Buy-In from Lacrosse Coach Results in Players Becoming Video Experts
By integrating Hudl into his routine, Jason Pearl created a team that has embraced breaking down video.
Jason Pearl remembers the old days: getting up early, jumping in his car and meeting a group of coaches to trade DVDs. And that was the easy part - he’d then have to drive home, watch the film, write down his notes on a piece of paper and show the video to his players. That created inefficient practices, and his on-field time was cut into.
“We’d take practice time and go in and watch film with the kids every time,” Pearl, head lacrosse coach at Long Beach High School (N.Y.) said.
That was, until he found out about Hudl. Now Pearl is able to reinvest the time once used for tasks outside of practice back to his team. Thoughts from the previous day’s game and announcements can be addressed through Hudl, allowing Pearl to cut down on possible distractions.
“I don’t have to take as much time during practice on off task things like what happened in the game, which takes 15-20 minutes out of our practice time,” Pearl said. “I can get right into practice and get the kids moving so they’re on task.” That may not seem like a lot of time, but for coaches, 15-20 minutes is an entire drill or scouting session that has been added.
Pearl has also seen his athletes buy into the idea of watching video with the same enthusiasm he has, and doing it correctly. For his athletes, watching video isn’t something to do for enjoyment, it’s an opportunity to get better. “We try to have them make their own scouting reports,” Pearl explained. “We’ll designate a guy to come in and go ‘OK, you watch on Hudl and come up with their main players, their man down plays’ whatever we need them to do so we know they watched the film.”
Players have learned that watching film is more than looking at the guy with the ball. It’s seeing what players do to get open and recognizing how they attack certain gaps. As Pearl explained, “It’s like an extended practice for the kids that do watch the film.”
For as much as his players have grown, Pearl has seen himself using Hudl’s tools to make it even easier for them. “I get to reach out to kids even after practice,” he said. “I can message them back and forth. I get to give them feedback right away. We can put down what we need to say to them without being there.”
Between the Hudl app and website, Pearl said “I’ve got kids in a week watching 13 hours of film.”
Check out all of the tools Hudl can offer lacrosse teams by clicking here. As Pearl learned, it’s a better option than trading DVDs. “It’s an awesome system and I hope they keep improving on it.,” he said.