Winning the Recruiting Game, Vol. 3

I am continuing the series of how to win the recruiting game with this third writing in the series. Today I wanted to write about the importance of a good evaluation video. I have been passed many videos by college prospects that fail to show their skills and abilities. This can be very detrimental to the athlete. Having a proper evaluation video might be the most important aspect of recruiting, from a promotion standpoint. It's simple, college coaches are extremely busy and will either like what they see or discard the kid as a potential prospect.

The video is all about showcasing what the athlete can do. College coaches have very little time so when they see the video, that will most likely decide whether or not they want to look into a kid further. If the evaluation video has content that is grabbing and showcases skills well, then the coach is much more likely to pursue the athlete, or at least try to gather more information on the athlete. A good evaluation video should include a skills portion that is filmed with very specific drills for the sport, and of course good game film. The video should be ten minutes or less. If you have more then that, that is great but have one video for initial viewing for coaches and if they ask for more, then you can send it.

I like to share examples based on my experience and this blog will be no different. I am currently working with an athlete that had passed along a video to a college coach, prior to me working with them. The video wasn't done poorly, it just didn't showcase the skills to the athletes' skills. The coach responded to the athlete, "thank you for the email but based on our evaluations we don't feel you would be a fit for our program." After starting to work with the athlete I shot a skills video and put together the game film to go along with it. In total it was a nine minute video that was completely different then the previous one. I contacted the coach and sent the video again. It was a completely different outcome, they loved the athlete and eventually offered the athlete a scholarship. There are many steps after the video that need to take place in the recruiting process. Without a good evaluation video, the interest from college coaches will be minimal.