Video is becoming the new currency in athletic recruiting. It's important you become familiar with how to create a video package or review our 𧨠bonus materials for help in this area.
The video you create should follow these guidelines.
- Music is great, but can also distract and deter the coaches opinion of you as a player. Speaking from experience - if the video has music - its often muted 98% of the time.
- Introduce yourself at the being of the video. Provide some physical and character details to highlight you as a person. This also allows the coach to see you speak and how you present yourself. Go ahead and practice a few times to get it right!
- Should the video be highlight clips or a match? A highlight video is to get the coaches attention - it should be no more than 5 minutes long and provide different areas of your abilities. For example: if you are a goalkeeper: this video should display your ability to collect crosses, shot stop, distribute short and long, and positioning as the ball enters the defensive third of the field. Show your best highlight clip FIRST. Catch the attention of the viewer!
- Put the video up on a server such as YouTube so that it turns into a link that you can share easily online. If you attach the video files to the emails - this makes it difficult to view and or send with file size and guess what gets deleted first when you run out of hard drive space....your attachment!
- One of the most common mistakes with video - you don't identify yourself in the video or share your jersey number and colour with the coach. Coaches do not have the time or patience to play "Where's Waldo"?
- When sharing a match video - ensure it's a competitive match. If you score 10 goals in a match this is great - however, the coach will start to wonder if you can play at the higher levels against tougher competition when all 10 goals were break-aways.
- Ensure to not zoom in too much. Allow for a wider view - coaches are looking for what you do before you receive the ball, what you do with the ball, and what you could have done with teammates around the ball.
- Lastly, provide video of the game format you will playing in college. Look to get 11v11 video as much as possible. Indoor video behind netting is not ideal.