HUDL: The Uses and Benefits of Film Breakdown Software

Matt Ulrich

Notre Dame College

Image Courtesy of floridahsfootball.com

HUDL Resource

This document is a resource to help players understand the features and benefits of HUDL.

It will touch on everything from what HUDL is and getting your HUDL account set up, to

breaking down and running specific reports on opponent’s games. Today’s workshop will be

conducted with four players, two returning to the program from the previous year and two

incoming freshmen. This document will be available to the players throughout the season to

look back upon. This resource will also be available to all players on the team to look at on their

own time. Because the four players participating in the workshop play on defense, parts of this

document will be weighted towards use by players in defensive positions. That being said, Hudl

remains a valuable tool for players in all positions, whether new to the program, or returning

players.

Not only will players be instructed on how to use the features of HUDL, but will also be

instructed in the best way to utilize this resource to watching opponents film and analyze their

tendencies. It will discuss what to look for when watching film and how to sort plays to watch

important scenarios. The players will learn how to watch themselves on film and learn from

their mistakes. They will learn how to communicate with the coaches and ask questions

through HUDL when at home.

From the information received from the surveys taken by the players attending the

workshops it is clear that the two incoming freshmen will benefit more from the more general

information on HUDL. This information will be towards the first part of this document and the

first part of the workshop. The information at the end of the document and workshop about

using HUDL to learn about your opponent will be better suited for the returning players.

What is HUDL?

HUDL is an online program used to bridge the gap between coaches and players. The

mission of HUDL is simply stated “We help coaches and athletes win” (Hudl.com). Founded by

three young men in 2006, HUDL is a program the makes all of the video, diagrams and

presentation securely available to the entire team over the Internet. Prior to HUDL, football

coaches spent large amounts of time pouring over copies of game film, burning DVDs of game

film and creating “phone-book sized paper playbooks to every single athlete on the team”

(Hudl.com). HUDL is now available as a database where all can have access to necessary

strategic data in order to support a winning season. It is the perfect example of the way

technology can support learning, communication, management and performance in a

classroom/on a game field. According to the U.S. Department of Education, technology is:

“Used to support both teaching and learning, technology infuses classrooms with digital learning tools, such as computers and hand held devices; expands course offerings, experiences, and learning materials; supports learning 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; builds 21st century skills; increases student engagement and motivation and accelerates learning”. Approximately 48 states support online learning opportunities (www.ed.gov).

When entering hudl.com, the opening page reads, “Improve performance for any sport. If

you can record it, you can learn from it”. Upon entering the Football section of HUDL the page

reads, “Break down full games with custom reports and playlists tailored to help every athlete

improve”. With HUDL, athletes have access, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to learn, review,

critique and improve upon their athletic skills through the use of a 21st century medium.

Computer use, specifically internet use, has drastically increased, making HUDL an available

option to all ages and ability levels. The United States Census Bureau reported 18% of

households had internet use in 1997. This increased to 74.8% in 2012 and has since risen. HUDL

is available on both computers as well as mobile options. 43.5% of individuals 25 years and

older were using smartphones in 2012. According to The United States Census Bureau 88.1% of

ages 25-34 year olds used the internet and 70.6% used a Smartphone, therefore making Hudl

an accessible adjunct to traditional coaching styles (www.census.gov)

What are the benefits of Hudl?

Accessibility is only one of the many benefits of HUDL. Coaches and players can access

game film, practice film, and opponent film anytime and anywhere through HUDL software, as

long as they have internet access. Film can watched on desktops, laptops, tablets, and even

smart phones. College football players and college football coaches have very demanding

schedules, creating a need for an efficient and accessible program such as HUDL. Availability is

an extremely valuable benefit of HUDL. Coaches and players can watch film while on a bus on

the way to and from a game, waiting for one of their classes to start, or at their leisure.

