Need to move the chains? Call Y-Stick.

"3rd & Short? How about Y-Stick?"

What is your go-to play call in 3rd and short situations?

What play do you dial-up when your offense has gone stagnant and you need to build confidence in your players?

In both of these instances, we turn to one of the most basic plays in our arsenal: Y-Stick.

While this is not a huge TD-generating play for us, it is a play we can rely on when we need to move the chains. It is our old-reliable play; one that our players can execute even in their sleep. Over the past two seasons, we have completed Y-Stick 70% of the time, while averaging 10-yards per completion.

QB Reads: Our QB must count numbers to both sides and make a decision pre-snap which way he is going to work: either the hitch to the single receiver, or the Stick/Flat/Vertical concept to the trips side.

The QB will first look to the single receiver side. If he sees 1-on-1 coverage, then we tell him to take the easy money on the hitch with the single receiver. He must throw the receiver open away from the defense, usually to the sideline. This is simply our "Settle & Noose" drill in action.

If the QB sees 3-on-2 to to trips side, he knows that we have the defense outnumbered to the trips side. It then becomes a simple read of the overhang player. If he jumps the stick, throw the flat. If he runs with the flat, throw to the stick. Very simple.

The QB must also be alert for Cover 2. If the corner squats on the flat route, then the QB should be ready to throw over to top into the "hole" of Cover 2.

Throw me open!

Stick Route: We constantly preach to our players that our offense is simply playing basketball on grass. The stick route is a perfect example of that concept. Our Y-receiver will push vertical for five yards, and turn inside looking for the ball. He will the "post-up" like a center in basketball. The QB should look to throw him open, also just like our "Settle & Noose" drill. 

Here is a cut-up demonstrating each of the throws in our Y-Stick concept:

Hudl + DSV = Winning!(?)

A seismic shockwave was sent through the sports video industry today when Hudl announced the acquisition of their main competitor DSV.

It is hard to imagine that when I started my coaching career eight years ago, we were watching film on VHS, and barely doing any video breakdown. With the advancements that Hudl has made, coaches can now watch game film anywhere at any time. I wrote about the amazing iPad app developed by Hudl, and I have heard whispers that phone apps for the iPhone and Droid are not far away.

What does this mean for the future of sports editing? There are definitely many positives to this acquisition, but there are a few unknowns that make me weary of this change.

Winning!

1. Film exchange

Again, I can't believe that five years ago coaches were logging significant time and miles meeting at the McDonalds halfway between schools to exchange film. Hudl solved that problem for us, but only with other Hudl teams. I know many teams around here had just invested in DSV, and did not want to make the switch to Hudl. That meant we still had to swap DVDs on Saturday mornings, while trading with another Hudl team took less than a minute on Friday night.

In their press release, Hudl says that DSV has a "customer base of 3,000 high schools." That is a huge chunk of the market that will now be added in to the Hudl family. This will put a lot of pressure on non-Hudl schools to make the switch over to Hudl. Who wants to be the only school in the league only exchanging DVDs?

If Hudl puts together incentives for all league schools to jump on board, they will quickly lock up many of the schools still reluctant to switch over to Hudl.

2. Innovation

I was a DSV loyalist until I discovered Hudl three years ago. I didn't even want to look at another video editing system because I loved DSV so much. It has many great features, and it is no accident that they were the industry leader up until the last few years.

They were the first to develop a system of auto-cutting plays from the record button being pressed on your camera. They came up with a slick intercutting feature that matched up your press box and end zone views. Their tendency reports are phenomenal. Truth be told, many of the features in Hudl today were inspired by the work that DSV did.

Unfortunately, the DSV system was completely tied in to the one or two computers you had it installed on. If other coaches wanted to watch cut-ups, they had to watch it on their own computer. They added DSV Anywhere a few years ago to try to keep up with Hudl, but that web-based product was really no better than watching game film on YouTube. They were never able to catch up to the things that Hudl was doing with their completely web-based product.

What will happen to DSV's developers and brain-trust? Even though Hudl has a phenomenal team of developers, it is a huge bonus that Hudl will now have access to the brain-trust from DSV that has been developing their product for a decade.

