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GCLab Beta Tester Guide

Thank you for testing GCLab — the golf croquet performance lab.
This guide covers everything you need to get started.

🔬What is GCLab?

GCLab is a personal performance tool and community analytics platform for golf croquet players. It lets you log games with different levels of detail — from a simple score to full shot-by-shot analysis — and generates analytics, reports, and insights from that data.

You may already know gcrankings.com — the free public rankings site powered by WCF data. GCLab is the next layer: your personal analytics dashboard, game logging, and detailed shot tracking. Where WCF data tracks sanctioned events, GCLab allows all your games to be logged and used in analysis.

As a beta tester, please log games, explore features, and tell us what's broken or confusing. Don't worry about messing anything up — we'll clear all test data before launch.

📝The Game Loggers

GCLab has several ways to log games, each capturing a different level of detail. More detail means richer analytics. Here's what each logger does:

🔢Score Logger
The quickest way to record a game. Just enter the final score, who played first, opponent, and date. Takes 30 seconds.
Unlocks
  • Statistics on the advantage playing first to hoop 1 and hoop 13/19
  • Win/loss record and win rate
  • Head-to-head history with opponents
  • Game appears on your dashboard timeline
⭕Hoop Logger
Record who scored each hoop. Great for logging games from memory after they happen.
Unlocks
  • Everything from Score, plus:
  • Hoop-by-hoop timeline visualization
  • Break and Hold advantage analysis
  • Comeback and blown lead detection
  • Score state win probability
🎯Shot Logger
Full shot-by-shot logging. When the watch app is ready this will be practice for real time. Live logging is most practical now for spectating a match. Records shot type (hoop, roquet, clearance, etc.), outcome, distance, and more.
Unlocks
  • Everything from Hoops, plus:
  • Shot accuracy by type and distance
  • Miss direction tendencies
  • PDF report card with full breakdown
  • Shot-level game replay
🎥YouTube Video Logger
Paste a YouTube link of a recorded match, watch it, and log every shot with a click. Auto-timestamps link shots to video moments. Games can be logged much faster than real time — it gets easier and faster as you go.
Unlocks
  • Everything from Shot Logger, plus:
  • Video timestamps
  • Clickable shot replay from game detail
  • Community shot database for analytics
  • The richest possible game data
💡 Tip: Try the YouTube Logger
Check out the video log of the 2026 US Open Final between Matthew Essick and Reg Bamford — it's a great example of what full shot data looks like. Then try logging a game yourself. The best method: paste the YouTube URL, pop out the video player, and arrange your windows side by side on a desktop or laptop so you can see both the video and the logger. A detailed logging guide is coming soon.

🌍WCF Game Matching

When you play in a WCF-sanctioned event, those games appear in the WCF rankings system. GCLab can match your logged games to their WCF records, connecting your enhanced data to the official result.

1
Automatic matching
If you log a game with the same players, score, and date as a WCF game, GCLab will detect the match automatically.
2
Manual matching
You can also match after the fact. On your dashboard, WCF games that haven't been enriched show an Add Data button — click it to add who played first and/or hoop data.
3
Why it matters
Matched games combine your detailed data (hoops, shots, who played first) with the official WCF result. This additional data powers the deepest analytics.

🤝Two-Player Confirmation

When you log a casual game, your opponent will be asked to confirm the result. Once both players confirm, the game becomes part of the global games database — contributing to community-wide statistics. The power of the data grows as more players of all different grade levels contribute. In the future we will be able to provide data to inform tactical decision making and training guides for players trying to improve.

Unconfirmed games still appear on your personal dashboard and analytics — they just won't be included in public stats until both players agree.

🧪 Testing Tip
You can log games against any player. If you log against a player not in the beta test the games won't be confirmed — feel free to try it. Use Adam Barr as your opponent to test the full two-player confirmation flow. He'll confirm your test games so they flow through to the global stats. Feel free to fictionalize scores and data — we'll clear all test data before launch, and players will get to confirm what's real before anything goes public.

✅What We'd Love You to Test

Try as many of these as you can:

  • Log a score-only casual game — the simplest flow. Enter score, opponent, date.
  • Log a game with hoops — record who scored each hoop.
  • Try the YouTube logger — find a match on YouTube (or use the US Open Final link) and log some shots. Even a partial log is useful for testing.
  • Check a game detail page — open any logged game and explore the hoop timeline, shot breakdown, and try the PDF report.
  • Add data to a WCF game — we show WCF games you played within the last 6 months. Remembering anything beyond that seemed impractical. New WCF games get added as they appear in the WCF database. If you play a real event, log the hoops immediately after the game. After the event the WCF will update and the game you created hoops for will be matched to the real game.
  • Browse the All Games page — filter by data type, try the emoji legend, expand a match.
  • Test on mobile — most features should work on your phone too.

👀What to Look For

  • Broken layouts — text overlapping, things cut off, especially on mobile
  • Wrong data — scores, grades, or stats that don't match reality
  • Confusing UX — anywhere you're not sure what to do next
  • Errors — pages that fail to load, buttons that don't respond
  • Missing features — things you'd expect but can't find
  • Slow pages — anything taking more than a few seconds

🐛How to Report Issues

Use the 🐛 Feedback button in the bottom-right corner of every page. Just tell us:
1.What happened? — Describe what you saw or what went wrong.
2.What did you expect? — What should have happened instead.

The page URL and your browser info are captured automatically — no need to include those.

⚠️Known Limitations

  • Analytics reporting page is not available yet — the priority is getting the loggers working and being used. We need clean data coming in, then we can build the analytics tools.
  • Apple Watch tap-to-log for live play is planned but not yet available — this will unlock the ability to capture the best data efficiently
  • YouTube logging guide with consistency standards is in progress
  • PDF report formatting may vary slightly across browsers — please report issues

🚀Getting Started

1
Create your account and link your WCF profile
Click the Create Account button below. Use your real name — during onboarding you'll search for and link your WCF profile, which pulls in your grade history, career stats, and game records.
2
Log your first game
Hit the + Log Game button in the nav bar. Start simple with score-only — it takes 30 seconds. Then try hoops or shot logging for deeper analytics.
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Thank you for helping shape GCLab. Your feedback and logged games make this better for everyone.