Guides / Start here

Setup · About 10 minutes

Getting started

Install, add your athlete, log one session. That is a day won before dinner, and it takes about ten minutes. Everything else on this page can wait until tomorrow.

Watch this guide on YouTubeThe same guide, narrated, one chapter per screen. Opens on YouTube; nothing from YouTube loads on this page.

TierBreak is free on the App Store. Track a match point by point, see The Proof, and start Phase 1 of the Mental Pathway at no cost. Get the app.

1. Install TierBreak

Download it free from the App Store, on iPhone, iPad, and Mac (a Mac needs Apple silicon); improvements arrive on their own between App Store updates.

2. Create the family account

One account per family, held by an adult or a player aged 13+. Sign in with Apple, Google, or email. That account owns everything: athlete profiles, match history, training logs, and privacy settings.

3. Add your athlete

The welcome screen asks who is setting up, then for the first athlete: a first name and a date of birth are all it takes. Girls' or boys' events, their USTA ID and your home ZIP are optional; the ZIP lets the tournament planner say how far each event is from home. Add more athletes any time from Settings → + Add player; they all live under your one family account. For now, you manage the profile from your phone. An athlete aged 13+ can get their own login later; that is in the second half of this page.

Under 13? A child under 13 cannot sign themselves up and cannot be invited. You create and control their profile, the app records your consent when you do, and if you want them to have their own sign-in you create it yourself from Settings. It has no AI and no private writing, so you can read everything, and you can withdraw it whenever you like. Full picture in the parents' guide.

4. Set one number

In the Week tab, set how many days a week your athlete normally trains right now. That is the plan the daily ring measures against, and it is the only number you need on day one. Honest beats ambitious; raise it as the athlete grows. Hours and physical targets are optional and can wait.

5. Log tonight's session and win the day

Open Today and tap Train in the Win the Day card: tennis or physical, how long, up to three things they worked on, and the quality of the work, 1 to 5. Save it. The Win the Day ring fills. You are done for today; that is the whole habit, and it is worth a page of its own: Log a session and win the day.

Days won build streaks, weeks hit build the weeks-hit streak, and both show up in Sunday's Weekly Review. The whole system is built on one idea: show up today and let the proof accumulate. Planned rest days count; rest is part of the plan, not a failure.

Two small things worth doing before you close the app: add the Win the Day widget (press and hold the home screen → tap + → search TierBreak) so the ring is visible without opening the app, and say yes when the app asks about notifications; everything it sends is local to the phone.

When you have a minute: the second half

None of this is needed tonight. Each piece works better once a few sessions are logged, because each one reads from that record.

Give a 13+ athlete their own login

Invite them from the app. Open Settings → Family, choose to invite an athlete, and pick which athlete profile the invite is for. TierBreak creates an invite link and code; share it by text, email, or AirDrop.
They install TierBreak from the App Store on their own iPhone, the same way you did.
They sign in and accept. Their own Apple, Google, or email login is now connected to the family and to their profile.

From then on the athlete logs their own sessions, matches, and mental work, and you both see the same picture: one profile, shared between you.

Enter their ratings

Open the Season tab and enter your athlete's World Tennis Number and UTR, singles and doubles, from the numbers you already know. Every future update you enter becomes a point on the line, next to the training that produced it. No USTA account or external login is needed; your family enters and owns its numbers. Never played a rated event? Skip this; it will be ready when they are. One detail worth adding from the player's Edit screen: gender, because WTN and UTR are calibrated separately for boys and girls.

Ratings are also optional for your athlete to SEE. In Settings → Ratings on the athlete's login you decide whether their login shows ratings and rankings at all. Many families keep young competitors on the daily work and turn the number on later. Why, in the parents' guide.

Take the Mental Pathway placement

Open the Mind tab. About ten minutes of honest self-ratings places the athlete in the right phase of a five-phase mental curriculum; from then on one two-minute item shows up on Today, and the whole pathway, the guided audio and the focus games stay one tap away on Mind. There is no failing score, only a starting line. Tour in the Mental Pathway guide.

Put the season on the calendar

On the Compete tab, add what is coming: Find a tournament for the next tournament, + Add for a practice match or a camp week. Save the tournaments you are considering and the season plan shows them month by month. Event days show as dots on the training calendar, the app nudges you the evening before, and a scheduled practice match is one tap from live tracking. Details in Planning the season.

Your first week

Day	Do this
Today	Account, athlete, one number, widget. Log one session.
Every practice	Log it within the hour. That is the habit.
Next match	Track it live, two taps a point. Here's how. Not ready? Log the result and add a reflection; that is a real record too.
Sunday	Open the Weekly Review on the Week tab. Read it together. Celebrate one thing.
Week two	Ratings, the placement, the calendar, a coach. One at a time.

Next: Track your first match → Or read the one-minute habit on its own.

Go deeper

From the blog, where these questions get the long answer.

Junior Tennis Player Development Plan That Holds Up

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