<p>In another thread on cross country/track recruiting, I was exchanging posts with another contributor on the value of preparing a recruiting video for the student-athlete, and it occurs to me that the topic of videos probably deserves a thread of its own, which I could not find here via the search function. With the omnipresence and increasing technical quality (up to 1080p resolution!) of YouTube (DVD's are too ungainly for coaches to deal with), videos are a quick way for a coach in anywhere from one to six minutes to get a feel for the student athlete. (Length should be enought to see a kid's entire skill set a few times, but no longer -- a baseball infielder's video might take six minutes [but three is better], whereas a pole vaulter may need only a minute. Heck, ten seconds of a pitcher throwing a fastball with a radar gun in the foreground reading "94" will be enough to make most coaches drool.)</p>
<p>In my son's sport - baseball - videos are considered to be a 'must' except for those kids who've already wowed coaches by their HS rep or showcase appearances or are already well-known to their targeted coach(es) for some other reason. From what I've read, soccer and field hockey (and I'm guessing lacrosse) are similar. Other, less subjective and/or individual sports where personal times (track/swimming) or ERG scores (rowing) or ranking (tennis) apparently find it less necessary.</p>
<p>I thought I'd introduce the topic from what I'ves seen and heard from others about baseball, and ask others to chime in. It would be particularly helpful to hear about instances where students later learned that videos were not helpful - whether because they were not welcomed at all or because there was something in them that turned a coach off.</p>
<p>The key questions/criteria that seem to come to mind:</p>
<ol>
<li>Is a video necessary for the sport?</li>
<li>What specific factors about the student's skill set and level make a video more or less necessary?</li>
<li>Should it focus on highlights or practice drills/examples?</li>
<li>Should the student directly address the camera, and what should he or she say?</li>
<li>Should a high school or team coach speak in the video?</li>
<li>Should the student send updated video as events seem to warrant?</li>
<li>Who should prepare the video?</li>
</ol>
<p>As to baseball and our experience, here are my thoughts.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>For baseball, absolutely prepare a video unless the kid's already getting attention from all of the schools he's targeted, and even then it doesn't hurt. For others, I'm guessing something with a kid's face and voice (see item 4, below), and a few highlights could not hurt.</p></li>
<li><p>Videos should focus on those aspects of the athlete's game that don't come across through stats. My son is a pitcher and doesn't have a lot of velocity, so we felt it important to show the variety of pitches he throws and the impact they had in fooling hitters. (The best shots: batters standing with their bats still on their shoulders and staring at the catcher's mitt, not believing that the pitch they took actually broke over the plate for a strike.)</p></li>
<li><p>Most coaches like to see practice "skills" videos, because almost everyone can pull together a highlights video, though some highlights are nice, if only to break up the monotony. Coaches want to see what you physically are capable of doing, and figure that they will whip you into shape as far as repeating those skills in a game/match. Still, a few game shots can be helpful - particularly with something like baseball hitting -- because everyone can look good hittng a ball in batting practice but it's how you do facing live pitching that counts. Again, because my son's bullpens aren't going to look that impressive, we focused more on game highlights. Also, because he was a "closer", it was fun to add a couple clips at the end of games where you could cut the tension with a knife. (In one, a Mom is heard to yell, "One more strike!", and he threw a nasty slider for the final out, and the team roared off the field). Coaches don't need to see you do the same thing a zillion times; for example, I've seen highlight videos of infielders snaring fifteen grounders hit to their right, when a coach will "get it" after four or five.</p></li>
<li><p>I think ANY video in any sport will benefit by the kid speaking into the camera for fifteen seconds and reciting something like this: "Hi, I'm Jane Schmoe of the Class of 2012 at Majoric High School in Yourtown, Georgia. I'm a pitcher/midfielder/etc. and hope to continue playing [my sport] at a [state academic, geographic and division level parameters of colleges you're looking at]. I've [state major athletic accomplishment], and my grades and SAT scores are [X]." Remember, this coach will - if your child enrolls at his or her school - will spend more time over the ensuing four years with your child then you have over the past four years, and you want to reassure the coach that this is a person that he/she will want to be around. Let the coach remember the athlete as a smiling and confident face, so that she's remembered as something beyond a set of numbers on a page. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>This of course presumes that the athlete makes a good presentation; you don't want a mumbling teenager or a gum-chewing girl talking in 'Valley-girl' speak. If your child doesn't come across well on the video, maybe you'll want to scrap the idea or keep it short. I saw one recent video put together by a professional recruiting outfit that was mostly showing the young man talking off to someone at the side and literally mumbling inaudibly through a talk about why he like baseball. Bad idea, IMHO.</p>