Communication is another valuable benefit of HUDL. For coaches, HUDL is a sanctuary to

manage their team. When you have a team of 140 players, it can be very difficult to

communicate things to everyone. HUDL has a message system to enhance that communication

to all of the players. When adding an athlete to your team’s HUDL account, the coach will add

their NDC email, their cell phone number, and their cell phone provider (example- Verizon,

Sprint, etc.) As long as the player’s account has those three things, any one of the coaches can

send out messages to the entire team. During the two week fall camp before school starts, the

players receive a schedule telling them exactly where they have to be at all times. Throughout

camp there are a number of changes that happen to the schedule due to unforeseeable

circumstances. This feature of HUDL makes it easy to communicate these types of things to the

entire team. Other examples of how the communication feature works is if the defensive

coordinator wants the entire defense to bring their playbook to a meeting, they can send an

email and/or text to just the defensive players. If the linebackers coach wants to tell the

linebackers that their grade checks are being moved from Monday to Tuesday, he can send a

message to only the linebackers. If a coach wants to communicate to a several players from

different position groups about appropriate dress for community service they are doing, he can

choose their names and send them all the same message. The versatility of communication

options is a huge benefit.

HUDL is a learning tool for everyone. Football can be compared to battle, not only

because of its physical nature but because of the tactics and strategies used in both. Film

breakdown is a large part of coaching and HUDL provides a means for this task. Coaches use

this learning tool to breakdown film and strategize against opponents. Coaches use this

footage in order to research other teams. They are then able to analyze and counterattack

accordingly. Coaches study film to find weaknesses in their opponent’s offense, defense, and

special teams. They not only look for weaknesses in schemes, but also in player personnel on

the field. The film is cut into individual plays, instead of continuous film. The clips of plays are

grouped up into playlists from different periods of practice or by games. This software creates

a spreadsheet that breaks down each period into categories such as what play is ran, what the

down and distance is, what personnel is, etc. Each row on the spreadsheet is a play and you

can have columns to categorize and sort plays within a playlist. There are an endless number

of ways to categorize the plays run. You can categorize the plays into complex columns such as

formation tree, or it can be as simple as what hash the ball is on or what quarter it is.

Coaches are able to guide their players to be successful against opponents, while players

are able to analyze their specific actions and adjust accordingly to increase performance. For

example, teams exchange the most recent three games played. If a coach or player is watching

opponent scout film, they have the ability to bring up all three games at the same time and

quickly sort the clips so that they can view all plays in certain, specific situations. For example, if

a player wants to watch every clip from those three games when the opponent’s offense was in

a third and seven, eight, nine, or ten situation, he can do that. This will give the player or coach

the ability to get a grasp for what the opponent is trying to do or what plays they want to run in

those certain situations. They can watch plays from any situation they can think of.

If a player wants to watch practice, they can watch to see if they are taking the correct

steps and using the right technique. Whether your team wins or loses, players and coaches can

review film of their previous game or games to see what they need to improve on. They can

evaluate what mistakes were the most costly throughout the game.

Another valuable learning tool used in HUDL is the playbook feature. You are able to

put your playbook on HUDL through what is just like a PowerPoint presentation. In that

presentation you can include text, diagrams, and actual clips of plays that show how to and

how not to run specific plays.

By having access to this information (accessibility), discussing this information

(communication), and analyzing this information (learning tool) coaches and players are able to

prepare for a winning season.

How to use HUDL?

When a new player is added to the team, a coach needs to input the player’s name,

position, class, cell phone, cell phone provider, and NDC email. There is also optional

information that a coach can enter so that the coaches may have it “on file”. Once the coach

has all of the athlete’s information entered, the coach must hit “add athlete”. This will send the

player an email invite to HUDL (see screenshot 2). The player must then log in using the

username and password given. The player will then have access to all playlists and

presentations that have been shared with the players by the coaches.

HUDL has many different features available to enhance learning in the college football

environment. This workshop will give you a better understanding on how to use these

features. The first feature that we will talk about will be the flipped classroom.

