It’s been interesting to read other sport specific replies, keep them coming.
I’m a gadget guy so I have all types of video equipment, from GoPros to a drone. I’ve experimented at a scrimmage and a match since my first post. I have a DSLR that I film with but I have an older digital camcorder and 2 newer ones that I may put into service as well. To an earlier poster’s point, there are a limited number of plays that involve the keeper. That means it’s imperative that I catch those plays, and from different perspectives if I hope to capture the best footage. Additionally, my son is a sweeper keeper so he comes off his line frequently, sometimes attacking balls 10-20 yards outside his box. It’s a lot to consider for a relatively small amount of potential footage. Hopefully I figure out what will work best for him by the end of this season so I can film the fall season in total.
What I need now is a large external hard drive to store all this HD video until I can edit it.
I wanted to revisit this topic now that I’m into the fall season.
My key takeaway thus far…setting up cameras at different, unfamiliar locations can be a real challenge. The variety of mounting solutions I carry would make your head spin.
I have some decent footage, but I don’t know if I’ll end up with five minutes worth. Most keeper related plays are very fast. I’m also reluctant to throw in “filler” plays that won’t necessarily wow someone.
What I need is a new computer to edit all this footage. Can anyone recommend one, and what specs I should look at?
Do you really need a 5 minute video? Perhaps consider hiring a professional to create/edit the video rather than buying a new computer…they will have all the correct equipment, as well as experience in creating recruiting videos.
Just about anything from the past five years has enough horsepower to edit a few videos. For my last family email/browser PC I just bought a used windows 10 machine for $100 off ebay. There are a bunch of free video editors out there that are adequate. You’re only hoping to piece together a bunch of clips for a sports team, not film school.
From what I have read, mostly on soccer specific sites and here, 5 minutes is a long video, maybe too long. I have done a bunch of basketball videos and at 2 1/2 minutes they start to get repetitive. Like how many 3’s or great takes do you want to show. After three of each the coach gets the point that the player can do that.
Also, I am under the impression that GKs need specific skills videos that are separate from game clips. I think someone mentioned this up thread. So I would research that so you know exactly which skills you need on a video. Probably have the goalie coach do a session that you film and get that down.
Personally, if you are already a gadget guy I would be filming everything and editing along the way. As you said it takes a lot of film to make a good highlight. I have two star players that I made films for last season and it took an entire season’s worth of games to make one sub 3 min film for each player. And I am talking players who consistently scored 1/3 of the teams points every single game. (Granted partly because I am not a techie and there were user errors etc, equipment errors) But I think that’s a good rule of thumb, one season, one great film.
I use iMovie cause it’s free. I learned myself from youtube videos and then went to an Apple tutorial to round out my knowledge. It was easy.
I post to an unlisted youtube and every coach I have sent to has been good with that. Every coach I have communicated with has also asked for a full game.
The videos are very useful IMO, their function is to get a coach’s interest. A good video will do that.
Your tape doesn’t have to be five minutes long. My personal view is that short is better, so much so that if you had lots of video, I would make two separate tapes (gives you another opportunity to communicate with each coach). I divided the tape up into categories, such as crosses, saves, six kicks, punts, coming off lines, with repetition. But there is no right and wrong. The coaches will see things that you won’t recognize, so any tapes showing something is much, much better than no tapes.
I would finish up what you have, have your son send it off to a couple coaches (make sure to record to whom it was sent), and specifically ask the coaches for input on both skills and the tapes. Ask what other skills they would be interested in seeing. This falls into my category of finishing each email with a question to the coach (to invite a response to the email).
Having a kid that both plays soccer and kicks for football, I would think the goalkeeper video would be similar to what he does for kicking. We don’t need all the football game, just the parts where he kicks. We use his hudl video to create an official highlights because that is what the coaches want to see. We edited it down to short clips from the starting point to a little follow through so you could see his reaction etc. One thing we tried to do on highlights is reflect both ends of the game. So, for instance, if it is a particularly windy game show a goal kick or punt from one end and then the other end so it doesn’t appear to be all wind aided. We mixed it up a little so his would show 2 kickoffs, 2 PAT, and a couple punts from a variety of games. Idea to show consistency. We also found there was a need to show a little more. So we created a private youtube. On it we posted things like an uncut video of him kicking field goals working his way from short distance to long distance. It showed his range, that he could repeat over and over, and wasn’t a highlight of just his best. I could see you putting an uncut practice session with a trainer. We put video clips that shows a particular skill with a little more detail in the comments (6 second hang time), recovered onside kick, etc. So the idea was to send the clips video to coaches, but for the ones that showed interest we would send them to the link to the site where they could work through and analyze a little more. We also found that during the season sending a “weeks 1-4” and then later a"Midseason" or a “Hey coach, I added a few clips to my youtube you might be interested in”. It gave chances to communicate without overdoing it. Best of luck! This whole process is rather confusing.
