With developing camera and film technology, sports are changing. Now, players’ every move is being recorded and posted online for the public to see, for better or worse.
In high school sports, the most popular site for sport filming and analysis is called Hudl. According to their website, 99% of US high schools use Hudl. Lane is a part of this majority.
“Lane Tech administration pays a very large bill,” said Athletic Director Brent Bradish. “We invest in this technology for our athletes and our coaches.” Bradish said it is the largest annual contract that Lane pays.
This program records games with automatic zoom and hands-free filming, and uploads the footage to their site, then within hours, breaks down statistics and analytics for each player.
It started with only football film but now has grown into the recording of most gym and stadium sports, like basketball, soccer, volleyball, lacrosse, etc. So coaches of a wide variety of sports are now able to utilize this to create game plans, analyze their players and opponents.
“The technology is unbelievable,” Bradish said. “And now that has completely changed the way coaches design their practice, or prepare for a game, or study another team, and maybe build an offense or a defense based off of all that technology, all the data that’s provided.”
“Whenever we play a game in a stadium, there’s a Hudl camera in the stadium,” said Head boys soccer coach, Andrew Ricks. “You can access that already. So if we travel to another CPS stadium like Rockne or Eckersall or Gately, they’ll have a Hudl camera that you can access as well.”
Ricks, who has been coaching soccer at Lane since 2000, working with both the boys and girls programs throughout his career, said he has seen the technology have a positive impact.
“It’s clear when you can show a visual to a player of what they did well or what they didn’t do well, it’s a lot more impactful,” Ricks said. “And then also we can watch games with other teams, which has directly affected our results of seeing small things, for sure. And I’m certain that the same thing is for other coaches watching us.”
Along with statistics, Hudl technology compiles highlight reels of individual players and their personal game successes.
Sometimes, Ricks said, this isn’t ideal for coaches if players aim to perform for their own highlights. “Because sometimes it’ll look good, but is it effective? And I’d rather have the effective, as the coach, than looking good, which maybe a high school student might try to get more likes if it looks good. So that, I think, could be a pitfall,” Ricks said.
Hudl is also present on collegiate levels. Bradish said college recruiters use Hudl in their recruitment process. “Let’s just say…they’re looking for a soccer player and a midfielder. ‘Let’s see what Chicago has’ and so they can literally zoom in on all the Hudl footage and grab all of the statistics of midfielders in Chicago and then highlight and then pick those kids, study their film,” Bradish said.
Now that each game is potentially being watched by recruiters nationwide, the stakes of any given game are raised.
“Nowadays, it is kind of a lot of pressure knowing that everybody has that film and can access it whenever they want to,” said senior football player Gregory Howard.
