Tips For Making Good Athlete Highlight Videos

In the modern world of sports recruiting, athlete highlight videos are a critical ingredient. When done well, these important videos showcase an athlete’s talent, give would-be coaches an idea of the athlete’s style of play, and help an athlete’s recruiting profile stand out from the crowd.

Unfortunately, creating stellar athlete highlight videos is easier said than done. 

In this post, we’ll discuss the role of highlight and skills videos in the recruiting process, and provide a few insider tips for anyone who wants to improve theirs.

Let’s dive in. 

The Difference Between Athlete Highlight Videos and Skills Videos

While highlight and skills videos are similar, they’re not the same type of video, nor do they serve the same purpose.

A highlight video is just that: a video meant to highlight game footage clips that accurately showcase an athlete’s skills and talent. These videos matter during the recruiting process since they allow coaches to see the “golden moments” of an athlete’s career, and review the strongest moments of play quickly - often without meeting the athlete in person or sitting through dozens of games.

The skills video, meanwhile, is staged. These equally important videos include staged, sport-specific actions that do not take place in a game setting. They demonstrate an athlete’s mastery of technical skills and are a helpful addition to the recruiting package.

How to Improve Your Athlete Highlight Videos

If you’re starting the college recruiting process, now is a good time to start collecting videos. Choose someone to film each of your games and make it a goal to finish your highlight video by the end of your junior year of high school, as long as you’re competing in varsity-level sports. 

Here are a few tips to compile athlete highlight videos:

• Ask your coaches if they film games. If so, get a copy of the footage to see if there’s anything you can use in your highlight videos.
• Ask the families of your teammates if they’ve shot footage of particularly important games in the past.
• Shoot footage of multiple games during each playing season. This is a good way to ensure you have plenty of content to choose from when it’s time to build your videos.
• Ensure that whoever films your video is doing so from a place that has a clear view of the whole stadium or field and that they follow your play closely.
• Try to keep the background noise of the film to a minimum. While it’s tough to avoid all background noise, your filmer should do their best to avoid cheering, which can create a distracting, loud video.

Once you’ve compiled a body of clips, you can start putting your highlight video together. Make sure to include plenty of in-game footage that showcases your skills, teamwork, and athleticism. At the same time,  keep the video short - we recommend 3-5 minutes in length, maximum. Place your best clips at the front of the video and use freeze frames or spot shadows when needed to highlight play.
 

Level Up Sports: Helping Athletes Highlight Their Skills

Now that you have a beautiful, impressive highlight video, it’s time to share it with the world. Here at Level Up Sports, we provide the best recruitment platform for high school athletes looking for teams to recruit them. Our easy-to-use app makes it easy to showcase your stats, resume, and highlight videos to reach a larger network of athletic directors and coaches. 

Learn more or sign up today.