Have you heard this before from recruiters, college coaches, or prep schools? "Send us your highlight video". You are so excited that someone has made contact with you and are genuinely interested in learning more about you and your skills. You immediately think about the game where you dropped 30 points, or shut down the opposing team's best player, or had 20 saves. You can't wait to cut up the film and send it off the person who requested it. But then you think, wait a minute. Did anyone video that game? Did my parents have out the video camera? Did my high school coach have someone in the press box filming?

If you have a big test hopefully you study for more than just the night before. It makes sense that the more you study the better you will do. Same logic holds true for highlight videos. The more footage you have the better your reel will be. Start filming games as soon as you start getting playing time. Build a library of video clips. Ask your parents and high school coaches to film every game. I can speak from experience when I say that I missed some stellar plays of my daughters playing lacrosse and soccer because I did not have the camera ready. It would have been nice to have those clips to add to their highlight videos. On the same token, let's be honest, some games you play better than others. I filmed a 3 game soccer tournament recently. The person I was hired to film played okay but the coach put her in a secondary position because they were short players. She did not get the customary number of touches and so there were not as many highlight clips as she would have liked. It happens. One bit of advice, go through your clips occasionally and log the highlight clip start and stop times. Trying to go through 6 hours of footage in one setting can be quite a challenge. Space out the work.

​The bottom line is you can never have too much footage. Film early, film often and be prepared for the out-of-the-blue "can you send me your highlight video" request!

According to BeRecruited.com having a highlight video is one of the most important tools a high school player should have in their recruiting tool belt. The highlight video is an enticement to get the college coach or recruiting coach to come watch you play at an upcoming tournament or showcase. It is a way for you to get noticed! It is also a way for you to promote your credentials and talent and show why you are worthy of recruiting consideration. Here are some tips that The Highlight Guy recommends.
 
1.   Quality counts
I cannot tell you how many times we have been asked to extract highlights from film that is shot from a mile away. The players on the field look like ants and you cannot see the jersey numbers or names. NOT GOOD! I know that sometimes that is out of your control. Whenever possible, make sure that the video footage is high quality. The footage does not have be in 4K HD but it should be clear, steady and close enough to make out who is who. A good highlight video company will do the best they can to zoom in if footage is far away. However, zooming can degrade quality so there is tradeoff. Often times your high school may have someone film your team’s games. Again, ask the coach to ensure that the footage is quality.
 
2.  Good first impression is key
In my research most of the coaches will watch your video for about 45 seconds. From there they will decide to keep watching if they are intrigued and like what they see, or they will move on to the next video. The average duration for highlight video watching in our experience is about 2 minutes. A good highlight video company will recognize that if you are to make a good first impression, and keep that coach watching, the best clips need to be in the front of the video. You also need to make sure that you stand out either with stop action spotlight or some other way for the college coach watching to know which player you are. The ideal is to have enough great clips that you can fill a 4 – 5 minute video. Many companies will put clips together and edit them without much consideration for placement and arrangement of clips. Be wary of companies that turn around videos in 24 hours.
 
3.  Showcase all your skills
I had a director of recruiting share with me that no coach wants to see 15 straight clips of you firing bullets past the goalie, or showing 9 straight 3 pointers you made. The fact that are able to do that is fantastic. But college coaches want to see what else can you do. Are you a playmaker? Do you set up your teammates? Can you defend, dig, block, pass or perform many of the other skills that various sports require to be a well-rounded player?
 
4.  The camera doesn’t lie
Let’s face it, the whole point of a highlight video is to highlight what you do well and diminish what you don’t do well, right? You need to be fully aware that coaches are also looking at your attitude and body language. Are you the first to high five a teammate when they do something well? Awesome if you are! You may be on a teammate’s highlight reel as “part of the play”. Are you the player that gets frustrated when someone else takes your shot or steals your thunder. It’s on camera if you are. Do you hang your head and shrug you shoulder or go half speed when something does not go well? If the coach is asking for a whole game then your attitude and body language are on film too.
 
5.  Don’t sit on it
So now you’ve got this awesome tool in your tool belt. Your highlight video is done and YOU LOOK AMAZING! Now what? Don’t sit on it. You need to share it with the world! Okay, maybe you don’t need to share it with the world but you do need to share it with coaches. You want to get recruited right? There are many avenues to get in touch with coaches these days. Most club programs and many high school teams offer some kind of service. Captain U, Sports Recruits, NCSA, Be Recruited and many other websites make it easy to upload your video and email a college coach directly. Let them know you have a new video. Ask them to consider watching it. Let them know when your upcoming games, showcases or tournaments are. Use your video to entice coaches to want to see more of you and your skills.
 
So those are just some thoughts on highlight videos. Getting recruited is a process and does not happen overnight. The more videos you have and share the better chance you have of getting noticed. We recommend doing 2-3 videos per year if you play year round or 1 video per season in the sport you play. Best of luck in the recruiting process!
​