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.