Program Building Archives - Soccer Toolbox

How Hudl Assist Taps into the ‘Physical, Visual and Emotional Belief’ of Player Development

This girls’ soccer powerhouse has long stood out for its devotion to film analysis. Adopting Hudl’s automated reporting has only supercharged their ability to play without thinking.

Before DVDs, before 8mm cassette tapes, and well before your average soccer team invested thousands into dissecting every inch of the pitch, Todd Kelly was already a film buff.

But when the Loveland (Ohio) girls soccer head coach says “you don’t know how excited I was” to adopt Hudl, he means it.

Version 1.0 of Kelly’s film breakdown process a quarter-century ago was a bear, nearly wearing out the fast-forward and rewind buttons on his VCR. Minutes stretched into what felt like eons as he searched for the right moments to pin down.

This was a process that typically took seven to 10 hours of his week. But to take it to the same depth that he does with Hudl? He says that would have taken him “about 20 to 24 hours”. With Assist reports, he’s doing it in as little as five.

“We couldn’t do what we do now without Hudl,” Kelly says. “There’s no way.”

In the days before a match, players get a game-planning packet that can exceed two dozen pages, using screengrabs taken from Hudl film. With every data point on Assist reports tied to video, creating one is surprisingly easy.

Need to see how a scoring chance came about? Kelly clicks to the mark on the shot chart and takes the freeze-frame he needs. Wondering why they’re so strong in the midfield? Kelly can open up the possession and pass string charts, see how their attacks built up, and stop where he needs to. No more searching blindly through an entire half of footage.

This workflow allows the Loveland coaches to communicate robust information in simple terms. A typical packet is whittled down to five talking points:

Three things they need to do well to win.
Two things they need to eliminate from the opposition.

And then on game-day mornings, head coach Todd Kelly tells them to take that packet and “throw it in the trash”. They’re done thinking.

No problem, coach. Everything’s already committed to muscle memory.

We couldn’t do what we do without Hudl. There’s no way.Todd Kelly, Head Girls Soccer Coach, Loveland (Ohio) High School

Streamlined Corner Kick Reviews

Loveland has a well-earned reputation for mastering corner kicks. And with it, confidence that they’re never out of a game. So naturally, this is the first thing Kelly looks at when he gets Hudl Assist reports on his game and scout films. Clicking the corner kicks column on the game report populates them all in one neat playlist.

Loveland takes pride in how it excels at corner kicks. Getting instant feedback with Hudl Assist allows the Tigers to get to work fine-tuning them immediately.

As such, Loveland dedicates expansive time preparing set pieces. It’s not uncommon to spend a half-hour of every practice on this area, and hours dissecting them on Hudl.

On game nights, the Tigers may have as many as 16 set plays on their menu, depending on how the defense lines up. That also means players have to be prepared enough to know, in an instant, which of those plays to run.

“For us to be able to do that granular and that level of detail comes from watching us on film and what our opponents are doing,” Kelley says. “So that we can prepare our kids, ‘When you see this, because we’ve seen it on film of our opponents, this is what you need to do, this is what [set piece] you need to run.’”

Pass String Data Makes a Difference

If you were to run Assist reports on Loveland’s 2017 state champion squad, you would have found the Tigers were very direct, with few pass strings. This meant at times bypassing their skilled midfield, to take advantage of some exceptional talents both at the back and up top.

This past season, Loveland’s personnel suggested they’d be able to efficiently string passes together through the midfield. But there were some issues. By looking through the pass string data on his team, assistant coach Dan Donovan made two key discoveries:

When the ball was played to a Loveland player with an opponent closing down, they were turning the ball over too quickly.
“It wasn’t that they don’t have a good touch, it was that the touch was in the wrong place.”
Some of their off-ball movement was sub-par. Their runs didn’t stretch the defense enough, nor were they timed correctly.
“It was still being, you know, standing behind two defenders too late, and it causes us to have two or three touches on the ball-carrier before the person was in the window.”

As a result, the Tigers made significant changes to their practice regimen to work on those fixes. The payoff was another regional final berth. And with it, proof that confirming your hunches with visual data strengthens your coaching lessons.

That goes for scouting, too. Loveland finds that the data on pass strings tends to reveal a lot right away about an opponent’s style of play.

