Take Control of Your Highlights: DIY with These Simple Tips

With State Champions being crowned last week and in the upcoming week across the country, club season is ramping up and with that comes the need to send emails to college coaches. In those email, you should be including some NEW film from your high school season. Show college coaches the progress you have made this high school season by sending them some new film. Remember, for most of you the last time a college coach watched you was in July. That was 4 months ago. You've been in the gym almost everyday since then. Practicing 5 days a week should yield quite a bit of improvement. Showcase all of your growth with new highlights.

Now one of the issues that I continue to see throughout high school and club season is the reliance of "auto-generated Hudl highlights" within Hudl. These are problematic for several reasons.

1) College coaches don't want to sift through 10 different videos to try and get a sense of your ability to help their program. Making a coach's job easier is always best. 20 second clips that include ads at the beginning is not an efficient way to showcase your talent.

2) You aren't showing your best! Who knows if those 3 kills from the high school match last week were your best swings or not? But if that's the first video in Hudl that a college coach sees then that's what they are clicking on.

3) What skills are missing? If you're a setter, you aren't showing any of your assists in these clips. If you're a libero or a 6 rotations hitter, these clips aren't showing ANY of your serve-receive passing. Passing is one of the biggest questions I get from college coaches when it comes to players that are playing back-row.

Bottomline, if you aren't making your own highlights after matches, weeks or tournaments, then you are hurting your recruiting process.

Make your own highlights! Hudl is a TOOL that is set up and designed for YOU to make highlights! Here is how you can take control of your highlight creation.

Take the time

This is an important part of your recruiting process. Be willing to spend some time here. It might be a bit clunky at first, but the more you do it, the easier and BETTER it will be. You don't have to make a highlight for every high school match of the season, but you certainly can. The benefit would be that you will get really good at it after doing it 5 or 6 times. Also, college coaches will be able to get an idea of your consistent play over the course of a season vs just watching one 2 minute highlight.

Show your best!

Make sure you are highlighting YOU. Hudl isn't pulling out your best plays, they are just copying and pasting based on stats. Big kills at big moments; great digs at big moments; you know when these happen and so if YOU are putting your highlight together, you will have the opportunity to communicate those moments. You can also do some editing and show off more about your personality. Communication before and after plays? How can you show your leadership?

There are several different ways to set-up your highlight film. Like so many other things, there are always variables. Typically, if you're sending out your first email with a highlight or if you're a freshmen or sophomore, you will want to "front load" your highlight. That means you have about 30 seconds to impress a college coach and get evaluated. Putting your best first in the film will really help.

Get BallTime!

BallTime is a highlight/stat system that uses AI to track the ball and recognize the different athletes on the court. It's a really cool and simple process on your end. If you are on JV and don't have Hudl for high school or if your current club team isn't using Hudl then I would suggest getting BallTime for yourself. It's a great tool that you can use as an individual or as a tea. Take a look.

Remember this is your first impression

Getting recruited takes work just like anything else. Just like improving your vertical; just like improving your defense; just like studying for a test. Please don't take the easy way! It's really hard to recruit athletes that only have 10 second clips of a skill that I don't really need to see or that might not be helpful in the evaluation process. Put in the effort to make a great first impression with your highlight.

College coaches are most likely clicking on your film link BEFORE they read your email! Remember that.

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