UNEDITED vs. Edited video tapes

Never heard that. You edit the video so the coach doesnt have to sit through dead time.
Your definition of edit may be different, but let's say you are videoing an at bat. I doubt the coach wants to sit there and wait on the batter to step out of the box, adjust his batting gloves and knock dirt off his cleats between pitches.
If I was a college coach that would drive me bananas!

Same rule as a speech, shorter is better. (Skillshow gets everything in that's needed in under 2-3 minutes)

Two minutes is good - We did hear from one college coach noting that one kid had a great series of swings, but laughed when he said there was a different pile of balls between each swing. We were told coaches use these videos to exclude kids, and they get piles of these. I would say edit, but lose the inspirational music and fancy shots.

Hey All-
Consensus seems to be 2-3 minutes--
As far as the editing the scout told us that coaches can tell when you're sending them doubles, triples and homeruns---So as long as we keep the tape brief we should be okay i guess.

My plan is to have him take a set of consecutive swings ove rthe course of a minute or 2--and I'll make sure to tell him to forget about knocking the dirt off his cleats!!

Save the rest for running and fielding-- simple editing...so they know we're being honest.
Hey---if they don't like my kid for who he is
then he doesn't want to be there. He wants to PLAY BALL!

Go to Skill Show's web site and take a look at some of theirs to get an idea as to a very good format to follow. I don't think it gets any better than how they do it.

Bizzimom

The tape we put together had a few minutes of BP, some game footage, at bat and in the field, 1 HS game at bat and the rest at showcases. We had a few shots of him fielding (CF) and throwing home. at showcases and practice. I did include the throw where he hit the camera tripod at home plate and almost knocked the camera over.

I also included some showcase footage showing his 60s and runs from home to 1st at 3 different showcases. I had his fastest 60 time in the cover letter, but this gave the coach a chance to time the 60 himself.

The idea is to show what type of athlete he is and give a SHORT sample of his skills.

TomR

quote:

Originally posted by Tom R:
Bizzimom

The tape we put together had a few minutes of BP, some game footage, at bat and in the field, 1 HS game at bat and the rest at showcases. We had a few shots of him fielding (CF) and throwing home. at showcases and practice. I did include the throw where he hit the camera tripod at home plate and almost knocked the camera over.

I also included some showcase footage showing his 60s and runs from home to 1st at 3 different showcases. I had his fastest 60 time in the cover letter, but this gave the coach a chance to time the 60 himself.

The idea is to show what type of athlete he is and give a SHORT sample of his skills.

TomR

Thanks Tom---Sounds like a tape I would want to see if I were a coach. I like the variety-- Now I have to do a little digging!

Used to live in Montgomery--small world isnt it?

quote:

Originally posted by hokieone:
Go to Skill Show's web site and take a look at some of theirs to get an idea as to a very good format to follow. I don't think it gets any better thanthey do it.

------

Thanks--will do!

Been looking in the archives, but haven't found very much current info.

First question:
Should one send a college recruiting VHS tape or a DVD?

Second question:
Anyone ever emailed a recruiting
video link to a head baseball coach as opposed to mailing a hard copy?
What was the response, if any?

There was an extensive discussion on this site about this topic.

DVD are better because they allow you to sitf throught the video instead of having to watch and rewind. You can put sveral videos on the DVD and label them. DVD are cheaper to mail out.

Many people use web sites and there were some good examples posted. I prefer DVD because it usually gets lokked at even if not for awhile. Coaches tend to be busy and may forget to look at the site. Which ever you do you should follow up with a phone call after an appropriate wait time.

If you put vhs into the search function you will get lots of discussions on this subject.

Edited is not a problem as long as you don't turn the video into a big production. Ball park sound as opposed to music and no special effects. Cut out the waste and just show what a coach would want to see to eveluate and show it quickly to keep his attention. Forget the big lead in. Put the bios as a separate file and not as part of the video.

