Lacrosse Hudl Training and Drills Coaching

Maryland Lacrosse Club Uses Video to Improve All Ages

May 29, 2018

2 Min Read

Former Div. I lacrosse coach uses video across his youth teams to drive development.

When he had the opportunity to bring video to his youth programs, it was a no-brainer for Matt Hogan, CEO and founder of the Annapolis Hawks Lacrosse Club and HoganLax. As a former Division I college lacrosse coach, he understood the advantage video could add for his players.

Originally, the Maryland-based club only adopted video for the older age groups—middle school teams and up. But after experiencing video’s power firsthand, the club extended the offering to younger ages as well.

“We didn’t get it for our third- and fourth-graders initially. We had mixed emotions about it,” Hogan said. “But what happened was as other teams saw older teams using it, they saw the value. And as soon as they saw the value, they wanted to start using it too.”

As technology has evolved, the way younger generations learn has too. Studies prove Generation Z individuals spend more than six hours each day on the internet, texting or engaging on social media. They respond best to visual stimuli.

“There is this big idea out there that all players learn different ways,” Hogan said. “There are different ways to learn and the more variety of ways we can teach, the more likely we are going to tap into everybody’s learning ability.”

Video is one of those key learning outlets for players of all ages.

“I think video doesn’t lie and I think it really helps our players learn what they’re doing and learn our schemes. I think any time anybody watches film, if they are doing a good job watching film, they are going to learn from it to become better coaches or better players because of it.” Matt Hogan

Hogan and his coaches don’t want their players to just watch video, but watch video with a critical eye. There’s value in teaching players how to view video effectively—it’s especially crucial for younger players who’ve never watched themselves play before.

“If you’re going to share video with your parents and your kids, you need to first watch video with them so they learn what they are looking at, so they learn something from the video rather than just watching video to be entertained,” Hogan said.

“Our fifth-grade team films every practice and then midweek it is optional that kids can come by the office and watch film with him of practice.”

Watching film with coaches gives players the chance to ask questions and learn what to look for. Coaches can communicate the critical areas players should be zeroing in on when they’re watching on their own.

While the younger players in the club are just getting acclimated to watching video, the older ones are using it to market themselves to college coaches.

“One of the reasons we went with Hudl this year was the opportunity for our players to be able to create. We thought it was a greater ease of the older high school kids being able to create their own recruiting videos,” Hogan said. “They could take our game footage and make their own highlight tapes and take them out of sequence and move them around.”

Whether players are fresh to the club space and just learning the game, or high schoolers who are trying to reach the next level, video is a powerful tool that will benefit everyone.

Learn more about what Hudl can do for your club.