3. Recruiting

DSV and Hudl not only service high school teams, but they also have many big-name Division-I and NFL clients on their roster. This means that the collegiate DSV teams will also likely switch over to Hudl.

One of the best features of Hudl is how you can create individual highlight videos for players, and e-mail it off to college recruiters. With more college coaches becoming familiar with using Hudl, it will make it even easier to get your players exposure through Hudl's recruiting packages.

Winning?

1. Costumer support

With only a month left before the football season begins, Hudl just opened up a huge can of worms.

All current DSV clients who have paid their service contracts will automatically become absorbed into Hudl. This means that DSV clients will spend the next month importing game film and terminology to Hudl, and Hudl will have their hands full training 3,000 new school. Multiply that 3-5 coaches per staff! This was not the ideal time to make this transition.

Hudl has prided themselves on their customer support, which has always been fantastic. What will Friday nights look like now with all of the new clients calling in to trouble-shoot? I am sure Hudl has a gameplan for all of this, but it is going to be a huge undertaking.

2. Consumers

One of the most attractive things about Hudl is their pricing. While DSV had a one-time cost of approximately $5,000+, Hudl only costs $800 a year for their base package. Their price simply can't be beat.

With DSV out of the way, CoachComm and APEX stand as the only viable competitors in the high school market. I may be biased, but neither one of those programs even comes close to matching Hudl's features and pricing.

The question becomes: Where will Hudl go from here? They have already shown that they are the top innovator in the industry. Will they continue to push the boundaries of innovation, while maintaining the same affordable pricing?

A little friendly competition is always a good thing for the consumers.


What do you think this means for the world of sports video editing? Please leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Hudl Meet-Up: Kansas City

"Video Editing Sucks"

That was the sign that greeted approximately 100 coaches to the first Hudl Meet-Up that took place at Blue Valley West High School in Overland Park, KS on April 19th, 2011.

Hudl is the industry leader in sports video editing software. Two months ago, I wrote about their iPad app which is a game-changer for all coaches.

Just last week, Hudl released an update to the app which solves the problem of downloading film to the iPad for the times when you don't have an internet connection.

I am a football and technology geek, so when I heard that Hudl was going to host a meet-up for coaches 10 minutes from my house, it was the perfect combination of football and technology for me. As you can see from this picture, it was a full house:

The Hudl crew provided pizza and soda to start the evening. Kim Burnham from Hudl organized the event and introduced the speakers:

1. Coach Nolan Hochgrebe from Blue Springs High School spoke about how they structure their week with Hudl.



Best tips:

• Find great student managers to help set up the video equipment, film, input data, and upload to Hudl.
• Their Saturday schedule for how they divide up their film work has some great ideas for work-flow.
• They also have an Excel file that they input data into that will then create grading sheets and a Hudl import file.
• Their data entry coach on Friday nights wears headphones so he can hear the formation and play calls as he is entering in data. This is a great idea if you have an extra set of headphones.
• Coach also discussed some great ideas for marketing your team through your website and Twitter account. Their team website is www.bshsfootball.com and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bshsfootball

2. Next up, I presented "The Quick Game: Ninja Style" You can read about it here.


3. Coach Jared Kenealy from Liberty North High School presented "Effective Video Study Practices":

Best tips:

•  Their "Athlete's Guide to Hudl" document is outstanding. This is a great tutorial for all athletes and parents to have as an introduction to Hudl. (Note: I uploaded the files to Google Docs, so it lost some of the original formatting).
• Coach Kenealy trains his managers how to film practice. Here are his filming rules that explain the different shots he wants.
• Instructions for Live Capture Set-Up
• Game Week Hudl schedule - great ideas on work-flow and daily tasks.
• For his defensive scouting report, he focuses on three run and three pass plays. For Thursday, he creates a presentation with one clip showing the opponent running each play well, and one clip from practice where the defense stopped the play. This is a great tip to simplify the way the players watch film, while building their confidence in the game-plan

4. Kim Burnham closed out the evening by talking about upcoming updates from Hudl and answering questions from the audience. She told us that there is a new video uploader in beta testing right now, as well as continual updates to the iPad app. In fact, there is now an entire team devoted just to the iPad app.