Found this
Hope this helps



3XUROUT
Member
Posted November 03, 2005 11:46 AM Hide Post
Anyone looking for instruction on how to make a video can e-mail me at Looney73@aol.com. I got these instructions from a Baseball website and they are great as they tell us the best angles and give good tips on making the best video.
I am sure Skillshow turns out a very good product. In my opinion, you can make your own video and use that money you would spend (on someone else making the video) on software to cut and edit your own video.
Posts: 14 | Location: Chicago | Registered: October 12, 2005

Ignored post by 3XUROUT posted November 03, 2005 11:46 AM Show Post

BobbleheadDoll
HSBBWeb Old Timer
Posted November 03, 2005 04:44 PM Hide Post
You can do your own. I set up the video on a tripod like another poster did. I shot from bothe side of the catcher out at my son. I got great video. I did not shoot every game and missed a perfect game he trew but you can't get them all and you really are not there to get them all. The coaches don't have time to watch everything. Use MS Movie Maker which I believe is free. I use Windows XP Pro Media Edition. It has been improved a lot over the last while and is certainly good enough for this work. You just chop out the unimportant parts and save the modified version in a file to contain the stuff you want to put on a CD or DVD.
As far as being pushy it is a fine line. I crossed the line a couple of times and had offers from both coaches. If your son is good you are doing the coach a favour and non of them reacted badly at least in the long run. If I were a coach and a kid had the balls to get in my face in a nice way I would have to look at him. My son is actually a very shy person who needed to be puished to show himselp off. He has 0 ego and looks up to other players but when he steps on the mound he is a different person. Keep you sense of humour and talk to the coaches. They want to win and you have to believe that you can help to do that.
My son got the news that he made the 25 man travel roster on his D1 NCAA school in the south a couple days ago. He was worried about making the 32 man roster but he went out and did what he does best.
However you approach the video issue get it done. If you are worried about the process call the coach or e-mail him and tell him that you are interested in his program and that you are forwarding a video in a format that he can view.
Good luck !
Posts: 2126 | Location: Canada | Registered: October 13, 2005

Ignored post by BobbleheadDoll posted November 03, 2005 04:44 PM Show Post

Skillshow1
Member

Posted November 03, 2005 06:42 PM Hide Post
If I can add a little insight to the Recruiting Video discussion...
We have filmed over 50,000 athletes in multiple sports around the country and we CONTINUE to learn and listen to coaches on what value they can get from "video".

The clearest knowledge we have is that video is a great tool to show 3 things:
1. athleticism
2. body type
3. basic mechanics

Remmber "video" is "information" just like stats, scouting reports, etc. When scouting a player, recruiters needs as much 'information' as possible, so video can be extremely useful.

Imagine paying to see movies in the theater without seeing a 30-second trailer first...you could waste time & money on something you never wanted to see. Now think of the time & cost of a coach/scout to travel and see hundreds to thousands of players! Our goal is to 'enhance the scouting process with video & internet technologies'. So far, we have gotten great feedback from the scouting community...but we never stop asking how to improve our service.

There is no exact way to produce a players video, but if you can demonstrate those 3 things in a presentation that is 5 minutes or less, then you are doing the viewer (coach or scout) a huge favor. If you can get it online with updated personal information, you can minimize delays in your recruiting process.
Posts: 8 | Location: Seattle, WA | Registered: November 03, 2005

Ignored post by Skillshow1 posted November 03, 2005 06:42 PM Show Post

nhsbaseball21
New Member
Posted November 03, 2005 08:21 PM Hide Post
Many of the players I coach have their video and resumes online with Skillshow, and it's really opened a lot of doors for them. I am extremely happy my booster club hired Skillshow to come to our school for a film day. The whole thing was really professionally done from start to finish and my players were excited to start contacting coaches all around the country. The college coaches I've talked to about what Skillshow has going think it's a great way for high school players to initially contact them. The best thing about Skillshow from a high school coaches perspective is it's teaching my players to be pro-active when it comes to the recruiting process.

http://www.newportbaseball.com

Thanks again fellas!

quote:

Originally posted by shortstopmom:
Been looking in the archives, but haven't found very much current info.

