Using Highlight or Skills Videos to get RECRUITED

Did you ever wonder how college coaches determine who to recruit and eventually offer scholarships too? Well, it all starts with finding those students that meet their needs, then they must be able to evaluate their talent efficiently and effectively. We are talking about highlight and skills videos.

Every prospect that wants to play sports in college at any level must have a highlight or skills recruiting video. College coaches must be able to EVALUATE your talent in a short amount of time. You may only get 2 minutes of the college coaches’ time for them to determine if you can play at their level and if you have the skills they are looking for to fill a slot on their roster. In most cases you get one shot to make a good impression so you have to make it count. So what are the differences between a highlight video and a skills video?

What is a SKILLS VIDEO?

Did you ever try to watch your son or daughter play in a game and just before they kicked the game winning shot you lost sight of them behind three other players? That’s why for some sports a SKILLS VIDEO is the answer. A skills video would be clips of “staged” sport-specific drills or actions such as swinging a bat, defending different opponents, a series of swings, or your start in the 100 meter breaststroke. Start by creating a list of what sport-specific drills or skills a college recruiter would want to see then videotape them.

What is a HIGHLIGHT VIDEO?

A highlight video would be edited clips of your actual game footage (most common in sports such as FB and BB). To create a highlight video you start by gathering and organizing your game footage taken by your school, or your parents. Next, watch your game footage and carefully “tag” each clip you want to use in your highlight video. You should tag as many good clips as possible then go back later to review them and decide which ones are most important. Do NOT duplicate any clips that show the same skills over and over. This will help to keep your video shorter in length and it will be more likely that the college recruiter will watch the entire video. Then transfer your clips onto a cd, dvd, or a media file on your computer.

Keep your highlight or skills video to a maximum of 3 minutes unless you want to add a full game on the back end of your video. Then the college recruiter will be able to see your best clips and also what you do during or after a play. Colleges want to see how you handle yourself after making a mistake. After all, you’re going to make mistakes playing in college and the recruiter knows it. They want to see how you handle yourself during those times as well.