Got skills? Baseball skills, that is!
As much as one needs a resume when applying for a job, you will need a baseball skills video to show a college coach “what you got!” At the beginning stages of the baseball recruiting process with my son, the first question coaches asked was, “Do you have any film?”
You made the decision! You want to play baseball in college. Great! If you think you have what it takes, you have to prove it and share it with college coaches via a baseball skills video and/or highlight video.
We quickly learned the importance of skills videos, and that there are two different kinds of “film”—skills and highlight. A skills video is a three to five minute video showcasing your baseball skills specific to your position. This is a critical tool for college coaches to get a quick snapshot and assess your potential ability to play collegiate baseball. A highlight video is also a three to five minute video comprised of actual game footage, edited to highlight the best of your successfully executed skills specific to your position.
Having your videos on hand gives you a great way to contact a coach and start a conversation, and helps keep you on their radar. The days of coaches having large recruiting budgets are long gone—they need to be inspired to make the trip to see potential recruits like you play live. Letters and emails to coaches to tell them of your interest in their baseball program and their school, along with game stats, grades, SAT/ACT scores, as well as your physical attributes are all required, but cannot be the only criteria a coach uses when evaluating you for his team. He has to see you play. But before that, he has to see a skills and/or highlight video to give him a reason to come see you play live.
A successful skills or highlight video, specific to your position, is filmed and edited properly, making sure your best skills are shown first to capture the coach’s attention. Leave out the extra frills like music or fancy special effects. Coaches do not have the time or patience for this, and the last thing you want is for the coach to hit “stop” before he’s even had a chance to see your baseball skills.
These days it’s very easy to upload and share your video to YouTube, Vimeo and other video-sharing websites, and then copy and paste the link into an email straight to the coach, or have it embedded on resume/recruiting websites like NCSA Athletic Recruiting.
If you haven’t done so already, add this critical tool to your “Baseball Recruiting Checklist” and get it done!