 For a couple of years, Hudl was one of the best-kept secrets around. I was reluctant to tell coaches from other schools about it because I felt like it gave us a huge competitive advantage. The secret is now out. It was great to be in a room full of coaches sharing ideas about how to get better by using video and technology. I want to thank Hudl for putting this together. Hopefully it becomes an annual event here in Kansas City.

Questions? Post them in the comments below!

iPad & Hudl = Game-Changer

The way coaches and athletes watch film has gone through many evolutions over time. From 8 mm film, VHS tape, mini-DV cassettes to DVDs, film has become more convenient and easier to manipulate. This week, Hudl released a new app for the iPad that will allow you to watch game film in literally the palm of your hand.

This app is a game-changer.

If you are unfamiliar with Hudl, then you should quickly acquaint yourself with it. Hudl is an entirely web-based sports video editing and analysis software. Instead of storing your video on mini-DV tapes, DVDs, or your computer's hard drive, Hudl allows you to upload your video to their servers (think YouTube), where you can view it from any computer with an internet connection.

Since Hudl began three years ago with only a handful of teams, it has quickly emerged as an innovator in sports video analysis and editing. They have been consistently ahead of the game compared to their competitors, releasing new developments that the other guys haven't even started thinking about yet.

This app will revolutionize the way coaches and athletes prepare for competition by making it faster, easier and more efficient to watch game film. I can see so many applications and uses for this app, it makes the iPad a necessary investment for any high school sports team who uses Hudl.

Here is a video demonstration of the app:



After testing out the app for several days, here are my first impressions:

Positives:

1. The video quality

As you can see from the video above, the video quality is excellent. I have also had zero problems with buffering or waiting for the video to load. I have been testing it out on a Wi-Fi connection, but I may need to invest in 3G on my iPad so I can watch video where Wi-Fi is not available.

I would dare to say that the video on the iPad is better than through the website.

Imagine being able to take your iPad out to the practice field and showing your scout offense the actual play on video, rather than drawn up on a card.

2. Simplicity

If you know how to play a YouTube video, you will be able to run the Hudl app. Similar to their website, there are very few buttons or options to choose from. This is obviously by design to help with the ease of use for coaches and athletes. You can download this app, log-in, and begin watching game film in literally less than a minute.

There are very few options to choose from, and that is OK. 

A thing of the past

3. Smoothness of the video

Watching film in the app is very smooth, almost easier than through the website. With only your finger sliding back and forth, you can rewind or fast forward the film. This has obviously been designed with coaches in mind. It makes the old cowboy remote obsolete.

4. Mobility

I can't count how many hours over the years I have spent setting up clunky projectors, laptops, and running extension cords. I carried around a huge bag with all of these cords and parts in it. With the iPad, you can carry something the size of a folder to your meetings, practices, and clinics. It makes the ability to watch film so much easier and more convenient. A huge time-saver.

Suggested Additions:

While this app is already very powerful, there are some features that I believe would be beneficial to coaches. However, I am not sure of the logistics of incorporating them in the app.

1. Telestrations

One of the most powerful features of the web-based version of Hudl is the ability to telestrate on top of the video and share your drawings with your team. On the iPad, you do not have any of your saved telestrations or the ability to telestrate. It is purely video.

One of the greatest benefits of the iPad is that you can manipulate what is on the screen with a touch of a finger. Imagine pulling up a video and being able to draw lines to explain a blocking scheme or route concept to your players.

2. Presentations

I also really like the presentation feature on Hudl, where you can create online presentations very similar to PowerPoint. I have used this feature a great deal to create scouting reports and video playbooks. These presentations are not accessible on the iPad.

Even if we can't create the presentations in the iPad Hudl app, it would be nice to be able to view them anywhere you take your iPad.

Bottom Line

This app is truly a game-changer for coaches and video analysis software. There are so many benefits to making your video mobile, without having to haul around a projector and laptop when you want to watch film. In seconds, you can show your players practice film from last night or a defensive scheme that you talked about during practice. I am excited to see how Hudl expands into other mobile markets (iPhone, Android) so more and more coaches can access their game film from literally anywhere.