Never forget “The thirty second rule” when putting together your recruiting highlight video

Recently when talking to a parent regarding putting together a highlight tape, one of the things that was mentioned was the thirty second rule. While this may or may not be true, it would not surprise me one second if this really does happen. And considering this rule came from an Ivy League school, I can only imagine what SEC coaches do.

What this rule involves is when a coach watches a highlight tape of a player. The rule is that within thirty seconds, if the coach is not overly impressed with the highlights, then he moves on. The coach feels that if he is stretching to find a great play that the player made, than chances are solid that they are not going to recruit him. That means the coach can move onto the next tape and give that prospect the same time as well.

With regards to this, I am under the assumption that these schools were sent these tapes randomly and were not ones that they requested. For requested tape, my assumption is that these coaches will give them a bit longer than thirty seconds. But if the players does not have any offers by his name, don’t expect much longer.

This goes back to the point that I made saying that you need to put your very best plays at the start of the video. If you returned a kick and juked five guys on the way to the end zone, make sure to include that as one of your best plays early on. Again, there is no reason to save your top plays for the end of the tape. Unless you are extremely impressive, chances are high that few coaches will actually go through the entire tape.

When putting your top plays together, definitely keep that rule in mind. It can really help you with the recruiting process. I also have seen a few more things that I will nitpick regarding highlight videos that I recommend avoiding if you can.

*Do not show plays that are not impressive. I wish this was a joke but I recently saw a highlight video that some of the first plays were the athlete handing the ball off at quarterback. I realize some tapes decide to split the footage between the position that an athlete plays, but if I were a coach and saw film of him handing the ball off, I would shut the tape off and move on.

*Unless you made a Barry Sanders type move, do not show a replay from a different angle. I have seen a few decent plays recently where they showed a different angle. And the result was that the play was alright but not enough to get a scholarship offer. The funny thing about this was also that they changed the angles plays down the line. I don’t know if they were trying to trick the people watching the tape with a different angle but it was same boring play. Don’t waste your time there.

*If there was an obvious clip or hold on the tape and you can see the ref throwing the flag, do not include it. I just saw a running back pull off a nice run but I guarantee that it would have been much less if there was not a hold on the play. If I am smart enough to see it, than a college coach definitely would be.

*Try to avoid big chunks of down time during the video. By this I mean that once the play is over, move on to the next one. I hate it when the person making the highlight tapes allow for five seconds before the play starts and after the play ends. College coaches would be more impatient than I would when watching film so get rid of it. It wastes their time.

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