How to Use Video in the College Baseball Recruiting Process

In new years, watching video of opposing pitchers and hitters has become an invaluable tool for major league and college baseball teams. It is also a spectacular, way for hitters and pitchers to diagnose flaws in their own mechanics. Now more than ever, video is a huge part of the recruiting process. With the popularity and affordability of digital video cameras, and the ease of which the formats can be uploaded, edited and emailed, video is now a big part of the recruiting process. Having a recruiting video is not necessarily a new concept, but it has come a long way from bringing the bulky camcorder out, recording a Vhs tape and sending out recruiting packs that required a decent number of postage. There are several ways to go about creating an effective video, and we can retell a few in this article.

How to Use Video in the College Baseball Recruiting Process

First off, a player needs to rule who will in effect be shooting the footage. For those with the means, a good sports videographer can be hired. The advantage of this is that the cameraman will know which camera angles to use, will have all of the significant equipment (which will typically be high quality), and they will ordinarily contribute the editing, conversion to Dvd and add music or other effects. However, there are a incorporate of downsides. One is obviously price. Ive seen in any place from 0-0 for this service.

You can shop colse to in your area. To me, the bigger drawback is time. If you are finding to hire a videographer, you will ordinarily have one day to work with them. You may even be little to a few hours. This is fine if you are using workout footage only, you just have to make sure that you get sufficient good footage to put on tape. If a player were to have their parents do this, they could accumulate footage over a much longer duration of time.

If you rule to originate your own video, here is what you will need.

o Digital Video Camera and Tape or Memory Card
o Tripod (video can be done without a tripod if you have a steady hand)
o Video Editing Software
o YouTube Account
o Radar Gun and Stopwatch

Just to walk you straight through the significant components, the camera and tape are obvious. Your equipment should come with a Usb cord, Cd or memory stick that allows you to upload the video file onto your computer. Once the video is loaded, you will want to edit it. Coaches prefer baseball recruiting videos to be about 5 minutes long at a maximum. If you are taping a hitter for example, you will want to move dead time on the video, bad swings, etc. Keep a coaches concentration with as much performance as possible. Most computers come with a schedule called Windows Movie Maker, which is very easy to use. You import your video to the program, then you simply copy and paste frames as you need them. At the end, you can even add your own music (keep in mind if you load to YouTube there are rules about music). A YouTube account is free, takes about 2 minutes to create, and allows you to share your baseball recruiting video with the world.

Finally, a radar gun and stopwatch are vital. If you do not have one, I propose borrowing them from your high school coach, or renting one for a day. A Jugs or Stalker gun are preferred. There is a intuit I propose this so strongly. It is quite coarse for players, or even high school coaches to overestimate the ability of a given player. College baseball coaches can be very apprehensive about this. It is one thing for a pitcher to email a coach and say that he throws 85mph.

Now, if someone can hold a radar gun in front of the camera as the pitcher throws showing the reading at 85mph, That is something that will excite a coach and can isolate your video from that of another player! By the same token, a stopwatch can be used to show a player run from home to first, or a 60 yard dash (do this on a football field or somewhere that the length is clearly defined). If you can do this, it is much to closer to what it is like for a coach to see you at a showcase.

Finally, once you have a video you are satisfied with, you need to rule how to distribute it to college coaches. There are many recruiting services that can help with this that have different functions. Two beloved services are Ncsa and perfect Game, but you often have to attend their showcases in order to have the video posted on their site. If you are production your own video, Baseball Recruits Online provides a cheap way to email video to coaches and has position by position tutorials on exactly how to make a recruiting video for a player with sample templates to follow. When you send the video to a coach, the permissible policy to supervene would be to begin with programs you are interested in (don't send to every coach in America!), and then have the player (not parent) make a supervene up call to verify that the coach received the video. A good time to do all of this is before the player's junior year of high school.

Remember... Don't expect your recruiting video to get you a scholarship offer. You are simply attracting a coaches concentration in hopes that he will come see you at a game or showcase, or request you to campus for a workout. That is when the offers will come. Keep a good attitude, heighten your game, keep your grades up, and you will find a place to play ball at the next level.

How to Use Video in the College Baseball Recruiting Process