For instance, if your opponent has fewer pass strings, that means they’re habitually playing direct. They’re looking to win the ball and immediately play it forward, finding their target downfield as quickly as possible. More passes stringed together suggests a more possession-oriented, build-up approach. They might knock it around the back line, trying to create passing lanes by drawing opponents out of position.

“You have the opportunity to create all three of those things that are important in player development—physical, visual, and the emotional belief.” Donovan says of Assist. “That’s how they’re going to work hard at it, repeat it, and not let it become a bad habit again.”

You have the opportunity to create all three of those things that are important in player development—physical, visual, and the emotional belief.Dan Donovan, Assistant Girls Soccer Coach, Loveland (Ohio) High School

Crawl Before You Walk

The advantage of Assist is easy to understand. Donovan’s advice to coaches new to Hudl is to focus first on the essentials. That means a two-step process:

Understand your team’s strengths and weaknesses.
Plan practices around that knowledge.

Seems simple, right? But it’s easy to get carried away at first.

“Just do those two things, before you get to anything else,” he says. “You just have to try. But I do believe that if you go and think about everything you can do, it becomes too overwhelming to start.”

‘Like Adding Another Coach’: How Hudl Assist Strengthens Gretna Soccer Club

Video analysis has given this coaching staff brand new ways to see the game, and it’s translating well on the pitch.

Before interactive reports became so readily available for soccer clubs, coaches had to be industrious with how they charted their statistics on the pitch. For brothers Jono and Darren Callaghan at Nebraska-based Gretna Soccer Club, that meant charting every connected pass with pen and paper and using a complicated phone app to measure passing percentages.

Enter Hudl Assist. The significant improvements in pass strings and possessions nurtured more salient conversations about ways to improve the finer details.

In fact, the Gretna coaches found a direct correlation between Assist and coach engagement. For the Callaghan brothers, who coach together on Gretna’s 04 boys and girls squads, the whole process has been more streamlined.

“We couldn’t go back and do the work alone,” Darren said. “It’s like adding another coach to your staff.”

With a more fluid workflow that’s both more compartmentalized and nuanced, they were able to think up some new ideas on how to improve—and bring them to life on the pitch.

Possession metrics lead to good tweaks

The new reports illuminated a brewing problem: possession in the final third was terrible. They were completing as little as three percent of their passes at times. Once they saw that, the Callaghans set new goals, such as a 30 percent completion rate. This knowledge also stoked their imagination for how they could get there.

A season ago, Darren and Jono’s teams were using a 3-5-2 formation, with the wingers playing up almost the entire game. That left them too exposed at times, with the back three outnumbered or not getting back in time to track down the ball.

You can’t get any worse than what happened in the boys’ first game of the season, taking a 7-0 loss. Game two saw them come out in a 4-5-1, after a heavy emphasis in practice on building up the attacking forwards, before adding a second striker to the final third.

“By putting in a second striker, seeing what was working on that field, it was night and day,” Jono said. “We came off the field and parents were like, ‘Wow, this is a brand new team’.”

They’re going to continue the season with a more straightforward 4-4-2 look that evens the strength out. With the types of players they have, it’s sure to maximize their offensive ability.

“Seeing what was working on that field, it was night and day,” Jono said. “We came off the field and parents were like, ‘Wow, this is a brand new team’.”Jono Callaghan, coach, Gretna Soccer Club

Take your shot

Shot charts influence the way teams attack the net—and how they defend their own.

For Darren, looking at the trends of shot distributions over an entire season helped him diagnose a problem in the back end. The amount of goals within the six-yard box, an area of the field that the goalkeeper has to really own, suggested there were some communication issues going on with the center-back and keeper.

Sometimes the advanced stats tell you a different story than your eyes do. Like when the analysis showed the Callaghans that they were giving their opponents a ton of scoring chances on the right-hand side.

“We necessarily didn’t know all this without the data—what specific location, where do we get goals scored on,” Jono said.

More transparency, better answers

Sure, you have to rely on what your eyes (and sometimes your guts) tell you. But having empirical evidence to back up your instincts leaves no gray area. Difficult conversations become easier when you let the facts do the talking.

“Before, we knew it just by watching on the sideline,” Darren says. “But now we can show support to justify what we’re saying. This gives it more credibility.”

Darren recalls a conversation with one of his hardest-working forwards, who was lacking in confidence. After a practice, this player approached Darren and asked what he could do to improve.

