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High School Football Turns to Tech for Coaching Assistance

Ledford High School is using video capture technology and mobile devices as part of its coaching toolset.

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The move to the flipped learning model in K–12 education isn’t limited to the classroom; it’s also at work on the field.

Ledford High School, in Thomasville, N.C., has deployed Hudl, a video-based solution for athletics coaching, into its football program, according to a news report with WGHP Fox 8. The software captures practice and game-day footage, which the coaches can then review and make notes on.

After a group session, the clips and notes are distributed to the players by email, which they can then view on their smartphone, tablet or notebook computer.

The video allows the football players to study the footage independently and at their leisure. This lets them scrutinize and spend more time examining the action on the field than was possible before personal mobile devices became so prevalent among students.

“The kids, they're glued to their phones, they're glued to their computers,” says Chris Adams, Ledford High’s football coach. “We can take what we spend two and a half hours every day doing, and on the weekends, go ahead and start sending them information and getting them the facts early.”

“We kinda tell them if they just go home and do a little bit of homework on Hudl every night it's not gonna do anything but make them a better football player and make our team hopefully more successful,” he adds.

The school has been using the Hudl software for three years now, and they’re largely pleased with it.

“I don't think it's done anything but help our program, help our kids hopefully gain a little bit of an edge. That's what we were after when we first started,” Adams says.

The integration of technology in high school football should come as no surprise because the NFL is increasingly adding tech to its game. The Indianapolis Colts ditched paper playbooks for digital, tablet-based ones, and the league is trying to leverage player analytics to eke out every bit of competitive advantage that it can.

Watch the report on Ledford’s video-based coaching solution below.

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