First question:
Should one send a college recruiting VHS tape or a DVD?
DVD...and the DVD should be printed with your sons name and HS stats (if impressive) Remember, although the coach cannot be marketed into giving your son an offer, he can, just like anyone be influenced to take either a cursory or good look at the DVD. Peak his interest

Second question:
Anyone ever emailed a recruiting
video link to a head baseball coach as opposed to mailing a hard copy?
What was the response, if any?

Website is definitely the way to go these days. Send the DVD, but also have a website with the video available (google can host the video) By emailing the coach with the link to the video embedded in the email, one click and he's watching your son. Had many coaches comment positively on this. They can also just email the link to their assistants so they can watch rather than distributing a hard copy. If you'd like an example, my sons website from HS is still online at Baseball Recruit Website

We got very good responses from the 2 minute 22 second VERY EDITED DVD we mailed out to about 12 different colleges and universities in June of 2006 [my son was a 2007 HS graduate]. Most of these schools had been contacted before by letter with attachments containing various academic information, stats and a Skillshow reference. But it was the homemade DVD that got action from several schools that had not given us the time of day before. Hoping that a detailed description of what the DVD contained and how I did it might help some of you taking home movies of your children anyway, I offer the following:

I included a short introduction and a short conclusion on the DVD before getting to the heart of the matter. After the introduction and the conclusion were prepared [taking about 15 seconds total] with the remainder of the DVD I had about 1/3 on hitting, 1/3 on base-running and 1/3 on fielding.

We have a local radio station that covers most of the high school baseball games and I used some announcer descriptions in the DVD. As the video first comes up there is my son's name, his height, weight, phone number and e-mail address. The audio portion playing at this time is an actual radio account of a home run my son hit and this actual radio account;
"a drive to deep centerfield, the centerfielder, going a long way, WOW what a catch by [son's name]"

The first part of the hitting portion of the tape was one at bat that followed the pitch sequence up to a 2-1 count with my son's home run swing on the fourth pitch. It was edited so that all you saw was the pitch crossing the plate and the start and hold back on the swing. The rest of the hitting portion was several "different" swings at pitches that were hit. The swings were selected to show hitting a fastball low and in, a fastball high and in, a right handed curve ball, a left-handed curve ball, and other miscellaneous swings. Again, all you saw was the pitch crosing the plate and the contact and take-off out of the box. Once the video sequence was edited down to a specific time by a hired professional, I had our local radio announcer tape an audio segment that was paired down to match the time of the hitting portion of the DVD. This segment went over my son's hitting stats for his junior year both high school and summer ball and the high school career records for walks, triples, doubles and runs scored that he had already set by his junior year.

The next portion of the tape was the baserunning portion. The first part of this segment of the video shows my son leading off first base with an actual radio broadcast audio where the announcer said "big lead off first by [son's last name]". It also shows the pitch by the pitcher and the throw back from the catcher which was partially tipped by the obviously nervous pitcher who immediately looked over to see where my son was before hustling to retrieve the baseball that was 10 feet away. The next pitch was a run and hit and the video shows my son takng off, the second baseman going to cover the base and a ground ball through to right field with my son ending up on third base standing up. The remainder of this segment shows several stolen bases [including one of third] while the local radio announcer in another pre-timed audio portin talks about my son's laser timed best 60 time at a Perfect Game showcase and how many bases he stole for his high school and summer teams with the caught stealing statistic included. The last stolen base was against the high school team that won the West Virginia AAA State Championship. It has the actual radio description of this steal attempt as the audio. As a result, the end of the steal of second is in slow motion so the audio and visual segments match up. It shows the pitcher with a slide step, the throw to second chest high and my son hook sliding away from the sweep tag and being called safe [he was safe too].

The final third of the DVD focuses on fielding. Although the video only shows fielding plays from the second base position, the audio portion is another pre-timed recording by the local radio announcer talking about the various positions my son played for his high school team and summer teams and ends with his Conference and All State awards one year as an infielder and one year as an outfielder. The first part of the video portion shows fielding plays and throws to first and moves to double plays that include at least one each of 4UA-3, 4-6-3, 6-4-3. and 5-4-3. The last double play shows an attempted illegal take out by the base runner and the adjustment my son made in order to get off the throw to first is in slow motion.