Flipped Classroom

As discussed earlier, coaches have the ability to make a variety of playlists in the style

they prefer. Once they make a playlist they can share it with any of the coaches, team, offense,

defense, position group, or individual players. The playlists could be a combination of any plays

from practice or games. A coach may make a playlist of a certain things that need to be

corrected such as a reoccurring error in technique, missed alignment, or missed assignment.

Coaches also make playlists of positive things such as big plays, great pursuit, or proper tackling

form.

Coaches may use these playlists as a “flipped classroom”. According to the University of

Northern Colorado’s website, maintained by Jerry Overmyer:

“The flipped classroom model encompasses any use of using Internet technology to leverage the learning in your classroom, so you can spend more time interacting with students instead of lecturing. This is most commonly being done using teacher created videos (aka vodcasting) that students view outside of class time” (www.flippedclassroom.com)

Due to the amount of plays during a practice or game it is difficult to cover during a

position meeting. By sending a playlist with notes to the players before the meeting, more time

can be spent discussing plays, techniques and any new install that is going in. In the play clips,

you can add circles, arrows, text boxes, and voice recordings to help with instruction and

corrections (see screenshot 7).

As coaches, we will be sending players playlists with questions in text boxes. This will

act like a take home quiz. Players will be responsible for sending the playlist back with answers.

Also, a coach might send a playlist to his position group with ten plays on it. The coach might

add a text box on play nine telling the players to text them their favorite color or the name of

their first pet to make sure the players actually watched the playlist.

On the other hand, players can make a playlist of their own and send it to the coaches.

Often times players watch practice film on their own time before meetings and have questions.

They are also able to send clips to coaches with text boxes asking the coaches questions on how

something needs to be played.

Opponent Film

An integral part of college football is understanding your opponent. Each game requires

hours of film study to fully understand what your opponent is trying to do. Knowing your

opponent allows you to do less thinking before the snap and during the play. Less thinking

means you can play faster. Playing fast greatly increases your chances of having success. The

best and most complete college football players watch a lot of opponent film while preparing

for a game. This section will instruct you, as a player, how to most efficiently and effectively

watch opponent film.

As stated before, we will exchange the three most recent games with each opponent.

These three games will be in separate playlists, but we will also make a playlist with all three

games included so that we can breakdown all games at the same time and have them all in the

same reports.

The first time you watch an opponent, it is important to watch the plays of a game in order

from first to last. You get a feel for the flow of the game and the play calling. You get a sense

of what times in the game they make certain moves. Also, as stated before, we use categorize

plays according to many different things (see screenshots 8 & 9). The following is an example

of how the defensive staff breaks down the opponent’s offensive film:

Play # ODK(Offense, Defense, or Kicking) Quarter (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th) Series (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc.) Down (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th) Distance (1-10) Yard Line (-1yd line-1 yd line) Gain/Loss (-99yds-99yds)

Hash (R, L, M) Personnel (Empty, 10, 11, 12, 22, 23, or

32) Formation Tree (2x1, 3x1, or 2x2) Motion (Hac, Zac, Yac, Burst, etc.) Play Type (Run, Pass) Offensive Formation (Single, Duo, Trio,

etc.)

Offensive Strength (R, L) Offensive Play (Power, Zone, Smack, Snag, etc.) Backfield Set (Ace, Pistol Queen, Split, etc.) Play Direction (R, L)

QB Drop (1 step, 3 Step, 5 Step, Boot, or Sprintout) Protection (65, 90’s, etc.) Play Result (Touchdown, Interception, etc.)

In the Excel format (see screenshot 8), each play is a row and all the columns are

categories of data that are inputted based on the play type. Just like an Excel file, you can sort

the plays by any of the columns so that you can watch plays based on the data. For example,

you can watch all defensive plays, all 3rd down and shorts, or all the plays that we ran a certain

blitz.

Another great tool that HUDL has for learning is report feature. You can run different

reports through the games and the data that you have inputted. HUDL will take that data and

make a statistical report on the opposing team. There are many different types of reports that

coaches and players can make. The Notre Dame College Defense uses four different types of

reports based on different sets of data.

