hand

You set each player’s total yourself and the plan hits it. Useful when somebody has to leave early, is easing back from an injury, or a parent has asked for something specific. The totals always add up to the whole game, so giving one player more takes it from the others in front of you.

Closers

Even minutes for most of the game, then a group you pick stays on to finish. For the games that are allowed to matter.

Platoon

Two or three fixed fives that swap as whole units. The easiest thing to run from the bench, and good for the youngest ages. The minutes only come out even if the groups themselves are even.

Lineup balance

Even minutes decides how long everyone plays, not who plays together, so five players picked purely for fairness can be your five youngest at once. Give each player a level on the Team page, by tapping a player and choosing their level in the sheet that opens. You do that once a season, not once a game, and the plan keeps the fives from tipping. Minutes do not move. Then pick the shape under Lineup balance beside the plan, which is a call about tonight’s opponent. Levels stay on the Team page: never printed, never shown in bench mode.

Steady

Every stint about as strong as every other.

Start strong

Best five open the game. The closing stints go lighter in exchange. Those minutes have to land somewhere.

Finish strong

Best five saved for the end.

Both ends

Strong to open and close, softer through the middle. The one to pick to get developing players real minutes in a game you expect to be decided late.

Rules

Rules are things you need to be true; the plan works around them. Open a game and tap the rules words in the sentence under its title. That is where you add one, and opening a rule you have added shows a Remove rule button to take it away.

Plays at least / Plays at most

The fewest minutes one player gets, the most, or both. “At least 10” guarantees playing time; “at most 12” holds somebody back.

Starting five / Last-period five

Names who is on the floor at tip-off, or who is out there for the final period.

Together / Apart

Two players who work well as a pair, or two who need separating. By default “together” is a preference the plan maximizes and reports; the switch below the rules makes it a hard requirement for every stint, which costs you evenness.

One of two on

A pair you never want resting at the same time: your two ball handlers, or your two bigs. One of them is on the floor every stint. The mirror of “Apart”: that one is about the floor, this one is about the bench.

Rest limit

The most stints anyone may play back to back. Stops the plan leaving a kid out there for the whole half.

One rule is worth setting once rather than per game. If your league says everyone plays a minimum, Settings holds Everyone plays at least … min, a minimum for the whole team that reaches every available player in every game. A Plays at least you set on one player still wins when it is higher, and a Plays at most you set still wins when it is lower.

A tournament day, and the season

Add a game on Today asks three questions -- who you're playing, who's here, and how minutes should split -- then carries over the format, who is at the gym and your rules from the last game, so only the opponent and tip-off are new. If nothing about the game has changed, the first question offers a Same as …? card with a one-tap Add game that skips straight past the other two. From the second game on there is a switch called Even out earlier games. Leave it on and the day evens out across every game, so a kid who sat more in game 1 gets it back in game 2. Turn it off and each game is fair on its own. The Season screen shows the running totals for the day.

Once a day is over, every game you played on it is filed into the Season screen, which keeps what each player actually played and exports as a spreadsheet. Once a season has games in it, every game gets a second switch called Even out the season so far. It starts the players who are behind for the season a stint or two up, and the ones ahead a stint or two down. The switch is off to begin with; Settings can have each new game open with it already on.

Reading the card

Each box is one stint. On the left is the clock: Q2 8:00 means with 8:00 left in the second period. To its right, ▼ lists who is coming off. Underneath are the five who are on the floor for that stretch, and the underlined names are the ones who just came on. START is your starting five and NO SUBS means nobody changes at that break. Cut along the dashed line.

Two sizes, under Size. Pocket size is 3.45 × 5 in, two to a sheet across, and is the one that lives in a notebook. Half sheet is 8 × 5.1 in, two down the page: the same card in bigger type on a clipboard, and it lays the stints out in two columns, so a long game stays on one card.

Changing the plan mid-game

Bench mode opens the game one stint at a time. Tap whoever is coming off and pick how long the change lasts.

This stint

A one-off swap. The printed plan picks up again at the next change.

Rest of game

Every remaining stint goes to the player you name. This is how you say “Simone takes Rafael’s minutes”.

Sit for the rest

For foul trouble, when you have no opinion about who covers. It sits that player for the rest of the game and spreads the minutes across everyone still available, counting what each has already played. Nothing already played moves, and the round-arrow Back to the printed plan button at the top of bench mode puts the printed plan back.

Settings

Team name

Heads the card when a game has no opponent, and names the day above your games.

Team color

Tints the primary buttons and the selected states across the app.

A game is

Periods, and minutes in each period. A game you add copies the format from the game before it, so this is what a game starts as when there is nothing to copy: a brand new team, or your first game. You can still change it per game from the game screen.

A new game starts

Every game you add can open with “Even out the season so far” already on, so you do not tick it each week. You can still change it per game in the game's Plan, under Across the season. Until a day has been filed there is no season to even out, and both settle a new game the same way.

Players changing at once

How many go on together at a break. Fewer keeps the floor settled; more breaks up long stretches on the bench. Totals come out the same either way.

The odd minutes

When the clock will not divide evenly, somebody plays one stint less. Choose who lands on the high side. Minimum minutes, caps and minutes you set by hand all still win. Until you set levels on the Team page, both settle it the same way.

Everyone plays at least

Minutes, for every player who is available. Leave it at 0 unless your league has a rule. A minimum you set on one player still wins when it is higher, a cap you set still wins when it is lower, and the plan says so if the game is not long enough to give everyone that much.

Backup and restore

Your roster is saved in this browser and nowhere else. Clearing your history can erase it, and so can leaving Benchcard unopened for a week on an iPhone. Save a file now and keep it somewhere you would keep a photo. Some browsers agree to keep Benchcard’s data. Then a week without opening it will not clear your roster, but clearing your history still will. Restoring replaces everything on this device with what is in the file. You get nine seconds to undo it.

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