Tips for Creating a Great Recruiting Video
A good recruiting video can make a huge difference in your chances of getting an athletic scholarship. In many cases, your highlight video is your greatest shot to get the attention of a coach. Coaches look for specific things in video, and there are steps you can take to make your sure your video doesn’t get thrown in the trash.
Put Your Best Plays First
Make it a compilation of plays, with the best plays coming first. Coaches will make their mind up on viewing a video in the first fifteen seconds. If you don’t have anything to get their attention, they will turn it off.
Don’t Add Music
You should not have music on your video, especially music with explicit language. It’s all about first impressions; this is a recruiting video, not a music video. Coaches are watching hundreds of videos and having to listen to music they might not like isn’t going to make them like your video.
Use Spot Shadows or Arrows
Make yourself easy to identify. Use a spot shadow and/or freeze the tape before each play and highlight yourself with an arrow. Many times the video isn’t high enough quality to easily identify you on each play. Most coaches expect video to have spot shadows now.
Include Your Contact Information and Measurables
The first screen of every video should include your jersey number and team colors. Also add any sport specific measurements like height, weight, PR’s, etc. The last part to have on your opening frame is your complete contact information (your personal phone and email along with your coaches).
Get High Quality Video
The film your team or coaches use to break games down should be good enough. If you are going to need to record footage yourself invest in a good camera and use a tripod. Often times video companies can record your games for a very good fee if you don’t want to shoot it yourself.
Keep It Under 7 Minutes
The goal of your highlight tape is to show your best plays and get coaches interested. Most times, coaches don’t watch the whole video and if it is really long it can be off putting. If a coach likes your highlight tape they will ask you for more film.
Put Your Video Online
Put the video online so that coaches can see it easily—DO NOT MAIL DVDs unless it is requested by a coach. Upload it to a video-hosting site, such as YouTube, and send the link to coaches in our email to them.
Following these steps will help you create a highlight video that coaches want to see. The key is to create a video with just your best plays to keep the coach wanting more. Coaches do not give out scholarships based on a highlight video, but they can decide not to.
If you have questions about good video services to use or want to have our recruiting experts review your video, leave you video or questions in the comments section below. Also, check out our Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ and ask your questions there!