Find Your Team’s Hudl “Smiley”

Posted March 11, 2010 by Brett Kunz
Under  • Partners

How does your team award good effort on the football field? A pat on the rear coming off the field? Helmet stickers that players carry for four years?

For Lorena High School and Coach Brandon Houston, Hudl has changed the way they watch film as a team and how coaches reward positive individual and team effort.

Coach Houston and Lorena High School (TX), is a great example of how some teams take Hudl notes to a whole new level – to build knowledge of football and team unity.

It started last season, Coach Houston explained, when he would use text boxes in Hudl to critique how some players performed at specific points in the game.  As the season progressed, he shortened this process by writing directly on the film with Hudl’s telestrator.  Before long, Coach Houston would call out positive effort by drawing smiley faces directly on the video.  It’s awesome to see the effect two dots and a semi-circle can have on how a team watches video.

The players loved it.  Soon the whole team joined in the fun, tallying their smiley faces like helmet stickers or “battle scars”.

Coach Houston explained that it became a way the team bonded throughout the course of the season. 

“Suddenly, we could laugh at our mistakes and have a sense of pride at how we performed during points in the game.”

During team film study, players would yell, “Give him a smiley, Coach!” – wanting to award a fellow teammate for a job well done.

This year, Lorena Football plans to implement an “offline” version of their online Hudl creation – smiley stickers above players’ lockers.

It doesn’t have to be complicated, just something quick and easy that helps you come together on and off the field.  We urge you to find the “Hudl smiley” in your team.