How We Developed the Hudl Beta and How You Can Get Started
Aug 06, 2020
3 Min Read
Ready to explore the new Hudl Beta in your Hudl library? We’re giving you the best ways to get the most out of your tendency data.
As we’ve gotten to know so many of you over the years, one thing has been consistently clear: film breakdown, both in self-review and scouting opponents, is overwhelmingly the most time-consuming part of your week during the season.
So as you get ready to gear up for the 2020 season (or 2021, if your season’s been delayed), we brought you a new way to save time with an entirely new viewing experience. This is the result of nearly a year’s work, dating back to the 2019 football season.
With the Hudl Beta, you no longer have to toggle between video and data, print off dozens of reports, or create so many playlists. The answers you’re looking for are just a few clicks away, saving you the hours it previously took you to find what you needed.
So far, the feedback on this feature has been overwhelmingly positive.
"We’re getting specifics that you wouldn’t have noticed just by film breakdown alone. Stuff that would have taken three guys to notice before."
Wes Burhoe, offensive line coach, Braintree (Mass.)
“Without a doubt, this will save me time and headaches.”
Joe Tabay, offensive line and linebackers coach, New Brighton (Pa.)
“Our whole staff is loving this. Way better than having reports of just the data. Freaking awesome.”
Marc Marinelli, defensive coordinator, Wichita (Kan.) Northwest
But this is just the beginning. We’re going to continue adding to this feature based on your feedback, so look for new updates throughout the summer and fall.
This feature uses all available column data, so the more data you have, the more powerful it’ll be. For beginners, we recommend starting with the 16 data columns that we track in Hudl Assist.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be sharing some tips and tricks for getting the most out of your new scouting experience. But before we run through it, let’s walk.
How to Find It
To start, log in to Hudl.com and click Hudl Beta at the top of your screen.
This will open up a new window in your browser with an entirely new player. Note that if you’ve never opened the Hudl Beta before, you’ll have to select a video first. After that, the beta remembers your most recent session, and will load that up for every time after.
Check out the right-hand panel. You’ll notice a whole bunch of new cards on the right, along with navigation up top and a super large screen.
Every visual and number you see is clickable. Doing so will filter the video to just the clips matching your criteria.
Now What?
To get the most out of the beta, we recommend selecting at least three games with the data from the top left drop-down. Your film is organized by schedule—click any opponent and see all available video from this season and past seasons.
Why do we recommend selecting at least three games? We find that’s generally the sample size where you start seeing clear patterns emerge. And don’t worry, all your past seasons’ games still have whatever data you entered.
You’ll also want to narrow down to offense, defense or special teams by selecting O, D or K in the very first filter on the right-hand side of the screen.
How to Get Specifics Quickly
Scanning run/pass tendencies is a breeze. For starters, let’s find your opponent’s fourth-quarter red zone tendencies on third down from the left hash.
First, expand the situations group by clicking Show More. Doing so will reveal more situation cards (if you have the data).
Next, click the following in each card:
Down: 3rd
Field zone: +20, +10
Hash: L
Quarter: 4
And just like that, you’re looking at a specific tendency. Try it out to see just how fast the beta gets you to where you want to be.
You can even take this a step further by opening the run/pass card and selecting these situations as you go.
Sharing Is Easy
Once you’ve narrowed down what you’re looking for, getting it to all of your coaches and players is simple. While you can’t share through Hudl yet, you can copy a link to the exact video and filters you’re looking at with the Share This button. Then you can paste the link into any messaging platform you use with your team. These links can only be accessed by members of your team.
Creating and adding clips to playlists is straightforward. If you want to add a single clip, just click the plus sign at the top of the screen. If you want to add all of the filtered clips to a playlist, select the clip info header and then click + Add All. You can access all playlists in the video selector in the top left.
What’s Next
We’ll continue to add functionality throughout the summer and fall. Based on your feedback so far, we plan to release drawing tools, shared sessions, the ability to use custom data columns, and a way to see the data in fullscreen over the coming weeks.
We want your continued feedback—and we’ve made it easy for you. Just click Feedback below your playback controls and let it rip.
Ready to dig into these features with your own video and data?
