USA Volleyball is building a bright future with volleyball technology that meets its needs today and serves its future goals.
In addition to revamping its youth arm into the National Team Development Program (NTDP) in 2021, the USA Volleyball national teams at every level have strung together top finishes never before achieved.
“We've achieved historic results at all of our international events for our U19 and U21 national teams, which in the past we had never swept gold medals within our region,” said Kris Berzins, Senior Manager of the NTDP. “And we've done that now twice out of the last two qualification cycles. Our U19 women's team has medaled in the last three World Championships, including two gold medals. We're really excited about the future.”
These wins generated optimism within the organization. But this period of growth is no coincidence, and achieving success on the international circuit is certainly no small feat.
USA Volleyball must find and develop talent around a cohesive philosophy to sustain its success and establish consistency. That’s why USAV partners with Hudl. Video and data are integral to organizational communication and engineering an infrastructure of growth.
When you have athletes that are using this back home with their clubs and in their high schools, and the coaches that are using it at the collegiate level and with USA volleyball, it gives us the ability to be on the same page and to sync up what we’re talking about.
Kevin Moore, NTDP Indoor Manager, USA Volleyball
Scouting and Evaluating
Finding talent is step one. USA Volleyball works with coaches and scouts from all levels of volleyball to target and evaluate athletes.
“We have an indoor scouting network, which is primarily NCAA Division I programs,” Berzins said. “Coaches from those institutions are recruiting nationally. They're able to compare athletes from New York to Texas to California.”
And that’s just on the girls’ side.
“For the boys, our scouting network is comprised of Division I, II and III men's volleyball programs. And they're spread out across the country. They're the eyes and ears,” said Kevin Moore, the NTDP Indoor Manager. “They're the ones that are out looking for the top athletes to recommend them.”
However, the sheer geographical size of the U.S. relative to other countries presents a unique challenge to USAV. To complement what the scouts are seeing, USA Volleyball uses Hudl.
As part of their partnership with Hudl, USAV has access to the largest library of athlete video and data in volleyball. This is key to finding players.
“Hudl recruiting has been a tool that we will utilize for national team selection,” Berzins said.
Scouts compile a long list of potential athletes who may compete for a spot on the youth national teams. Then, the NTDP coaching staff reviews the assessments and uses Hudl to evaluate the full scope of an athlete’s skill and potential.
Having video and data available for every potential player is crucial.
The NTDP gains a richer understanding of performance which informs team selection with help from Hudl.
“We're trying to compare athletes from across the country, and our scouts can't be on every court all the time,” Moore explained. “So having Hudl as a tool is important, especially for some positions that require a lot of time watching an athlete play.”
Once an athlete is selected for the NTDP training series, the focus shifts to maximizing their development.
Powering Year-Round Growth
Getting the most out of athletes at the NTDP training series is critical to building competitive rosters for international circuits.
With the restructuring of the USAV youth program to the NTDP in 2021, USA Volleyball switched from two development sessions per year to a series of four. Each event is a three-day training combine.
But increased frequency doesn’t solve this problem on its own. 12 days per year still isn’t much time to mold the next generation of national team athletes.
Hudl is a resource for USA coaches to refine skills and provide instruction year-round.
“Athletes that are training right now have access to the video, from not only their practices that are analyzed after the event, but also video that's uploaded from our other teams for their reference,” explained Berzins. “The training themes not only are words on a whiteboard, but they're also something that they can actively watch.”
However, coming together for 72 hours every few months can create a highly pressurized environment. Not just on athletes to perform, but on the coaching staff to deliver sufficient training.
Supplementing on-court coaching with online learning l is essential to efficient, long-term growth.
Equipping NTDP staff and athletes with the resources to maximize their time together is a top priority for USA Volleyball. As part of their daily agenda, athletes are assigned film to watch on Hudl between drills and training.
“The Hudl suite of tools provides the major analysis and video exchange for our senior national teams all the way through our youth development program,” Berzins said. “It provides tools to have athletes be mindful of their development outside of the 12 days that they get to spend with our program. This is what will provide the seeds that hopefully lead to international success in the future.”
Eliminate the Learning Curve, Accelerate the Learning
Hudl is trusted at all levels of NCAA volleyball, including every Division I school. More clubs and high schools across the country trust Hudl over other platforms. 99% of high schools in the United States use Hudl, making Hudl the clear leader in high school volleyball.
This widespread usage of Hudl accelerates what USA Volleyball accomplishes with video and data.
“It's like speaking a similar language,” Moore said. “When you have athletes that are using this back home with their clubs and in their high schools, and the coaches that are using it at the collegiate level and with USA volleyball, it gives us the ability to be on the same page and to sync up what we’re talking about.”
Because the video and data are essential to high-performance volleyball, USAV is investing in training a team of performance analysts, led by Alex Hurlburt.
Hurlburt echoed Moore’s sentiments, saying that Hudl’s prevalence in the volleyball community makes it a no-brainer for USA Volleyball.
“Whenever you try to teach someone a new software, there's a learning phase. And if I have to explain to a coach how Hudl looks and what the stats look like, that takes time. Because so many people are familiar with Hudl, that [phase] is essentially gone,” Hurlburt said. “And when we can all come together and speak the exact same language of Hudl and its platform, it makes it incredibly more time-efficient.”
Time efficiency is paramount. The three-day training events have to run smoothly, but there are so many moving parts. Optimizing weekends for peak performance and evaluation is essential to their success.
The fast-paced nature of the training events presents important questions, like: Can coaches see the whole picture working with 70 athletes in three days? Can athletes build on each drill by running off of their memory alone? Are national team selections justified with limited exposure at events?
Hurlburt says Hudl helps NTDP staff zoom out and inspires confidence in key decisions.
Hurlburt has coached club, high school and collegiate volleyball—most recently at Loyola University. In addition to his role with USA Volleyball, he runs a business providing one-on-one coaching for athletes.
Hurlburt’s use of Hudl at every stop of his professional journey and his natural data curiosity make him the prime candidate to build and lead a team of performance analysts for USAV.
While there are other volleyball software available, Hulrburt and the USA Volleyball staff insist that Hudl’s analytics are so approachable that it’s the top solution.
It’s not just Hudl’s powerful tools that make it appealing, but its simplicity for users.
With easy-to-read reports and video-sharing tools, USA Volleyball and Hurlburt look to incorporate more video and data into every facet of the USAV operation.
The future of NTDP with Hudl
Once you see success, you can’t regress.
Berzins, Moore, Hurlburt, and the rest of the NTDP staff are hungry for more. The recent wins are not the goal, but a taste of what’s to come.
Whether it's scouting talent nationally, maximizing efficiency of training, or driving development, the partnership between USA Volleyball and Hudl is geared towards powering what’s possible for the next generation of the US National teams.
Hudl is the most trusted volleyball software for performance analysis and recruiting. See how you can bring these tools to your program to reach your best on and off the court
