Tips from the Pros: Hudl Play Tools

We're here to answer your questions about Hudl Play Tools as your season starts. Isaac is a veteran on our Support team who specializes in the playbook and practice scripts. Here are some of the questions he's frequently asked and their answers, straight from the pro himself.

Can I mass delete plays in my playbook?

There’s no way to mass delete from the playbook, primarily to keep someone from accidentally deleting everything and ruining hours upon hours of work. However, you can delete plays one-by-one fairly quickly.

How do I get my offensive plays into my defensive playbook?

There isn’t a copy/paste option to move plays from offense to defense or defense to offense. But your offensive plays will populate in the defensive playbook when you type the formation name in a new card. Just go through and match those plays up against the defensive front, blitz, and coverage you want and your card will pull up below.

I’ve created a formation already, but when I go to create a new play, that formation doesn’t come up. I thought these were supposed to save?

If you don’t see an existing formation when creating a new play, try scrolling down. It should show up below in the list.

When I’m creating an install, what’s the difference between adding one play or multiple?

Adding one card to an install is great if you want to make one last addition before practice or an upcoming game. If you’re wanting to create a larger install, add multiple cards to make the creation process a lot quicker. You can select up to eight at a time.

What’s the difference between practice scripts and magic scripts?

Practice scripts are a tool to help you develop your game plan based on an opponent’s most common plays and formations. Add play cards manually with a normal script, or if you’ve already added some key breakdown data in the scout playlist in your library (ODK, offensive play, offensive formation, play type) you can use the magic script option. Magic scripts will compile all the information automatically and save you the time it would take to type and draw these formations. Give it a try!

I entered the name of a formation and play, but the card doesn’t show up on my practice script. Do I have to draw it again?

You shouldn’t have to! As long as you type in the same offensive form and offensive play the card will pull in automatically. A good pro tip here is to create cards with only the formation on them. This allows you to pull in formations, even when there isn’t an existing play already drawn inside that formation.

This also applies to defensive front. Create base front play cards like a 4-3, 4-2-5, and 4-4. When you need to create a new play card, start with those base fronts and save yourself the extra work.

Can I share my practice script with my athletes?

No. Well, yes, you can. Just not on Hudl! If you want to share practice scripts with your athletes you’ll need to download a PDF and email it to them or just print the script. Most coaches will do one of these two and bring it out to the field for practice. This makes it easy to show your scout offense when they are running the opponent’s plays for your starting D.

Do my playbook and practice scripts work together?

They do! Practice scripts will pull cards from the playbook when there isn’t a card from an older script. If there are cards that have the same name in both, practice scripts will default to pull from your script cards rather than playbook. It’ll also pull the most recently updated version of the card when it populates.

I have formations that I drew in my library. Can those show up in my playbook too?

The formations in your library are separate from those in your playbook. However, you could use screenshots of those formations to help you draw them quickly in your playbook.

Now that your Play Tools are ready for season, see what else you can check off your preseason checklist. Download it here.