Monitoring Your Players Watching Hudl

Forcing them to do something the don't want to do never ends well

Instead of monitoring them, find a way to demonstrate the value...so they want to do it.

Do kids need to watch film for you to win?

I think that monitoring can be useful in that you can see who's watching. In our system the decision makers were our Mike and free safety. If I saw that they weren't watching much film I'd talk to them impress the importance of film. If that didn't work and they were good enough players to be on the field we'd have to consider either changing their positions or having another player make the decisions. After all, we prefer our Mike and FS make the calls and checks but it's not a law that it has to be them.

Trying to force players to watch film is a losing proposition, I think. If they're among your best 11 you can't bench them (Do I really care if our 3 tech doesn't watch film?). They might just let the film run while they watch TV, like I did during annual concussion lessons.

10 clips max for my defense to watch. More about identifying who their best players are so my kids are aware. We watch on Mondays. After film I release game film to kids if they want to watch. Some watch, most don't but I don't really care.

I have them fill out one page scouting sheets on the opponent that has very simple things for them to fill out. First is the starting lineups, jersey numbers. Then I have them pick out the weakest OL, WR/RB, DL, LB, DB. I have them write in position Keys, particular for them. I had a DE that noticed a OT's key for Run and Pass, and it was 100% spot on. Then I have them grade their position from the previous game.

I don't care as much as I used to. I've yet to see correlation between film hours and success.

Kids will either not watch or let it run if we kept on them. Unless there's a specific focus they'll just watch the game and say how much Jimmy from the other team sucks or find plays that are funny. I used to be gung ho but the more years go by I'm fine with that now - at least they watch something.

Anything we find relevant we will cover in meetings. We will share any playlists (short) we find relevant. We watch our own film on Saturday morning, correct any mistakes and maybe answer questions kids may have based on something that happened. We will watch scout films on some combination of Mon, Tue, Wed (usually Monday since JV plays and we're light guys, and Tue to get our final points in). We try to make it specific as possible. For O, OC may talk about coverage vs formations and any pressures. For D - main formations to discuss our alignments, any relevant huge run/pass keys, very hard tendencies, and third downs.

I try to improve every year to be more efficient with our film sessions and really wanting to get on our guys. We had a stud MLB couple years ago watched 2mins a week but knew where to line up, had good instincts, and would be able to learn more about the opponent through playing against it in team - he didn't need film to watch opponent. We don't script our Scout O vs Team D so we can really hammer in certain themes of the week - and a lot of our kids will pick up on it. Also gives flexibility to challenge D mentally on the field to not cheat the play - if we find a play giving D trouble we'll try to get it out of different formations.

As it is - kids already have a lot on their plate with school, football, and having some time to themselves. While we certainly encourage it, if they know where to line up, that's half the battle. We can coach them up on the technique rather than them lining up trying to guess what's coming. I'd rather our kids know our stuff inside and out and have time to focus on their school work and if they have time, let them have free time to play video games or hang out. When there's no pressure on them to watch it, I've found they'll spend time to watch on their own in a study when they don't have work or outside.

My experience has been if you send them a playlist with position specific notes they will watch it. I send them by position group. Maybe not every kid. But I usually post them by Saturday morning. Last year I didn’t send them until Sunday because I had family in town. By Saturday evening I had a dozen text asking where they were.

You are right you aren’t going to get them all to focus, but you also won’t get that if they are in a room together.

Definitely on the younger side and not as many years as a lot of guys here no doubt - lots to learn as well - I'm sure as I get older and I gain more years I'll look at things a bit differently. Maybe I haven't been at a place that has emphasized it enough or done it well enough...Definitely a positive if we have kids watch on their own time (plenty do), but we don't have a mandatory standard. Mandatory is knowing the plays/scheme installed so they know where to line up, know what to do, and execute. We'll show in meetings our emphasis in terms of scout. We'll watch our films and correct as needed. But rather than cut practice time to watch film I'd rather use that time on technique areas like blocking/tackling. They get a tip sheet they can go over. I'd rather guys go home , eat well, get school work done, have time themselves, and get 8-10 hours sleep - if they watch film cool if they play video games cool. Already long days, pressures, and demands on their time. When talking to our kids while a lot LIKE football only a few LOVE it - more kids play because their friends and friendships more so than the game itself. I can tell who's the love football group based on their view time. Our job as staff is to put in the hours watching film and giving them the information they need.

I'm a position coach (OL). I only monitor my group. I send the group a good and bad clip of each of our 4-5 base run schemes and 2-3 pass pro clips after every game. I annotate them...It's never more than 12-15 clips each week.


I have seen a direct correlation between the performance of the kids who watch film vs those who don't.