Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Hudl

To start off I will give some background information on why I chose Hudl.  I used to work as a video coordinator at the University of Maryland.  My job included filming practices and games, creating opponent and self scout videos, cut ups of games for players and coaches and pump-up and end of year highlight videos.

At Maryland we used a program called SportsCode to capture practice and game film and then cut up the game into specific clips for the coaches and players to watch.  We also recorded directly to tape and DVD. Only myself, the other video coordinators and the coaches had this software installed on their computers.  The reason was that the cost, depending on the version, could be anywhere from about $3,000 to $20,000 per license; also the software only runs on a Mac so that is an additional cost.  Once the practice or game was captured and cut up, we would copy the edited file to the coaches computers so they could watch on their own or with the team.  We would also burn DVD's for the players to take home.

To create highlight videos we would use programs like FinalCut or Adobe Premiere.  But again those are expensive programs.  Here are two examples of a highlight videos I created for the Maryland Men's Soccer team using FinalCut:

Some of the problems with this software is:
1. cost
2. availability
3. being able to control if players were watching film or not

When I started working at Loyola Blakefield, I really wanted to get involved with lacrosse.  I sat down and talked to the coach about what I used to do for Maryland.  He really liked the idea, but at the high school level, the money was not there to purchase SportsCode.  I started doing some research and talked to a few of the other lacrosse coaches I knew from college and high school and found Hudl.

Hudl is a combination of a web based application and a software application.  It's not free (you can sign up for a 30 day trial), but it's a lot cheaper that SportsCode and other tools that are similar.  To capture video you need to download the software from their website, plug your video camera into your computer and start capturing.  Once you are done capturing, you upload the video to your Hudl account and can start editing clips for coaches and players to watch.

A great benefit of Hudl compared to other similar products is that you can add other coaches to the account as well as players.  When their accounts are created, they are sent an email with their log on credentials.  Coach accounts can be set up to be able to upload and edit film or just watch film.  Player accounts can only watch film, but they can also create their own highlight videos to send to recruiters.  Here are a few other benefits that I have found:
1. Being able to add and delete accounts as an administrator of your account
2. Assign specific clips to individual players, groups of players or the whole team
3. Exchange video with other teams that use Hudl(two way) or send film to teams that do not use Hudl(one way)
4. Monitor what players are watching and how long they are spending watching video
5. Can be used on a PC or a Mac since it is web based
6. Log into Hudl from anywhere that has an internet connection(don't need to use the same computer)
7. There are iOS and Android apps available also to be able to watch video from your smart phone or tablet

Here is a screenshot showing the video cut up screen in Hudl:











Here is a short video of goals I created with Hudl:
 
Although Hudl doesn't have a use in the classroom for teaching lessons; it does have one for sports teams.  This would be a great tool for teachers that also coach to use to help their students learn from watching game film.

6 comments:

  1. Even though the site is geared for sports, I wonder if you could simply upload any type of video. If so, a teacher could essentially create a video library of lessons, topics, and/or explanations for students and parents. I know a HUGE complaint of many parents in Elementary schools and probably Middle and High Schools, is that they do not know how to help their child complete homework. Math for example, we all have been taught it differently. If the teacher recorded how to solve, let's say adding fractions together, they could add it to a video library. The teacher could then create an account with logins for both parents and students. Students could then view the videos as a pre-teach or re-teach. The parents could also view the video to learn HOW the teacher has explained how to solve problems, thus helping parents help their children. If you can only upload sports videos, then my above comment is null and void. - Amy

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  2. Any type of video could be uploaded to Hudl, but I think its geared more towards sports. It makes it easy to mark just the goals in a soccer game for example and be able to just watch those clips instead of the whole game. Ether way I think its a great tool for schools to use for athletics, especially for high schools. It's an easy way for students to create their own highlight videos and send them to recruiters at the colleges they potentially want to attend. With colleges getting more picky about who they take, it's a tool to help them stand out among the many.

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  3. I just wanted to say that I got very excited when I saw this post. I am a huge Terps fan and that includes Maryland Soccer! I loved watching the highlight videos. Thanks for sharing! :)

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    1. Thank you for commenting. I used to work for the University of Maryland Athletic department. I worked there while I was a student and then for a few years after. It was fun traveling around with the different teams, especially soccer, but it got old real fast. Plus trying to start family was really hard when I was gone all the time. I miss working for Sasho. My best experience was traveling to the national championship game in 2008. I still have my championship ring and a ball signed by the whole team.

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  4. Wow, this seems like it would be a little intense for someone like me who does not know that much about editing videos but I like the idea that you shared about having students use it for highlights and recruitment. It would also be cool to use during the season to capture some of the teams best moments and they turn it into a video to share at and end of the season banquet. Nice work!

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    1. Having some background knowledge in video editing is a plus, but there are many great tutorials on Hudl's site. I had never used this before last year and had to teach myself. I may have left that out, but it definitely has a use for creating end of year highlights for the whole team or for individual players. The teams at Loyola Blakefield use it to create a highlight to show during their end of year banquet. The great thing about it is that you can plug your camera into your laptop during a game and record the video live into Hudl. If you have an internet connection during the game it goes straight to the site ready for editing, if not then you just have to upload it to the site after the game. Thanks for the comment.

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