One of the many things I love covering here at Techtronica is sports. For a long time know I’ve been wanting to do a review not only on Hudl itself but I’ve been waiting for Hudl to release their App to the public on the Apple App Store. The time opened up for me to do this on November 15th, 2011. I’ve given the app some time to fix the starting flaws and now I’m starting the review:

Hudl has involved not only football, but basketball, volleyball, soccer, wrestling and many other sports. So what exactly does Hudl do? Hudl stores a team’s film online for only coaches and players to view with an account login. Coaches have the ability to give other coaches accounts, give players accounts and give parents access to their athlete’s account if wanted. Hudl just doesn’t store your film either. Coaches have the ability to break down film into plays by down, yards gained, type of play, result of play, play name, and defensive formations. Players also have some major benefits by using the software as well. Once coaches register their players into their roster they can enter in tons of valuable information about the player including Height, Weight, Awards, Other Activties, Academic Info, Weight Room stats and much more. Not only does Hudl allow for the players to be recognized by their coaches, it allows for major colleges and recruiters to see their stats and all the information that I already listed above. Coaches can choose whether or not to share highlights with the public or only allow coaches and registered recruiters to do so. Another huge thing for football teams is not only just one angle of film but multiple. Hudl allows you to upload film instantly, Replay off camcorder, Import from DVD and about any other way you can think of.

One of the things I absolutley love about Hudl is the way the stats are set up. Once you enter in stats like Down, Distance, Yard Line, yards to go, yards gained, who carried the ball, who threw the ball, who caught the ball, [general stuff like that] it will also appear on “reports”. Reports are coach-created documents that show general stats that look just as professional as somethign you’d see on ESPN. Once these reports are finalized they can be shared with the players if the coaches choose to do so. Once this is done players can go straight to the report and click on a ceratin stat and it will show all the plays related to that stat. Don’t understand that? Will here’s an example:

*Say Kevin Ellison has 2,123 rushing yards on the season, 235 of 403 passes completed, 3 INT’s and 28 TD’s. If you were to go to the report page and click on that 28 under TD’s you would be lead to every play Ellison has scored on. Sweet right?

As Hudl likes to say, “You’re in good company” and guess what? They’re not lying. Teams like Boise State, Oregon, Michigan, Nebreska and NFL tems like the New York Jets. They’ve been talked about by about everyone, this is including; The New York Times, ESPN, and The Washington Post.

As a videographer and film manager for our local high school I can personally say Hudl has not only saved us time but saved as the pain of video editing. [Another one of Hudl’s catch phrases; “Video Editing Sucks”. I say Amen to that now. One thing that really stuck out to me about Hudl was the support team’s quick response time. It was my first year doing videography for the football team and we had some simple problem. I called Hudl’s support line number and was answered within about 20 seconds of making the call. When the guy answered me my first reaction was like, “Holy cow! I’m talking to a real person!”. That’s just another reason Hudl is on top of the food chain. Hudl is among the top ranks of the most inovative software in this current century. Prices are low for the software and can range anywhere from a price range for a youth football team to an NFL team budget. If they keep it up they’ll have everyone else out of business.

Below is the actual App Review that I decided to do on Hudl’s new iOS App. Keep in mind that not only do they have an App on the Apple App Store but also on the Android Market also. Like I said. They’re taking over. I’d like to end on this note: Video editing sucks. Buy Hudl and you’ll not only be supported by the best but you’re always going to feel like the best.

[review pros=”Free on the App Store, Low price of actual software,Ability to download playlists directly to your device, Immediate access through logging in using your email & password, Mutliple Angles Allowed, Ability to sort by categories, Devices- iPod, iPhone, iPad, Android ” cons=”Cannot Play or Create Highlights, Cannot edit player profiles, No support information within App ” score=90]