Need help w/email Response from Wake Forest

A dad video'd my son during the season. His camera cost $200. The rest is just a lot of labor downloading to a laptop and editing. The video is under two minutes. A few good cuts of extra base hits, some baserunning and a couple of great defensive plays. If you don't have season clips take video of a batting practice.

Peninsula - I made my own video using a basic digital camera and Windows Movie Maker. No fancy scene transitions, no music, just the basics. If I can do it anyone can.

My son is a catcher so I had him receiving balls, a little blocking, throwing down to 2nd and 3rd, and handling bunts. We then include about 10 BP swings - half from behind, half looking at him from the side. Finally we had him run a 60-yard dash. Wrapped it up with his name, e-mail, phone # and ACT score. It wound up about 4-1/2 minutes.

Keep it short and sweet.

Peninsula,
The good news is that the coach doesn't want or expect anything but some basic home video. He wants to see your sons bat work and the ball come off it. Pretty simple.

Best of luck to your son.

IMHO - a cheap camera is fine - but get a tripod! Turn on the camera and then walk away. Something good will eventually happen. Erase the other stuff

Keep in mind what they are looking for. They want to see your son's swing, and don't care how far the ball traveled, so get video of HIM, not the ball. Also, edit out the time between plays, leaving only a couple seconds between swings, or plays in the field. Don't waste your time getting overly fancy, they want to evaluate your son, not go to a movie. Finally, keep it short, 2-3 minutes is plenty of time, they just need to see his swing from the side, some video of him playing his position (you can even get this during pre-game), or pitching from both the front and side.

Rule # 1: Do not narrate.

Get the camera away from any parental cheering. If necessary, send video completely without sound.

The biggest mistake people make with videos is when they try to make a sales pitch. All you're doing here is trying to show them something that will make them want to see your son play live. And they aren't going to do anything serious until they see him in person.

Keep it short and to the point. Batting practice, fielding practice, or bullpens as the case may be work best because you can just give an idea of his size and the athleticism of his body, then show his movements. That's all a video can accomplish.

Showing a HR from a game is not persuasive. For all anyone knows, it might've been the only ball he hit hard all year. Everyone looks great in a highlight video. Game performance is not what this is about.

Home movies work fine if you know how to upload and send them as an e-mail attachment or by mailing a CD/DVD. No need to spend lots of money here.

Thank you all so much for this advice. I am going to have my son read this. We've been caught a little off guard here & did not expect to have anyone request a video so soon.

He often videotapes himself so he can review it but none of that would be suitable to send out since it is done from his cage or our basement. I'm very relieved to see that this is something we can put together ourselves.

Realize that these coaches get emails such as your sons all the time---the video they are requesting is just so they can make a determination as to whether or not to make a trip to see your son in action---the video need not be a fancy piece of work but very simple just so they can make a judgment

quote:

Originally posted by TRhit:
Realize that these coaches get emails such as your sons all the time - the video they are requesting is just so they can make a determination as to whether or not to make a trip to see your son in action

***** Deleted by moderator - please see your PMs ****

Congrats on getting a positive response from a good school and program. I hope everything works out.

dub

you sure do show a lot of class !!!!

quote:

Originally posted by dub-L-play:

quote:

Originally posted by TRhit:
Realize that these coaches get emails such as your sons all the time - the video they are requesting is just so they can make a determination as to whether or not to make a trip to see your son in action

***** Deleted by moderator *****

Congrats on getting a positive response from a good school and program. I hope everything works out.

What's wrong with the truth. Some of the schools my son sent emails were more specific stating they would like to see a video before they put him on their "watch" list. Some of the more academic schools also added transcripts to the request.

I found TR's response disparging. Not every kid gets a request for a video etc. To denegrade, what is obviously something more than a routine response from the Coach is unhelpful.
***** Deleted by moderator *****

I understand that Wake Forest is a long shot school for most players. My son sent emails to 'realistic schools' as well. It just happened that this was the first one to send a response. There's nothing wrong with keeping things in perspective!

Thank you dub L play for the info. I thought video requests were routine.

P,

I can help you.

Send me an email.

I know the recruiter, well.

But then....,

Ok Bear, I did.

quote:

Originally posted by Peninsula:
Ok Bear, I did.

I responded several times, and hope I am able to aid in the process.

quote:

Originally posted by Peninsula:
Ok Bear, I did.

P
I breifly chatted with TW. You are good hands
for the weeks with 'Heels' and Cilento.
Enjoy the bonding with your son.

Coach May - What is you cell phone #
(please send via other email)

cheers

Got the 'TW" part but you lost me after that...

Sent you a pm!