Darren’s answer? “You’ve got to believe in yourself.” He had the data ready to prove it, showing the player that he was taking more shots and more goals than anyone else. That was the motivation he needed.

“It helps with overall communication with both players and parents,” Jono said. “It always helps when you can be more transparent, when you can show things that are not a matter of opinion but a matter of fact.”

A more structured plan, a more positive outlook

As much as winning is about great schemes, it’s also about logistics. It’s crucial for everyone in your club to be on the same page.

At the first practice after a game, Gretna players know they’ll receive printed copies of the previous game’s Hudl report, followed by a few minutes to talk amongst themselves, digest the information and understand the problems. They then discuss what they can work on as a team.

If the players have any questions, they can look to the video. Because all 19 of Gretna’s teams are wired with Hudl, the video directors know how to capture and distribute the film. That’s going to lead to better coaching across the entire club, too.

“We’ve trained all our coaches on how to use Hudl and how to look at the reports,” Darren said. “There’s a lot of buzz coming around our club because we’re using it. We’ll start to see the reward for it six months from now.”

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Interested in what Gretna does? Hudl Assist can streamline the way you analyze your players. Use the links below to see how.

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How to Keep Your Soccer Players Motivated off the Pitch

How you maintain morale will have a big impact on your team’s future. Here’s some important tips to keep in mind.

The old adage hasn’t changed. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

It’s as true now as it was when Teddy Roosevelt first uttered those words over a century ago. And arguably, it’s more important than ever.

Long after their playing days are over, athletes don’t remember every box score. But they do remember who was there for them at the most vulnerable times of their lives, and who provided the compass when they were lost.

Here are some steps you can take to keep morale high:

Remind Them Why They’re So Important

Whatever your preferred form of communication is, now is the time to individually tailor that message.

Your players have heard all the platitudes by now. They know when you’re not being authentic. That’s why when you talk to them one-on-one, your conversation will resonate more if you can personalize it.

That’s the theory behind what Georgia Gwinnett College head women’s soccer coach Mike Giuliano does with his messages to players. Twice a week, Giuliano will send a message to a different player reminding them why he is grateful for them, and how he sees them as a leader in the program.

“I try to be really specific. If you say things like, ‘You’re a hard worker’ or ‘You’re a great asset’, they realize that that’s just language you could say to anybody,” he says.

Connect the ‘why’ to what you do

During the fall season, Marshall County (Ky.) girls soccer coach Andy Pagel would often tell his players coming out of halftime to really focus during the first 10 minutes.

There was a very deliberate reason for that. His research from Hudl Assist showed him that they surrendered a goal around the 60-minute mark nearly once every two games.

Everybody interprets the importance of possession in soccer a bit differently. But when Pagel can look to his reports and tell the players if they hold the ball for at least 29 minutes their chances of winning greatly improve, that is a huge morale boost.

“We try to use the math, and it’s easy to sell that way,” Pagel says. “We can say, look at their time of possession and look at ours, that’s why we need to make this extra pass to the right-back, versus dumping the ball into our forward.”

Showing players games from college or pros that reinforce your game strategy can send a powerful message. But when you put scientific weight behind it, you make the message even stronger.

Remember, data tied to video bridges your toughest conversations. So as you’re reviewing the past season’s performance and devising a plan for when you return to the pitch, take this opportunity to remove the gray area.

Break up the monotony and try something new (and fun)

In some ways, the world is ironically your oyster. By now, you’ve probably seen a slew of “backyard challenges” across platforms like YouTube. As NWSL Players Association Executive Director Yael Averbuch mentioned in our chat, these challenges are a great tool for stoking creativity.

Disadvantages become advantages if you play them right. At OKC Energy FC, for instance, players can’t access the training facilities. So assistant coach Leigh Veidman had them run around a nearby lake (social distancing, of course), and it turned out to be a welcome break from the routine.

Go ahead, see who can come up with the best trick shot. Give out a reward to whoever can make the most creative home gym setup. It’s proven that how well a team gets along socially has an impact on how well they play together on the pitch.

Inspire them through required reading

We often hear about the importance of a second sport in a player’s physical development. But just as critical is to be balanced in mind, too.

Major League Soccer has some great recommendations for soccer books to share with your team.

