Creating an effective highlight video campaign for sports recruitment
Level: Moderate
We all want the best for our children and to pursue areas that make them happy and fulfilled, sometimes at a large financial cost. If you have someone who has the skills, talent, and willpower to succeed in competitive sports, why would you not give him/her every opportunity to play at the top representative or college level?
Growing up my eldest son has always enjoyed football (soccer) and has a natural talent for the game. We found ourselves towards the end of a season with no opportunities to join any representative football clubs. Fortunately, I had video footage of him I had taken throughout the year. By following the steps mentioned within this post, and with a little luck, he was able to join a representative team and become an instrumental player.
Here is an example of a highlight reel https://youtu.be/ynnJZwK_Z2s.
Capture footage
The video that you capture doesn’t need to be Spielberg level of quality, keep it simple and be aware that a lot of the time the scouts and couches want to see a wider view of play so that can make better judge of what is happening in the footage. It is not that important to be able to see the player’s face.
Here are some options on capturing footage of your player:
Arrange with your team or ideally your Club to pitch in some money and hire a videographer. It’s worth the money and you can enjoy the games instead of seeing them through a phone.
If possible arrange with the other parents to rotate and share recordings of the games
If neither of these options is available then just do your best, you don’t need to capture the entire game and simply hit the record button whenever the ball is in the player’s area. This can get frustrating but better than not having any footage at all.
Editing the video
In this section, I cover the minimum steps you need to do when editing your video. These steps do refer to iMovie but you can apply the same technique with the video editing software you will be using.
Keep the videos short, no more than 5 minutes, and I highly recommend you get in the habit of editing and publishing videos at the end of each week. This will make it a lot easier towards end of the season.
Step 1: Add highlights
To learn how to add highlights, and specifically with iMovie, you can read the post “How to make a sports highlight video with Apple’s iMovie”. This will show you a lot of the steps covered in this section including adding a highlight picture into the video and freeze at particular parts for emphasise.
To make this less painful be sure to:
Figure out the shortcut for fast-forwarding the video in your video editing software (In iMovie its shift-key+arrow key)
Play the recording of the game from the beginning (assuming you have complete footage of the game) and fast forward until the main player comes into the picture and pause
Add your highlight as per the article referenced above
Continue playing the video until the particular part of the play has completed then pause
Cut the video at this point
Continue to fast-forward until you find another play and then pause just before
Cut the video at this point and then delete the previous fragment of video (that you do not want to include in your final highlights video)
Repeat above until the end…
Step 2: Add an Introduction to the video
Import an image you would like to have at the start of your video into your video editing software. The image should match the theme of the sport in your video
Drag the image to the beginning of the video on your timeline
Add a title (text) over the image. (In iMove select the tab “Tiles” and drag whichever format you would like over to the image currently in your timeline)
Edit the text and be sure to add the details of the video such as:
The round
Name of the teams,
Player’s name (up to you whether you want to include surname)
The current year
Step 3: Add music
To spice it up a little, add some music to the video. (It doesn’t matter if the music repeats)
If you are using YouTube to publish and share your video there is an audio library you can use to down load and import to your videoMake it stand out
Note by using this audio library, you agree with the YouTube Audio Library terms and conditions.
Sometimes video editing software comes with music clips that you can simply add to your video
Import/drag the music to your timeline (In iMovies there is an “Audio” tab containing audio you can add to your video)
Be sure the volume of the music is not too loud as you don’t want it to be distracting
Use social media
Once your video has been published as an example to YouTube, you can now start to post the video on popular social media platforms straight away such as Facebook and Twitter. Be sure to use hashtags on your posts to get the best chance of exposure and target specific institutions you might be interested in e.g. colleges, clubs. It helps f you are social media savvy, if not there are plenty of articles on the internet on how to get take advantage of social media. And be sure to use all social media including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, you will be surprised how connected your own friends are and the opportunities this might open for further conversation.
Start your campaign
You may not want to leave the distribution of videos to the end of the season
In most cases, with representative sport at least, most of the time trials and team selections occur before the end of the season. You will need to use your best judgment as to when to start this process
When you are ready to start to distribute your videos you can use many techniques such as email campaigns, social media, and cold calling. The best thing you can do is be prepared and do your research starting with what you can find on the internet. If coaches and key individuals from clubs/colleges can see that you have put effort then the chance of success is greater.
Step1: Create a “best of” highlight reel
By this stage, you would have a number of highlight videos of games already published. Now is the fun part, download all of the videos you have published and add them to your video editing software. Using the same step mentioned in this post, create a best-of highlights reel showing all of the best bits from the current season.
Step 2: Email campaign and template
Email can be an effective tool when trying to get your player in front of the right people. Keep the email concise and use a professional tone to ensure you get the attention it deserves. Below is an email template you can start with and modify as required.
Email Template —————————-
Email Subject: <players-name> | <players-age-group> | Abreviation of prefered positions | Prospect for <year>
Email Body:
Dear Mr/Mrs/Miss. <surname>,
I apologise in advance if contacting you directly is not appropriate. <use your own judgement as to wether this is necessary>
I’d like to introduce you to my <players-name> currently playing <position> for <current-club|institution>. <include-something-that-makes-your-player-standout>. e.g. "He has been a major contributor for his team who are currently sitting in 3rd on the U14 ladder and second-lowest Goals Against at 5 goals for the season so far."
I understand your time is valuable, he would greatly appreciate it if you can take the time to view the very short highlight video below. <He or I> would love to discuss any opportunity to attend a training session or trial for a prestigious institutuin such as <club|institution>.
Length: <length-of-video> min
<add-link-to-the-best-of-video>
Thank you for your time and wishing you all the best for the 2022 season.
Kind Regards,
<your-name>
<contact-phone-number>
<contact-email-address>
Additional Information <Add/update-this-section-as-required>
<players-name> Details
DOB = <players-date-of-birth>
Preferred Foot = <left-right>
Preferred Position = <position-1>
Preferred Position (Second Preference) = <position-2>
Preferred Position (Third Preference) = <position-3>
University / School = <current-univeristy-school-work>
<players-name> has the following strengths as a player:
* <strength-1> e.g. Technique – Ball control, Dribbling skills, Passing accuracy, Body control
* <strength-2> e.g. Game intelligence – Spatial awareness, Tactical knowledge, Risk assessment
* <strength-3> e.g. Physical fitness – Endurance, Balance and coordination, Speed, Strength and power
Length: <length-of-video> min
<include-latest-full-highlight-video>
Other Highlight videos can be found here <main-link-to-all-videos>————————————————————
Final Note
Good luck!. Hopefully, these steps will get your player in front of the right people and open some doors and create further opportunities. There is a fantastic TED Talk on “What gives Elite Athletes the Edge?” by Janne Mortensen, the main takeaway from this talk for me as a parent is to focus NOT on the result but values. Also keep in mind, from the same talk:
“...change, coincidence, luck play a much bigger part than you would every like to admit...”