Making a highlight video

[4Martini]

My daughter is nearing the end of her freshman year softball season (it’s been awesome! Great coach, great teammates, lots of learning and fun).

I’m thinking of pulling GameChanger highlights and making a highlight video.

Is 2 minutes a good length?

I was planning on giving it to her to put on the Sports Recruit page she just created through her team. They are also planning on filming skills videos as a team.

They should be going into post season - should I make a separate reel of that or just one overall for freshman year?

 

[Orange Socks]

They should be going into post season - should I make a separate reel of that or just one overall for freshman year?

Sure. Make a highlight reel, but keep adding new videos. The more the better. Don't limit yourself. I would even suggest making a Youtube page for her. The more ways for coaches to get eyes her the better. I wouldn't just rely on the gamechanger vids, make sure you are documenting with your phone as well. From what I have seen, the GC vids usually don't have the best quality.

 

[HunterMO]

I'd highly encourage a highlight reel. You can almost never have too much film. Both as a parent (trust me as mine is finishing up her Junior year) and for recruiting purposes. If she has college playing aspirations, she will need to promote and market herself. Which means having plenty of film that's easily accessible by college coaches. Making her own YouTube page is a great idea and easy to do.

GameChanger and SidelineHD film is....fine. But often the quality is lower and angles are less than ideal. I'm definitely that Dad that is squatting down next to the fence and filming with my phone. I make no excuses.

 

[JayIndy]

video, video, video. Take tons during games and lessons and workouts. Trim down to the best stuff. Twitter limits videos 1:40, so that's something to shoot for. Keep things up to date on the SportsRecruits page, but also use twitter, and even youtube. Trim down to only the things you want to see.

Remember coaches want to see the swing, the catch, the throw, etc. not so much the 45 seconds of nothing beforehand. With GC you are tied to hoping the person scoring the game is not behind on entering stuff, or the plays won't capture the highlight you want.

You can do highlights of the regular season, the post season, or from just one game. My DD does a highlight video from each tourney, and then an overall one from the whole season, with just the top plays.

Here's some examples of hers:








The more video you can record yourself , the better. GC is great for livestreams, but GC limits the video to 720p. Phones are great, but I would look into a gopro/mevo or something that can me mounted on a fence, and capture exactly the field of view and zoom you want. A shaky cam video trying to follow the ball (while at the same time cheering) usually don't turn out that great! Go high on the fence, and not directly behind the ump.

Years ago I use to stop into pawn shops and look at garage sales, lots of near brand new gopros available. And you don't need the latest and greatest version either.

 

[4Martini]

Those videos are great! I really appreciate the examples.

Okay - so I only have GameChanger now. Is it bad to post videos of her striking girls out where their name is visible on the GameChanger video? Is there a way to remove that, or does it not matter?

 

[Orange Socks]

video, video, video. Take tons during games and lessons and workouts. Trim down to the best stuff. Twitter limits videos 1:40, so that's something to shoot for. Keep things up to date on the SportsRecruits page, but also use twitter, and even youtube. Trim down to only the things you want to see.

Remember coaches want to see the swing, the catch, the throw, etc. not so much the 45 seconds of nothing beforehand. With GC you are tied to hoping the person scoring the game is not behind on entering stuff, or the plays won't capture the highlight you want.

You can do highlights of the regular season, the post season, or from just one game. My DD does a highlight video from each tourney, and then an overall one from the whole season, with just the top plays.

Here's some examples of hers:








The more video you can record yourself , the better. GC is great for livestreams, but GC limits the video to 720p. Phones are great, but I would look into a gopro/mevo or something that can me mounted on a fence, and capture exactly the field of view and zoom you want. A shaky cam video trying to follow the ball (while at the same time cheering) usually don't turn out that great! Go high on the fence, and not directly behind the ump.

Years ago I use to stop into pawn shops and look at garage sales, lots of near brand new gopros available. And you don't need the latest and greatest version either.

Boom! Perfect. Great advice and good quality vids. YOU HAVE TO DO IT! Don't rely on the coach or the program. They will help you if you are putting in the work and getting coaches to show up.

When I was doing the recruiting for the team, there were so many families that would not do the work only hoping for a coach to wonder by a field. Parents would come up to me and say Hey, there is so and so coach. Yeah, I already see them. Is your kid sending stuff to this coach? No? Then they are not here to see your kid play. Just sayin'!

 

[Orange Socks]

Those videos are great! I really appreciate the examples.

Okay - so I only have GameChanger now. Is it bad to post videos of her striking girls out where their name is visible on the GameChanger video? Is there a way to remove that, or does it not matter?

I think you are overthinking this. Doesn't matter.

 

[Sonerai]

Those videos are great! I really appreciate the examples.

Okay - so I only have GameChanger now. Is it bad to post videos of her striking girls out where their name is visible on the GameChanger video? Is there a way to remove that, or does it not matter?

Regarding you GC question. You should be able to minimize the scoring details on the video to just show the score. I try not to show other people by name in our videos.

I agree with others that it's great to record your own. If you rely on GC, you will encounter a situation where GC glitches or cuts out and you just missed her first HR an amazing play. You don't need anything too fancy. You can get a pretty cheap and reliable GoPro knock-off that will work pretty well. Use what you have for now though, it's better than no video.

I generally try to keep videos to 2 min or less and as others have said, trim them to just the part of the play. My DD is a pitcher and each pitch is typically about 4 to 5 sec if I trim from taking a sign to the umps call for a strike or out. The advice I got early on was to put the best clips at the front of the video. Don't try to space out your best clips. I create highlights for each tournament, or if I don't have enough clips then I will do it for the month (e.g. October Highlights). I also create one video for defensive plays and one for offensive plays. That way someone can just look at hitting or pitching if that is what they are interested in. I think it is also good to put text in your video to tell them what the play is about (e.g. Home Run, Oppo Triple, Type of pitch, Double play)

 

[tim_s]

DD2 once posted a highlight film of all the outs she made in one weekend, on my encouragement......she thought I was nuts......her current coach mentioned it in their interview, liked how hard she was running everything out......

 

[Josh Greer]

Certainly recommend video. Here are a couple things I would suggest:
1.) Don't include music and/or flashy graphics and transitions. They don't age well. And the music can cause copyright issues.
2.) Create a dedicated YouTube channel for your player. This doesn't mean a dedicate google account as multiple channels can be added to a single account. But I would make sure that non ball related stuff was not a part of this channel.
3.) Post shorter clips of athletic moments with good descriptions of details
4.) Post a complication video of your highlight reel and assign as the channel trailer to your channel. This is the video that automatically plays when you go to that channel. So make sure there isn't anything annoying in the video because it will bet played over and over.
5.) Update the highlight reel as your player starts to age.