The best coaches across any sport often take inspiration outside of sports. So should you. Here are some great books that respected minds across sports dig into:

David and Goliath, by Malcolm Gladwell
Creativity Inc., by Ed Catmull
The Magic of Thinking Big, by David J. Schwartz
The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, by Carol S. Dweck
Chop Wood Carry Water, by Joshua Medcalf

Don’t have time for a book club? Consider holding watch parties of something interesting you found on Netflix. Or even have guest speakers join your next Zoom call to give them food for thought.

How to Introduce Hudl to Your Players, Team and Club

Create concise messaging to set expectations and get everyone excited.

Big news! You just signed up for Hudl and all of your team and athletes have access to this new technology. But how do you get started? With so many features and benefits to share, how can you generate enthusiasm and prepare for the season?

As the saying suggests, “You get one chance to make a favorable impression.” Begin by ensuring your members clearly understand what Hudl is and how Hudl will affect their experiences. With so many features, such as video analytics, sharing, personal profiling, collaboration tools, reporting, etc,. introducing Hudl concisely might seem hard to do.

But there is no better way to make the initial introduction than with Hud’s introductory video for soccer. I recommend linking the video from the Hudl Youtube page to your club’s social media accounts and adding a few words to introduce how Hudl will be used in your club (see image 1). It’s also helpful to create a technology page on the club’s website (image 2), and send a message to your members with a link to the announcement.

Goals of Introducing Hudl to Your Club

Investing your club’s funds in technology is significant and certainly an opportunity to solicit goodwill and congratulations from your membership. These are important messages that help promote the club as progressive, innovative and successful—communication that will undoubtedly attract the attention of existing and prospective members alike.

Getting Everyone Excited

Each group will, of course, be attracted to Hudl for different reasons. To help you with the marketing rollout for your club, I will share the three primary reasons each subgroup was excited in our club’s adoption of Hudl.

Parents (customers): We must not lose sight of who pays the fees!

Hudl provides an opportunity for parents to watch and share their child’s video highlights with friends and family via social media.
Hudl has a noticeable impact on their son/daughter’s development, particularly accelerating the learning process and improving the player’s ability to retain information.
Hudl helps a parent use a player’s personal video library for recruitment and/or recognition. We can argue the merits of parents promoting their child, but we must also recognize such actions are common with in club, high school and college soccer.

Players (consumers): They likely already recognize how video can help them learn and improve.

Hudl enables players to establish a custom profile page to store and share their own video highlights. Personal profiling is becoming more prevalent and incredibly important for youth players.
Hudl provides players with an opportunity to review game film independently and become more familiar with the coach’s strategic approach.
Hudl also allows players to observe their performance from a different angle and with the benefit of hindsight. With the opportunity of a second, third or fourth observation, players will identify their individual strengths, weaknesses and tendencies.

Coaches: As the primary facilitators of Hudl, our questions are more pragmatic in terms of education benefit and time commitment.

Hudl is a terrific teaching tool allowing a coach to engage with players and parents regularly and to establish soccer homework tasks.
Hudl Assist provides coaches with game-changing performance insights, without the requirement for the coach to dedicate even more time to analytics.
Hudl’s reports and highlight videos provide actionable data at the coach’s fingertips. This data undoubtedly leads to improved performance of the coach and players.

Sharing the testimony of your parents, players and coaches will go a long way in introduce Hudl and gaining buy-in. After a short time, you will start to receive affirmation and praise from your members. It’s important that you capture these sentiments to share in written or video formats.

Whether you are introducing Hudl to one team or the entire club, I recommend spending some time developing your messaging and rollout plan. A sensible move is to lean on your Hudl account representative for guidance—they are great resources for best practices from other clubs just like yours!

A Culture of Excellence

The benefits of building a culture of excellence by upgrading your club with video and analysis technology.

There’s no doubt our lives are continuously influenced by technology. How we engage and interact at school, work and home is significantly different now as opposed to 20 years ago. At the top levels of the game, investments in high-performance technology provide many competitive advantages.

In team sports such as soccer, technology has paved the way for teams to improve recruitment and selection processes, manage workload and enable players to achieve peak physical conditioning. Although adoption of similar technology has been a bit slower within clubs, the pace has been picking up as technology becomes more affordable and easier to implement.

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:

My child has fun.
My child is developing/improving.
My child is participating at a level commensurate with their ability.
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:

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