Step Four to Earning an Athletic Scholarship: Make a Quality Highlight Tape

The fourth step to earning an athletic scholarship is to put together a quality highlight video. Athletes in football rely on putting together a quality highlight recruiting video that showcases your abilities. If you have a bad tape, chances are that the college coaches will move on quickly. Unless you have already excelled at their camp, putting together a good highlight video is something that is essential for the recruiting process. Here is what I previously wrote about putting together a video for football players. Since most of the attention of this site does come from football recruits, here is my thoughts with some new additions as well. (If you are in need of a highlight video, visit www.Highlight-Videos.com now)

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On the DVDs I have made in the past for college football coaches, they have consisted of three different parts. Making DVDs like this has helped athletes land at all levels of college, including Division I, I-AA, II, and III. Here is what I feel the three parts are:

1.) The Highlight Video - Unless you are among the top football players in the country, you will not receive a scholarship offer just based on the highlight portion of your tape. But this is the time that college coaches will finally get a chance to see your best players over the course of your career. In a lot of cases, the coach will make a decision either to pursue you as a recruit or take you off of their athletic recruiting list. So when it comes down to it, this really is a vital part of the recruiting process. I have read conflicting reports about how many highlight clips should be included in this segment and they vary from 12 to 30, depending of course. But I have also seen highlight videos that last over ten minutes and include any clip from the previous season. A five yard gain but the middle will not help recruiting. So with that in mind, try to keep the clips anywhere from 15 to 30 plays and under five minutes if possible. With the amount of tapes that these coaches have to go through, few have more than five minutes to spare on each prospect.

When picking out these clips, it is important that the quality of video is as good as you can get. If you are a parent, you may have to tape the games yourself. It may be tough to do this, but if it could help your son get a scholarship, it may be worth it. Also speak with the head coach of the team to see what kind of video footage you can get your hands on. It seems that the bigger the school, the better quality of tape but that really can vary from school to school. Also make sure to include your very best plays at the start of the tape. Impressing coaches early on will always help.

In a lot of cases, it may be worth the initial investment to have a professional produce your highlight DVD. Now that doesn’t mean you have to spend in the thousands to get a quality product. I would advise looking in your area or checking out this site (Click here for that now). The site linked above can produce ten DVDs for under $400.00. You do not need a flashy DVD either. If your son can play, it should show on that tape.

I have recently seen DVDs with interviews of the athlete and in the background there is video of him running. Others have included smoke introductions that are amazing to see. But in the long run, these things will not help you earn a college scholarship. I think they are outstanding videos to watch but as a college coach, interviews don’t matter. A scholarship will be extended only if the kid can play. That is expensive highlight tapes are not worth the money. Spending thousands of dollars is too much.

2.) Full Game Tape - If a college coach is impressed with the highlight tape of an athlete, he will want to see more of the athlete. That is why it is important for that the DVD sent to the college coach includes a full game. This coach can learn a lot about the player through a highlight tape but will get to see the player in all of their glory on the full game tape. They will be able to see if the player takes plays off, his demeanor around teammates, how hard he plays every down, and a lot of other aspects that are missing from a highlight tape. For recruits that coaches are serious about, these game tapes may be even more important than the highlight video.

As a recruit, it is important to pick your best game of the season. If the coaches are serious about you as a player, they may spend the hour to watch the entire tape to see what type of player you are from the start to the end of the game. Your performance, effort, and ability on the full game tape is important. Coaches may decide to request even more game tape after this as well.

3.) Contact Information and Vitals - No matter if the coach has been in contact with you or not, make sure to include contact information that includes home phone number, cell phone number, email address, and home address. These are vital if the coach has not been in contact with you. Also try to include your jersey number on the tape, height, weight, bench press, 40 time, squat, and anything else of interest. Do no overrated these stats as well. There was a story a few years back that on tape showed a recruit running the 40-yard dash and after he finishes, it shows the coaches saying 4.4 seconds. The coaches watched the tape over and timed the dash themselves. It ended up being in the range of 4.7seconds. That is not a way to introduce yourself to coaches.

If you do not have a DVD cover include, make sure to print out a copy of your recruiting profile and include it in the package sent to coaches. There has also been some debate on whether you should wait until a coach requests the tape or you should send it blindly. In my experience in talking to Division I coaches, sending it without a prior request from the coaches is a waste of time and money. The majority of schools, especially the bigger programs, receive so many tapes that most end up in the garbage. If you have already started to market your son or daughter, college coaches that are interested may want to see the highlight tape. And if there is a quick turnaround, you can present it to the coach quickly and efficiently. (If you are in need of a highlight video, visit www.Highlight-Videos.com now)

Five Steps to a Scholarship Articles:
Step One to Earning an Athletic Scholarship: Build a Successful Recruiting Profile
Step Two to Earning an Athletic Scholarship: Find Schools that Match You
Step Three to Earning an Athletic Scholarship: Market Your Child to College Coaches
Step Four to Earning an Athletic Scholarship: Make a Quality Highlight Tape
Step Five to Earning an Athletic Scholarship: Build a Website with Video