Power Lies with the Parents

One recent transformation that youth clubs should keep an eye on is the control on buying decisions. The pendulum is swinging more towards the customer, resulting in a shift from the clubs to the parents (i.e., customers).

Our increased investment in technology coupled with support from parents is resulting in the shifting of influence and power in youth sports. Parents have more power than ever to chart the course of success for their athletes. They have started purchasing consumer products such as smartwatches, wearables and AI-enabled video cameras.

Introducing Hudl

Youth clubs can no longer ignore the involvement of parents if we wish to grow our membership in the future. We must work extremely hard to engage and inform our members if we want to stay relevant in years to come.  We must explore innovative approaches to education and provide proof to parents that individual and team development is occurring.

In my experience, the majority of clubs will require a fundamental shift in culture to see success. This shift involves the adoption of new technology and services to help propel a club forward. Fortunately, Hudl has tools to support this change and to provide more detailed feedback to members.

How Does Hudl Meet the Growing Demands of My Club?

For the most part, parents have simple ways they evaluate the success of their child’s soccer experience. They are:

1. My child has fun.
2. My child is developing/improving.
3. My child is participating at a level commensurate with their ability.
4. My child has a good coach.

The players’ enjoyment is easily determined. However, too often, we leave the determination of development and the quality of instruction to the assessment of the parents. Hudl can help you better illustrate the club’s education approach and show parents the exceptional skills of the staff. You won’t need to fundamentally change what you do day to day—the shift is philosophical. First, recognize the importance of customers in the education process and then update them with regular examples of your expertise.

Next Steps

An organization using Hudl has the ability to draw attention to those factors that are most persuasive in convincing a parent to remain loyal and to attract new members. Here are some examples of how to activate Hudl and make frequent impressions with your members:

1. Produce a highlight video following each game. Share that to social media and to the team’s webpage (image 1).
2. Introduce classroom tactical sessions including “reading the game” and “match analysis.” and invite parents to attend with their players.
3. Set homework tasks for players to create highlight videos of their performance (image 2).
4. Use Hudl to engage with players via sending a personal message or an emoji (image 3).
5. Following each game, share the box score report from your Hudl Assist data with parents.

Regularly engaging the parents of your athletes with Hudl benefits both parties. Not only do the parents feel more engaged and invested in your club, but your coaches also get an opportunity to showcase their Hudl skills, commitment to player development and evolving coaching strategies.

The Definition of Player-Driven Development

“Player-driven development” is a term I use to describe active involvement of my athletes in reviewing video, analyzing games and goal setting. With coach support, an athlete more thoroughly engages in the learning process, extending beyond what is taught by the coach. An athlete’s thirst for learning is often inspired by the coach, as he or she starts taking responsibility to understand a competitive advantage over peers and opponents.

Inspiring the Whole Team

One can make a strong case that an athlete’s determination is in their DNA. We have all seen or heard of athletes with incredible talent who fail to maximize their potential due to inadequate drive and aspiration. In my experience, these comparisons are all too often focused on the athlete’s failure to achieve elite performance. This mistake happens when we fail to see the potential of a non-elite performer’s growth. If we instead establish realistic goals based on the performance level, commitment and availability of our athletes, it is possible to create a thirst to improve in most players on a team. Here are a few key ingredients:

• Establish achievable tasks and differentiate the ability level of all tasks, so all members can succeed.
• Celebrate individual success privately and publicly—players love recognition.
• Provide flexibility for the players to select topics that excite them. Don’t force players to pursue dull topics.
• Establish reasonable timelines for completion and consider the length of commitment. I have found 15–20 minutes is about right with youth players.
• Include the parents in the plan as a mentor/player’s agent. There are many benefits of engaging parents, including demonstrating additional value of membership and highlighting the contribution of the coach.

Hudl Tools to Get Your Team Started

Hudl offers numerous tools to assist the coach in launching the player-driven development initiative. Here are the three that are most popular with my players.

