When should you send colleges video tapes???

Kbaseball09

Use a disc not a tape

Make sure the coach knows it is coming--do not send it unsolicited--

Keep in mind that if you are not a senior they cannot call you

hope this helps you

Hey Nick you should send videos, the summer between your junior and senior year. That's when they can contact you! First of all if you don't hear from any schools, I would call schools your interested in. Ask them if you can send video. The one I sent was a couple of minutes long with batting practice and game tape. It worked out really well for me sending a video to the coaches. Make sure you get video of your hitting in a game, it's gives the coaches a view on how you do in games.

I've heard it said many times not to send video unsolicited. Would this same rule of thumb apply if it is just e-mailing the link to your website that contains a video, such as a Skillshow type situation? TR, what are your thoughts? We did the Skillshow thing last week in FL. Seems to me that it wouldn't be too much of an imposition to send the e-mail link unsolicited. But I seem to be wrong more than right lately!

Poptime

The link to the video is way more efficient than sending it unsolicited.

If you want give me call and lets talk about the process so "you won't be wrong as many times as you think you are"

Tom Rizzi
800-782-3672

Online streaming video seemed to work pretty well for my son.

I'd video the games, load it onto my home PC, compress the run-time down to something reasonable by deleting deadtime between pitches, innings, etc., then generate a streaming video file and upload it to the website I created. Sean would then include URL links to recently updated video in his email dialog with interested colleges. He received several comments back on how helpful that was.

This seemed to work well for many coaches ... nothing to loose in the circular file and they can view it at their leisure. In compressing the video down, I made sure I didn't create a 'highlight' video ... particularly with pitching, I showed every pitch of every at bat for a 3-5 inning stretch, which I could get down to roughly 8-10 minutes run time by editing out dead-time. I felt it was important to show the situational aspects of his outings on the mound ... how he pitched bases empty versus runners in scoring position, reaction to hits, walks, pass balls ... i.e., not just his best 'stuff', but his whole mental and physical approach.

In our business, we have learned to do exactly what Pop and TR are talking about. We encourage players to send letters introducing themselves, then in the letter elude to their webpage where the coach can see their skills video. This works great because the player is 1) introducing themself, 2) is NOT sending an unsolicited video, and 3) if the coach is interested in viewing the video, all they have to do is go to a website, rather than take the time and effort to view it on their vcr or dvd player. Lastly, the player only pays for a $.37 stamp to mail the letter rather than the couple of bucks for each video he mails.
All the coaches we deal with PREFER this method over mailing videos.
By the way, the coaches we have spoken to also suggest 1-1/2 to 2 minute videos, not 5-10 minutes of footage and they have also requested video of the player practicing, not "highlight" or "game" footage.

Poptime....when you get your video from SKILLSHOW, they give you a set of cards with your web link. From your skillshow web site you can directly e-mail any number of coaches. They will get your message and your video directly when they open the e-mail.
IT WORKS. The nice thing about what you're getting is it's in real time. The coach can use a stop watch and cross check you running and if your a catcher, your pop times.

pbonesteele,

What software did you use to stream your video? I am assuming you converted to a compressed format from your video tapes.

jerseydad,

I use Pinnacle Studio Plus ... though I'd probably look at some other products if I were starting over. I'm actually a big fan of the features of Studio Plus ... you can truly do some amazing things with it. There are other software packages that are simpler to use, but aren't as feature rich.

The problem in the past has been stability of 'new' versions from Pinnacle ... it would always take them several months to get all the bugs out so I learned never to upgrade right away to a new version. They've recently been acquired by a bigger company, so this should get better. Read the consumer discussion forum on the Pinnacle website (http://www.pinnaclesys.com) before purchasing any new version ...

Using Studio, I'd capture the video from my camera, edit it down by getting rid of all the dead time, insert transitions, etc. to make it flow nicely, then with that 'project' composed, I can create a movie in any number of different media types: DVD, tape, AVI, or for the web ... streaming video. You can configure the quality level and frame size of the generated video file to balance size, bandwidth, and picture quality. I'd then take the WMV file and upload it to my son's website. Since I built the web site myself, there's no restriction on the number of videos or photos I can upload, and I don't have to wait for someone else to post them for me ... I simply upload via a web-based mechanism and then visitors to the site can list the 'video' folder contents. The only other thing is don't try to do this type of video composition on some old, slow PC with limited memory and hard disk space ... you'll kill yourself while you wait and wait and wait. It's enough of a time investment as it stands to do the composition editing without waiting for a slow PC every time to make some little change. If you're serious about investing the time and energy ... get a decent 3Ghz system with a minimum of 1GB of memory and a huge hard drive or two.

I use the same package to build the team season video at the end of the season, which is a compilation of still photos and video, overlaid with different music tracks. I then burn this to DVD, do custom sleave inserts, DVD disc labels, etc., to hand out to the team and coaches at the end of season banquet.

This is a link to the streaming video file of same: 2005 Knights Season

Coach Merc,
Might be a small problem with that. Tom from Skillshow was saying that in the player's statistics section of the site to not necessarily put the times from the event the video was made at, but rather to put the players best ever time (if it is reasonably recent). It applied to us where my son ran a faster 60 at a camp a couple of months ago than he did at the taped event. Don't ask me why, it just happened! But Tom said they purposely don't put the times on the video tape anymore in case the player has had better stats at another time.

Phones I looked at setting up a site but decided to stay with thw DVD and in some cases CD. My concern was after talking to some coaches their systems were not that up to date. I have a Toshiba Satellite P20 with all the toys. XP muttimedia professional, !7"ws ,external HD etc. Some of the coaches I had to send a DVD converted to show on their DVD player at home.
I alsp liked the fact I had to call to see if it got there and developed a report with the coach/coordinator. I found it cheaper than running a website but I did like the idea.
I have a toll free phone and can talk all day if I had to. It usually took 5-7 days by regular mail. I used emails with inserted pictures to create interest.(not attached) Inserted photos are in foll colour and do not have to be opened. They appear when you view the e-mail.
Both methods have benefits and draw backs.
Do you have a sample of a video stream as opposed to the slide show ?
Depending on the format I ised I had up to 15 videos edited as you do. I used actuall games with the game sounds. A couple I did not edit against great teams. I wanted the coach to see him work with the infielders and control the rythm of the game. A cover letter explained every video as to team/innings/out come etc. The coach could click on the ones he wanted to view and watch as much as he wanted on full screen.
I had coaches say they enjoyed it and wanted more. I tried not to make it too produced and more like being at the ballpark.
As I say both methods have benefits just ver y important to do something even if a VHS tape.

BBheaddoll ... go to www.seanbonesteele.com, click on 'Videos'. The most recent are under 'Pitching'.

I looked at the pitching videos and they are good the only thing I did different was shoot from several angles.
The overall I thought was good and not too produced looking. I made the assumption most coaches prefer realism and would not watch all of the videos but select a few to get the idea.