Recruiting 101 – Highlight Videos
I’ve spent 13 years in the world of recruiting and have been able to see it from a variety of different sides. In 2010 I started my own scouting service, the Indiana Recruiting Guide, going into my freshman year of…
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Continue ReadingI’ve spent 13 years in the world of recruiting and have been able to see it from a variety of different sides. In 2010 I started my own scouting service, the Indiana Recruiting Guide, going into my freshman year of college. Over the course of three years the service grew to a place I never could have imagined as a 20-21 year old. College coaches at all levels from the Big Ten to the Ivy League, from in-state Division III schools to Junior Colleges in Arizona, and everyone in between would contact me when looking to recruit the great state of Indiana. Then, over the next six and a half years I was on the coaching side of things at IUPUI, Hanover College, Defiance College, and Wabash College. After getting out of coaching, I worked for national recruiting service NCSA helping athletes and their families across various sports reach their collegiate goals. Finally, in June of 2021 I settled back in to the scouting service game when I took over Prep Hoops Indiana from Eric Gardner. Having had 13+ years of experience from all different sides of the recruiting scene has helped me deeply understand the process. I’ve personally recruited student-athletes, helped families with the recruiting process, and work closely with college coaches now to identify potential targets.
For many people, the recruiting process can be overwhelming. Many parents and families have never experienced it before and find it nearly impossible to know how to best navigate it all. Over the next week or so I’ll be doing my best to answer any and all questions to give you a starting point as you pursue your goal of playing college basketball. First, let’s dive into how to put together the best highlight video.
Part of getting ahead of the recruiting process is becoming your own best salesman. There is a level of marketing that goes along with “winning” the exposure game and we are here to share some of those secrets. What clips to use, how long should it be, does it need to be professionally edited, and do coaches actually watch them are some of the most common questions from families about highlight videos. Here are some of the Do’s and Don’ts to follow when putting together your highlight tape.
- Put your best footage up first. This is a two-pronged point here. First, yes, it literally means put your most impressive highlights at the beginning of your video. Highlights are just like anything else. With the ever-shortening attention span of people across the globe, you may not get 30-60 seconds (if you are lucky) of attention. Don’t save the best for last because the audience may never make it that far. Secondly, those initial clips should highlight what you do best as a player. If you are primarily a three-point shooter, don’t feature two clips of you scoring off of the dribble and a defensive stop at the top of your highlight video. Show how you work off of screening action. Show your ability to make three-pointers both off the catch and the dribble. Show off your range. The first 30-60 seconds of your highlights will be the most important because those are what will convince the coach to watch the next couple of minutes and then hopefully dive even deeper.
- On a similar subject, don’t make your highlight videos too long. Right at three minutes is the sweet spot. Anything beyond that gets repetitive and isn’t really adding any value. Most importantly, coaches aren’t going to sit down and watch five or more minutes of your highlights. If they are intrigued enough to watch an entire three minute video then you likely are going to get a text/call and be asked for full game film.
- When you go to an AAU or high school game these days you will see countless people on the baseline with a camera in their hands. Video editing is the recent trend and people, especially younger kids, are really good at it. It isn’t uncommon to see 16 year olds running legitimate businesses for themselves at this point making highlights and graphics for prospects. However, there is a good and bad side to this. Highlight tapes that are intended to send to college coaches should not be overly edited. No music, no transitions, no special effects, it essentially should just be a clip show of your highlights. However, it is okay if you want “fun” mixtapes to post on your social media. I get it, it is 2023 and kids care about their online presence. That is okay. If you want a professional highlight tape with fancy edits set to a soundtrack then I’m not here to tell you not to do that. It just shouldn’t be the one you send to college coaches. Let those live in different worlds. Breaking up your highlight tape with transitions, black & white, slo-mo, explosions, and other fancy features actually distract from what coaches REALLY want to see.
- Highlight videos are an important part of the process for college coaches. You aren’t likely to sell a Division I coach based on a Twitter highlight tape, but at the DII/DIII/NAIA levels coaches rely on these highlights. The point of your three minute highlight video is to get the coach interested enough to move forward with you. That could mean asking for full game football, making direct contact, or scheduling a time to come watch a practice or game. Time, and in some cases money, put into producing a good highlight tape is one of most efficient uses of your resources in the recruiting process.
- How should you go about getting your highlight video in front of college coaches? We will cover more about this topic in future articles, but pinning it to your Twitter profile and tagging local media/scouting service people can help grease the wheels. Emailing it directly to colleges that you are interested in is certainly appropriate as well, but we will dive deeper into how to do that in our next article. Stay tuned for that!