The first report is a Down and Distance report. The Down and Distance report is made

up of multiple charts. The first chart is what percent the opponent runs the ball vs. passes the

ball in different areas of the field (0-20, 21-50, 50-21, Red Zone, and Goaline) on different down

and distances. For example you can look up a team’s percent run vs. pass on 2nd & 4-7 in the

red zone. The second chart is a team’s percent run/pass on different down and distance

regardless of field area. The third chart is a team’s run/pass percentage based solely on field

area. The fourth chart is a team’s run/pass percentage only based on what down it is. The fifth

chart shows what the opponent’s top formation by percentage is based on down and distance

and field area. The last chart in a Down and Distance report is tell you the top plays and what

percent of the time they run those plays based on down and distance and field area.

The second report that the NDC Defense uses is the Formation report. This report

breaks down the opponent’s top nine formations through the last three games. For each

formation it shows how many plays were in that formation out of the total number of offensive

plays in those three games along with that percentage. The report shows a diagram of the

formation along with the top three plays they run out of that formation. It also shows what

percentage they run those plays out of how many plays they are in that formation. The second

part of the formation report goes into further detail of every formation they have ran. This part

of the report states how many plays ran out of the formation, how many yards gained, what

the average gain is, what percentage of the plays they run right vs. left, top runs, tops passes,

what, the percentage of the time they were in that formation on each down. This report also

has charts of what types of backfields they run the most, what percentage they motion towards

the strength vs. away, and what percentage they run or pass to field versus to the boundary.

Finally, it breaks down all of the previous information for the top three backfields of each

formation.

The third report that the NDC Defense uses for scouting opponents is the Personnel

report. In football, when talking about personnel you talk in terms of backs and tight ends. For

example, if there is one back and two tight ends in the game, it is 12 personnel. If there are two

backs and one tight end in the game, it is 21 personnel. The Personnel report breaks the

opponent down in order of personnel, then formation tree (2x2, 2x1, 3x1)for each personnel,

then play type (run or pass) for each formation tree, then how many plays ran in each play type,

then total yards gained of each of those, and finally average gain for each of those.

The final report used by the NDC Defense is the Summary report. Each of the previous

reports was very specific. The Summary report is more of a general statistical overview of the

opponent. The first chart in the report is percentage and number of plays they run the ball and

pass the ball. That chart also has how many total yards gained and what the average gain was

for both. The second chart states the top three formations and percentage of the time they

were in those formations, along with total yards and average yards gained. The next chart is

favorite plays with the top three run plays and the top three pass plays. It also shows what

percentage of the offensive plays they ran those top three runs and passes and total and

average yards gained. The last chart has explosive plays. It shows the top three runs plays and

top three pass plays, what they gained on them, and what formation they were in.

Summary

As one may see, there are many benefits for a college football program to use HUDL.

HUDL has many features that allow a team to improve in their learning and communication.

HUDL is highly accessible to all players and coaches. All one needs is internet and a screen to

watch the film. The life of a student athlete and coach is very busy and stressful. HUDL gives

both players and coaches the opportunity to learn in different ways and in different styles.

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Resources "Hudl." Hudl Overview. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Aug. 2014. <http://www.hudl.com "Hudl' Program Finds Home with Football Teams, Officials." ‘Hudl’ Program Finds Home with

Football Teams, Officials. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Aug. 2014. <http://theadvocate.com/sports/6608976-32/time-to-hudl-up>.

"The Flipped Classroom." Educational Vodcasting. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Aug. 2014.

<http://www.flippedclassroom.com/>. "United States Census Bureau." Computer and Internet Use Main. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Aug. 2014.

<http://www.census.gov/hhes/computer/>. U.S. department of education: Use of technology in teaching and learning . (n.d.). Retrieved

from http://www.ed.gov/oii-news/use-technology-teaching-and-learning Image Courtesy of floridahsfootball.com