Football is one of the most popular sports around the world. Affluent high schoolers and students prefer this sport over the others. Similarly, the purpose of playing football in high schools is just to develop healthy activity for students and to encourage them in games too.
Hudl, a sports video editing software, partnered with the famous company Nike to launch an app for high school football players. The app, which is named as, Hudl Combine will provide the users with scores for all four events. The main four events include the 40-yard dash, the agility shuttle, a standing vertical jump, and a power ball toss or bench press.
After receiving the score, a player can submit then to Nike for feedback and rating. The application also encourages athletes to display their ratings on the Nike National leaderboards. Thus, the top scorers will be invited to “The Opening”. The Opening will have total of 160 best high school football players.
The reason behind the partnership of Hudl and Nike is to create the competitive spirit among the teenagers, thus they will have strength and motivation for game based events and training sessions. Also, through the virtual platform they can improve their performance in field.
The app will allow users to search between the Improve, Record, Leaderboard, My Rating tabs and the Opening options. It is upon the player to decide which event he wants to record with friends. The most beneficial thing of the app is that; it depends upon the user about the score he wants to post on his leaderboard and Hudl profile. From there, recruiters, trainers, coaches and all the other Hudl members can view your scores and profile.
As mentioned above, users will have to complete all of the four events in order to get the official Nike football rating. The first three are straight jump, 40-yard dash, and agility shuttle. The fourth part has an option between bench press and the ball toss.
After four events are completed, users can calculate their results. Players can also improve their skills through recommendations of the Nike feedback. Hudl app will also feature different videos and tips from the Nike athletes for users’ convenience.
David Graff, Hudl CEO said in a press release that helping the players develop and display their skills is the main motive behind this initiative. He also expressed his excitement over the much-talked about partnership.
Pete Carroll, coach of the Seattle Seahawks stated in the promotional video in Nike Website that;
“The Nike Football Rating tells us some really concrete facts about the basic athleticism, speed and explosion that an athlete brings. It’s a great tool. It’s one that we’ve used through high school, through college and in the NFL as well, so this is a really cool thing and it’s something we can really count on.”
The appreciation from such a big name shows that this app is really worth your time and consideration. It is an important step for those teenagers who wish to adopt football as their career or on a high level after their studies. Apart from the performance improvement, the app also provides exposure to the players. It implies that the athletes with good scores also have the probability of being picked by a professional.
The app is currently available for iPhone users. Hudl’s current audience is an estimated one million student-athletes who upload highlight videos however, the team at sports wearable thinks this is the first step towards gearing it to wearable space. We would not be surprised if the app starts capturing data via Nike wearable keeping in mind it’s competitor Adidas is on to something big as well.