The end of the tape simplly repeats the visual in the beginning that has his name, his weight and height, his phone number and his e-mail.

The total run time was two minutes and 22 seconds and the total cost of the professionals that worked on the project was less than $200.00.

I hope this helps.

TW344

These are all great posts. I have a catcher I am making my home made film of. I have some of area code tryout pop times, some catcing at games and camps this summer, and some hitting. Final time: 9 minutes. Yikes! too long I know... I am just curious to hear fomr other catchers how much time was spent on the hitting and catching. Common sense tells me I need to show him blocking the ball, receiving both strikes and balls and showing confidence and presence at the plate. For hitting I think I need to show him from both sides, running bases and sliding. I thin I can cut a lot of time out by editing the getting ready part.
Because he is a patient hitter, his at bats usually go on - and I think it may be important to show that too in addition to his swing with one 3-2 at bat which results in a triple.
Another thing I found is that I bought this wonderful little Sony disc camera, but I can't use it with MS Movie Maker - only the software it came from. I have heard of other people with the same problem. Also,it takes a bunch of time to make a video if you've never done it before. My son and I are having a good time making it though! Tomorrow we'll film a little intro and conclusion (emphasis on LITTLE) and be ready to send her off this weekend.
Any suggestions on the format are very welcome.

Thanks to LHPDad above for pulling some of our old posts about Video and the Recruiting Process.

Again, its not a complicated process but for many people it takes a while to make their own or they spend hundreds of dollars or more buying equipment, software, duplication equipment, and then postage & packaging.

If we can help with advice or services, let us know at Skillshow.com or BaseballWebTV.com (our new venture with Perfect Game).

You should have your video on BOTH DVD and Online so coaches can get access quickly and then request the hard copy if they like what they see and want a DVD on file or want to see the full screen, clearer version.

Remember, Skillshow can also help edit home videos and post it online for you too! We do tons of that for clients in all sports nationwide.

Hi All-
Well I think we're in pretty good shape now--
We made a DVD and I ended up purchasing Pinnacle Studio 11 (helps turn your tapes into a movie) for just under $99. It was well worth the investment.

Also, a GREAT newer service that we have been using now for over 9 months that has been invaluable to us is GetMyNameOut.com .It is loaded with information on the recruiting process and has all of the Division 1,2,and 3 colleges including a coaches database. In addition we've created a website for our 2009 grad and are able to continually update it; We've just added the video clips to it last week.The company has been very attentive to our needs and it has been both a lifesaver and a TIMEsaver!

Have Fun!

Good job Bizzimom for being 'proactive'.
Just so you know Skillshow.com has had an updateable Internet profile program, our "Athletic Career Tracking System" since 2003. Plus, we partnered with Perfect Game to offer BaseballWebTV.com now to offer our tools for the athletes and a searchable video database for college coaches to use FREE now too.

Make sure any service you work with is built to help you do your own marketing and doesn't claim to 'send your profile' to schools for you.

Coaches want to hear from your son so they know he wants to honestly go to their school. Be personal when contacting the coaches and only market yourself to the schools that he truly wants to attend.

Good luck to your son in his baseball career!

Bizzmon,

We have a "getmynameout.com site up also and it has been working very well. It created interest with at least 1 college that came out with the head coach and recruiting coordinator resulting in a very nice offer. Best of luck to you and your Son. John at GMNO will take very good care of you.

Hey Florida Fan,

Yes--John at GetMyNameOut.com has been awesome!
We've had interest from at least 10 colleges so far and we've only really begun the process seriously over the past 2 months.This whole recruiting process is a full-time job, especially when you have a kid from the Northeast who wants to go South!

GMNO has really saved me tons of time and it is not a rip off at all. Thanks for the confirmation on John--He really seems to be on top of everything.

Take Care~