• Player profile page with highlights: Over time, the player’s profile develops into a historic account of a player’s progress and performances. My players enjoy creating highlights videos, drawing in clips from games, and adding cool titles and end slides. The player can share their highlights with coaches, teammates, recruiters, and with close family and friends (see image 1).
• Clips and playlists: As soon as the game film is uploaded to Hudl, the coach can provide players with access to watch film and create clips. It is extremely simple for players to generate clips and create a playlist featuring multiple clips from the same game; or a themed playlist with clips from different games (such as goals scored); or as illustrated in preparation for a player assessment meeting (see image 2).
• Box score reports: This feature of Hudl Assist represents game data in easy-to-read tables and charts. Initially, the coach can help players and parents to read the data in the context of the team’s performance, then empower players to draw conclusions and apply what they have learned to the next game. It’s a very powerful tool!

Steps to Implementation

In my experience, slow and steady wins the race as you plan to engage players and parents in player-driven development. Commence with a video conference or an in-person team meeting to introduce the player profile, reports and video review tools.

Next, establish a series of individual tasks and introduce these at a rate of one a week to get all the players engaged. Finally, proceed to group tasks and adapt the focus to tactical analysis.

With every step, make sure you provide players with encouragement and feedback so no player is left behind!

Can My Youth Team Play like Barcelona?

Few teams in history have impacted coaching more than the Barcelona team of 2008–2011, managed by Pep Guardiola. With Messi, Eto, Villa and Henry leading the attack, Puyol, Pique and Toure in defense, and the magic of Inesta and Xavi in midfield, Barcelona dominated pro soccer in Spain, Europe and the world.

In the last decade, team statistics for top professional teams have become readily available and prominently posted in news articles and soccer magazines. Our admiration of Barcelona’s effortless attacking combinations is backed up by data, such as possession percent, territory dominance, number of crosses and shots on target. Technology from Hudl and Hudl Assist provides insight into Barcelona’s DNA, which can be used to help the youth level improve.

I Want to Coach like Pep

With Hudl and Hudl Assist, it’s realistic for youth, high school and college coaches to draw inspiration from top teams and coaches, even compare their performance data with these teams.

Data provides clarity, evidence to back up what we observe and a blueprint for copying a team you admire. As a youth coach, I often incorporate the key principles that make Barcelona great, such as maintaining possession with high tempo and high frequency passing, into my coaching program. For example, let’s compare data[1] from Barcelona’s eight Champions League games (2021–22) with the Hudl data for my youth team.

• Possession: Barcelona dominated the opponents with 58% possession (image 1), winning five games, tying one and losing two. In my youth team’s last eight games (image 2), we achieved 57% possession (image 3), with the same win record as Barca.
• Passing: To achieve favorable possession, our second goal is to attempt more passes than the opponent and achieve extreme accuracy. In 90 minutes, Barcelona attempted a remarkable 770 passes per game with a passing success percentage of 91% (Image 1).  My youth team attempted 300 passes (in 60 minutes) with a success rate of 67%, which means we have some work to do.
• Shots on target: The third goal is creating great scoring opportunities as a result of planned possession and taking advantage of shooting opportunities. 44% of Barcelona’s shots were on target, an average of eight shots per game, resulting in 2.25 goals per game. Over 56% of my youth team’s shots were on target, scoring 3.1 goals per game from nine shots on frame.

How Can Hudl and Hudl Assist Add Value?

Using Hudl’s reports to draw comparisons with well-renowned professional teams, players and coaches benefits the learning experience for all participants. Players and their parents will reward your efforts with improved performances, loyalty and commitment.

How to Get Started

Data not only reveals the strengths and weaknesses of a team’s performance but also provides a blueprint for a skilled coach to follow and replicate. A good way to begin is to submit a game for review through Hudl Assist, then dive into the Hudl reports they provide, like box score and goals. Now compare and contrast your team’s data with the information readily available on your favorite professional team.