Recruiting Video

All great questions,

 

I'm no expert, but we have two videos, one inside- as it was winter in pa, and a recent one outside.  no game footage, very short and to the point.  Shows his swing from a couple of angles, shows him throwing from right to third, right to cutoff, and right to home- as he's an outfielder.    Then shows a 60 with a time, and our guy threw in vertical jump and broad jump.  no game footage, as I didn't have any.  golden rule is no music, or enhancements.  I'd include ht/wt, we forgot to do that.  I'm sure others will have some good guidance as well.

 

This is a good thread for reference.

 

http://community.hsbaseballweb...-a-video-for-the-boy

 

Put yourself in the coach's shoes. Is he scanning 50 videos at a time? Better make a good impression pretty quickly. Watch a few random recruiting videos on youtube. When I do that, I can make an assessment (may not be accurate) in the first 10-15 seconds.

 

Keep the recruiting video short; less than 3 minutes. You can always post longer stuff on youtube for those who want to see more.

 

And contact information is important. What if he finds your son's video and wants to call or text him immediately? Make that as easy as possible.

Ah, great thread. Thanks.

I had a coach tell me he loved videos with the soundtrack for 2001: A space Odyssey.  This one guy had synced it so the homeruns his kid hit came precisely at the right moment musically.  Made him laugh.  Didn't recruit him but he never forgot the video.

 

duh duh duh dah dah!

Funny. That gets me thinking... I have a habit of taking advantage of my sons' gullibility on occasion.  I could do a version of his video with some great old movie sound track stuff -- Star Wars, Jaws, Ride of the Valkyries (Apcolypse Now) 2001, etc. -- and tell him that I had sent it to a bunch of coaches on his behalf.  That would be awesome!

That would be GREAT!!  I'm gonna steal your idea.  I'm at the same point as you are in creating a video, btw, so thanks for bringing this up.

Music will annoy coaches, i bet they turn it down or off. It's your kid's ability and talent that will get him noticed, highlight that in the video and focus less on what you think will be a creative wonder in the editing process. If you have the savy, load it on a website where you can track who watches it, or on a hosted site that shows you the coaches school via IP address. That way, you have metrics to manage and help in the process.

MidAtlanticDad nailed it. Brevity and clear view of the essential elements is all they want.

 

Go to the "Virginia" board (see example immediately below) and check out "Play in School's" video clips that are routinely attached to the threads about college commitment announcements. His format was designed solely with recruiters in mind.

 

(http://community.hsbaseballweb...6-commitments?page=2)

 

Keep in mind that in the vast majority of cases, all a video is going to do is interest recruiters sufficiently that they make a point of seeing your son in person. Don't try to sell them with anything beyond the clear view of his mechanics with the video. Chances are that you'll end up with exactly the opposite result you seek if you do anything beyond that.

 Yes, I work in the internets and  I agree that content is king, and my questions are almost entirely about content.  I'm sure I didn't say or imply anything about "a creative wonder in the editing process." 

It would be easy to identify visitors by IP if I embedded the video on webpage, rather than just served it on YouTube.  But I dunno... that means setting up a recruiting website, which seems like a bit much, especially since he'll likely be targeting a pretty small number of schools.

By chance, I just read the article below from Driveline. Although the entire thing is a good read, the end of the article has some very good and clear instructions on exactly what to include in a recruitment video. Some of it may be difficult for the average family to do on their own, but I think we'll try to do as much as we can when the time comes.

http://www.drivelinebaseball.c...rafted-or-recruited/

Keep it simple and keep it short.  

No music, no fluff.  

If you are going to have measurable like velo 60 time show the evidence.  

Showing general info (6' 1"  170 lbs  86 MPH fastball) then show a video indoors with a pitch that looks much closer to 78....well, either leave that info off or verify it.  

A quick 10 intro showing the kid and vital stats, height, weight, ect.  

A quick video showing skills.  If pitching showing from the sides and behind preferably with a radar gun reading (if this helps the kid cause).  I like showing from behind as well because it can show movement on pitches.  Again a coach is not going to watch a 5 min pen.  A couple examples of 3 pitches should be good.  

Same sort of thing for fielding ect.  

Good stuff. Thanks.

Most every coach, recruiter and scout (50+/-) that has been in contact with my son has mentioned his videos to him, and how they are great and  EXACTLY what they want to see...

 

They are ALL In-Game footage only, and they have all have some sort of instrumental background music...

 

They are all about a minute or two in length...

 

Different strokes for different folks, I guess...

Okay, now I'm completely confused.  I was joking about using the over the top music, preferably at full volume, and it turns out some coaches actually like it?  Maybe when kids express interest in a program they should send in a questionnaire that asks what kind of camera does the coach prefer to be used, what type of footage (game or cage), what angles they prefer, and what orchestration they find most compelling.  Sort of like a Common App for coaches.  We could even throw in questions like whether they're old school or coddlers, do they always bunt in bunt situations, and what approach they want their players to take at the plate.  That would certainly streamline the kids' end of the recruiting process.

 

Different strokes sounds right, Bolts.

Well, I just looked at a couple of Bolt's son's videos.  He's a flat-out stud. Short of Lil Wayne maybe, I bet coaches are going to tell him that they love the music on his videos regardless of whatever music is on them.

 

My son will be targeting D3's mostly.  He talked to a D3 coach a couple weeks ago who told him "just get your dad to shoot with an iPhone".  I can't help wanting to do a little better for him than that.

pm'd you

I guess it really is different strokes for different folks.  I have attended several coaching clinics where recruitment is mentioned and most at those have said no music.  They have also said that they want a good view of few swings, fielding and throwing and they don't have to be game video. 

 

We let an organization do my child's video and it is way too long.  I'd recommend that time be a consideration.  I showed it to JCG and he also agreed that it was way too long.  I think he might have thought about getting a drink and some popcorn.   LOL!

Lots of great advice so far, and many previous threads too.

 

I completely agree with "no music".  I've heard that from coaches many, many times.

 

I'll leave the details of the 3-5 minute skills video to others.  We did them for both our 2012 and our 2016.  They are essential.

 

We also shared small videos, typically 10-20 seconds max, in other email communications to coaches.  For example, a game winning homer or spectacular diving catch are nice things to share separately from a longer video when also communicating some useful info (grades, test scores, schedules, etc.).  Now 2016 didn't have any of those gems, but a nice hit or defensive play will do.