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.