<p>Another trick that's easy to accomplish with most video software programs is, after a few seconds, to have the student's voice ONLY appear OVER the videos. This keeps the videos short - there doesn't really need to be separate sound during the highlights themselves unless relevant to the sport. (E.g., for pitchers it doesn't hurt for a coach to hear the smack of the ball into the catcher's mitt.)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I got the idea of having a coach speak on the video from a semi-professional video done for another kid on my son's summer team, as the coach is a former pro player whose recommendation may carry weight. Again, if you can keep it short (or, better yet, play the voice largely over the video to save time) and specific (say, talking about the athlete's specific skills and accomplishments ["He was our pitcher entrusted with facing our toughest opponents because of his speed and command"] and prospects for the future ["I forecast that he'll continue to grow and develop and will contribute to a mid-level D1 program because ____"], college coaches will be more likely to watch to the end.</p></li>
<li><p>Sending a very short, update clip of a highlight can be a good excuse for keeping a coach reminded about your kid. For example, I had my video camera running when the player mentioned in item 5, above, was hitting and running out a triple, which displayed both his hitting and running speed. His father put it on YouTube and the kid sent the YouTube link to several coaches he'd been in touch with to the effect of, "Hi, just thought I'd let you know about my continuing interest in your program and about my summer season, where I'm the starting shortstop with XYZ travel team and hitting .3xx. In case you're interested, here's a clip of a triple I hit yesterday in our tournament in ABC that another Dad filmed." Coaches can be forgetful; reminders of your interest and progress, if tasteful, can be good, particularly with D3 coaches who have small staffs and themselves are working at the job only part-time.</p></li>
<li><p>You probably don't need to get a professional to put the video together, and a coach may be put off by something too slick. As others have noted, with the Windows Movie Make on Windows or off-the-shelf programs for making movies, anyone can pull together various video clips from a camera. (I use Sony Vegas 10.0, which can be had on Ebay for $70 or so.) Most decent cameras have a video function that will produce decent movies, but I'd steer clear of most phones' cameras. Ask family or friends to find a good camera to borrow - most families of even modest means with children under the age of five probably bought a video camera as soon as their child started to become 'cute'. For those interested, I've taken the liberty of chopping down and sanitizing my son's three-minute baseball recruiting video to less than a minute to give you an idea of what an amateur but well-received initial recruitment video can look like in baseball. You can look at it here: UrsaMajoricSampleRecrVideoD1.wmv</a> - YouTube I'm not claiming that it's great, and because I've done amateur sports videos for my son's teams for years, I'm probably quicker at doing the editing than most, but with patience anyone can do work of this level.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>A professional videographer who doesn't understand the recruiting process (say, someone who specializes in wedding videos) may steer you in the wrong direction, e.g., by focusing on flashy edits or by simply being too long. And I've seen horrible videos done even by recruiting services, for example, by focusing on the kid talking or not cutting out examples of the kid not actually doing well. They may not have the incentive to give the kid 'tough love' and tell his or her parent that she is not coming across well, or they may simply be in a hurry to do everything in one take and move on to their next client. But ask around. The athlete's peers who are going through the same process may have found a real gem of a videographer and will likely share their video with the kid or his parents; even if you don't use that videographer/editor, the video may give you ideas as to what does and doesn't work.</p>
<p>Also, if you search in YouTube for "recruiting video [your sport]", you'll likely come up with a zillion videos, either from the direct search or in the vertical "other videos" bar on the right side of the page. This will guide you as to what's good, bad and ugly about recruiting videos. </p>
<p>Oh, and music is generally a no-no. And if you play the theme from "Chariots of Fire" or "The Natural" - or anything from a Star Wars movie - you'll be blackballed for sure. 8-)</p>