With the third round of the hallowed FA Cup kicking off in January, many of the minnows of the English soccer game will be looking to Lincoln City for inspiration following its historic run in the competition last year.
The club, which was in the lowly fifth tier of English soccer last season, was the first non-league team to reach the FA Cup’s quarter finals in 103 years. The scale of the achievement is not to be understated, as they beat English Premier League club Burnley F.C., away from home, in the fifth round to create history. Lincoln City was ultimately knocked out of the competition, only after losing to eventual competition winners Arsenal. The club even went on to win the 2016-17 National League title, rejoining league football at last.
Despite playing in non-league soccer in England last season, the club partnered with Hudl, a Nebraska-based tech company which has created video review software, which can analyze athletes’ performances to provide insights on improvements. A key driver behind the use of this technology was the appointment of the Cowley brothers to Lincoln City, with Danny being selected as the team’s head coach and Nicky becoming his assistant manager.
Hudl’s pitch is that it can provide this analysis “at every level” and the video can be captured on an expensive camera or just an iPhone. It works with more than over 153,000 teams across over 30 sports, and raised a further $30 million in funding this year, from investors including Accel and Nelnet. From the initial video recording, Hudl can create automated reports for either a single game, or an entire season, all with the goal of improving feedback to players and ultimately enhancing a team’s or athlete’s game plan.
In an interview, Glenn Skingsley, Lincoln City’s performance analyst, outlined how the club used Hudl to go on its historic FA Cup run last season and how the company has “been critical to our success.”
He continued: “We can break down a video of the game into individual playlists, highlighting things we think we did well or need to work on.”
“Danny and Nicky can also annotate each clip to make a specific point to a player so they know exactly what they expect of them. We’ve even got a chat function so we can tell all the players when the clips are up or discuss things with them over a phone.
“We think of every game as a story and every playlist is a chapter. Within that chapter we look for defining moments and ask ‘did we do it well or could we have done it better?’
While the coaches clearly bought into the system, Skingsley also believed that players did, too.
“They’ve recognised that Hudl is a great learning tool.”
“Some of the players watch the entire game back, others are really keen to look at individual areas of their game. The clips are edited straight after the game, so the lads can watch them back that night or the following morning.
“Sometimes when you give a player feedback orally, they don’t get it, but if you show them a clip it accelerates learning. It also clears up any confusion, in football there are always so many different opinions about every incident, with video footage you can be crystal clear.”
Hudl’s claim that it can be used by teams at any level of sport is backed by Skingsley.
“Not every club can afford a performance analyst, at our level it’s rare for a team to employ someone on a full-time basis. As a result you need something that is cheap and simple to use, so any member of the coaching staff can be the analyst, which is what we do at Lincoln.”
The club’s approach to using Hudl has inspired other teams to follow suit.
“We know that a few other clubs are interested in video analysis and are registered with Hudl, but I think they only use it sparingly. Whereas even the team at Hudl have told us that they are amazed how much we actually use the service, which is absolutely to the Nth degree. I think it’s unlikely that anybody uses the service like we do.”
Regarding how much Hudl actually helped the club to success last year, Skingsley outlined that “it may only be 1% of the reason behind our recent success, or it may be a lot more, but we really believe that the analysis we’ve performed before matches has helped the team an awful lot.”
“If you ask the players I know that they would agree. We’ve got players at the club who have played to Championship and League One level, and they reckon the analysis we provide is far more comprehensive than the kind they received at those clubs.”
Lincoln City are seeing continued success this year too since being promoted to the Sky Bet League Two. Currently in sixth place, the team is in a playoff position for back-to-back promotions.