If you’ve been in the basketball coaching game much longer than five years, you remember the hassle of film exchanges with other coaches. You remember the times where the only film your players could watch was when you put the VHS or DVD in after a practice to catch a quarter or two. You remember statting a game was a pen-and-paper process that could take hours to tally. Fortunately, those times are long gone.
Hudl has completely transformed how basketball teams function, and they’ve transformed it in the best way possible. By the end of this article, you’ll be salivating at all of the features Hudl has to offer. And the best part is, your players will be salivating for it, too.
One Place For All of Your Film
The beauty of Hudl is that it is a library of all of your film. You don’t have to fill desk drawers with DVDs and VHS’s. Hudl keeps all of your film for all of your games right in your library. It’s a simple, organized place for everything your basketball team needs.
Another awesome aspect is that all of your scout film lives in that same library. You just store the scout film under the opponent you’re preparing for, and the film lives there.
But how do you get the film for your opponents. That’s through film exchanges.
Film Exchanges
As we mentioned above, film exchanges used to be such a hassle for coaches. You’d have to either send film in the mail, or meet up with other coaches to swap film on opponents. That pain point is now completely gone with Hudl. Now it’s as simple as a few clicks. Sound too good to be true? Well, it’s not. Here’s how it works:
Such a tedious process that is now so simple. That feature alone is enough to get you on board, but it’s one of many features that attracts coaches to Hudl.
Film Analysis & Breakdown
One of our favorite features about Hudl is your ability as a coach to dive into your film and break it down as you see fit. You can:
- Create playlists of items you want to highlight. For example:
- Defense
- Opponent’s sets
- Baseline out of bounds plays
- Offensive sets
- Turnovers
- Etc.
- Add notes & drawings
- Highlight things your team does well
- Show where they need to get better
- Draw up where somebody should have gone
- Tag your player’s highlights
- We’ll get into this more a little later
- Use stats as shortcuts to find key moments in your video
- Want to see all of your turnovers? You can find it quickly.
- Find all three pointers made
- See every shot one player missed
- The opportunities are endless
So what does all of this analysis and breakdown mean? It means more efficient film sessions for your team. No more having to rewind and fast forward. Just a couple of clicks and you can show your team everything you want them to see!
It brings all of your coaching lessons to life. You’re able to send your breakdowns and drawings to your players in film review, and they know exactly what you’re trying to articulate.
Stat Tracking
We mentioned earlier that you’re able to use stats as shortcuts in Hudl to find key moments in your games. Hudl has three ways that you’re able to track stats in their app.
- Track live – With this feature, you’re able to have an assistant coach or manager track your stats live during a game. With this method, you’re able to see where adjustments need to be made at halftime, and you’re provided with detailed analyses immediately.
- Track after the game – Sometimes keeping up with the stats during live game action can be too much for your assistants or managers to handle, so you need to track the stats after the game. This is an excellent way to track player stats, and it will aid in your tagging of all of the important aspects of the game.
- Hudl Assist – This is our favorite method. This is a program that Hudl has in place in which they do the stat-tracking for you, and give you all of the details of your game back within 24 hours. Leave the legwork to them, and you can guarantee that your stats and breakdowns are accurate!
Player Highlights
This is what will get your players excited about using Hudl. Not only are they able to watch opponent film and see film breakdowns of your team, they’re also able to create individual highlights to help get them to the next level! They’re able to take all of their highlights from all of their games, add title slides and music, and create a professional-looking highlight of their season in review.
They’re able to send this on to college coaches, recruiting agencies, etc. This is a game-changer for your student-athletes!
I think it’s safe to say that Hudl is a tool that every basketball program, from youth, to high school, and even to AAU, needs. It’s a one-stop shop for everything your coaches, players, and even parents need.
Have feedback or questions on Hudl? Let us know in the comments!