@StPaulDad my wife’s personal computer is 4 years old and barebones because she only uses it to browse online and generate reports with a word processor. Work provides me with computers but I’m not using them to make recruiting videos.
I did some research and found a great budget option for $700 that is geared towards large HD file video editing. I bought it last night. Luckily our company’s IT guru buys everyone multiple computer licenses so he’ll load the new computer with the full business software suite we run, plus comprehensive virus protection.
We have some services locally that produce recruiting videos. I haven’t been impressed with their work. I would much rather build something myself…we’ll see whether I regret it, or not. If I manage to stitch together a decent video maybe I’ll turn this service into a side hustle.
@dogsmama1997@gointhruaphase@3kidsMultipleSports Thanks for your replies, each was informative and appreciated. I particularly liked the concept of concluding coach communications with an open ended question to encourage further interactions.
Regarding “pro” videos. I have found that they have a sleek quality but half the time they aren’t cut right and so they miss part of the play. Not sure if it’s because the editors don’t know the sport or are rushed doing many videos or just don’t care as much about my kids as I do. ?
I remembered that our team has a library of game recordings filmed by both our club, and the opposing clubs. I found dozens of suitable plays within that game footage. I need to download a program that allows me to save YouTube video to my computer so I can capture those plays for his video.
The target date for my son to send out recruiting emails, to include his video, is the Monday prior to Thanksgiving. That’s just over one week ahead of his Winter showcase. His last game of the Fall season is the weekend prior. I’ve got my work cut out for me.
The two most capable free video editing software programs I’ve found are VSCD and Shotcut if anyone thinks they’ll be creating recruiting videos.
Lots of video editing software has already been referenced, but here is one way to capture video from YouTube (there are other ways… but this is the one I use… because it is extremely easy).
On a Windows keyboard, you can can hold down the Windows key (the one with the four squares, usually next to the alt key), and at the same time, hit the letter ‘G’ key.
After a few seconds, a floating tool-bar will appear. After queuing your video, you can then select the record button from the floating tool bar. You will learn that it is best to start the video 10 seconds early, which will allow the YouTube data to disappear before the desired athletic scene commences.
I believe the maximum continuous recording time is thirty minutes, which is more than sufficient. Worst case scenario, you can record 30 minutes. Stop, and then begin on a new 30 minute segment.
Once the video capture is complete, a file will be downloaded to your hard drive, which you can then upload to your editing software. The quality is passable but not HD… but more than passable in most cases.
Make sure you keep the recording of the full game as you make your recruiting short. DS (D) had coaches ask for full game tape, letting them know which minutes were highlights. I think they were assessing the overall level of play as well as what he was up to when there weren’t highlights to note.
Thank you! just figured out how to do this based on the discussion! Old dog, new tricks. Had been trying to figure out how to get something out of Hudl.
As a follow up I thought I’d provide some information for those just starting out that would prefer to make their own videos.
Cameras: I already had GoPros but I use them less and less. I primarily use a couple of $200 Canon Vixia HD camcorders, another 5 year old Canon HD camcorder and my Canon DSLR.
Tripod: I use the Magnus VT-300 fluid head video tripod. At $65 it’s the best bang for your buck. The fluid head contributes to very smooth panning, which makes your video easier to watch.
External hard drive: I chose the 2TB WD My Passport Portable SSD hard drive for it’s speed and reasonable price. For around $60 you get plenty of space and extremely fast downloads.
YouTube downloader: The best free YouTube downloader I could find is 4K Video Downloader. You simply open the program, copy the link to the YouTube video you want to save, then click the “paste” button in the program.
Video Editor: It’s hard to believe VSDC is a free video editing program. It’s far more advanced than I’ll ever need, but it’s also fairly user friendly if you take the time to watch a few YouTube video tutorials. A more capable person could do impressive work with this software.
Laptop: Our laptop was too old and underpowered to edit large HD files. After a great deal of research I lucked out and found a Lenovo L340 15” Gaming Laptop at Amazon for $700. It has the latest generation i5 processor, 8G of RAM, a 512 SSD and the latest generation NVIDIA GeoForce graphics card. Honestly, one of the best selling points is the laptop’s understated appearance. It looks like a quality business laptop.
Hopefully this information helps other “do-it-yourself” parents that are inclined to take a stab at cut & paste video production. I showed my son some of the clips I’ve generated and he was interested to learn how I did it. Since his technological readiness level exceeds mine, I may never need to edit video ever again. I’ll gladly be his cameraman if he wants to be the Director.
