​College and professional coaches get thousands of emails in their inboxes every single day—and since they can’t be on the sidelines of the next match of every prospective athlete they have their sights on, game film or a highlight reel is the next big thing to catch their attention and win them over.
 
Whether you’re a recruit on a coach’s radar or want to be on their shortlist for future recruits, a quality highlight video can help you make a good first—and lasting—impression with a coach.
 
Why Make a Highlight Reel?

This highlight reel can help put you first, in front of hundreds of thousands of athletes out there who have reached out to those particular coaches and have not provided a highlight tape.
 
It allows for a first impression.
This video allows the coach to initially evaluate you based on your best moments. This is your firm and strong handshake to impress a college or pro coach.

If you’re showing them what you think is your best playing on the field, then they can have a great initial perspective of how you play as a player.
 
It can be the only impression.
If you live across the country from your dream school or if the coach you’re contacting already has a full schedule for tournament visits, seeing you play in person might simply be out of the question.

A highlight recruiting video can be the best chance for them to see you play. If a coach is impressed already with your video, they can then move to arrange a game in-person to evaluate you better.
 
How to Make the Perfect Highlight Video

Making a highlight recruiting video means taking hours and hours of playing footage and cutting it down to just a few minutes.
 
In this section, we’re going to take all the aspects a recruiting video needs and narrow it down to the best. This initial video can really help you nail your first impression with any coach.
 
1) Keep it short and sweet:

A highlight video should be around 3-7 minutes long—never longer than 10 minutes. In those mere minutes, you should be able to fit around 10-20 short clips of your best game action while on the field/court, etc. 

Remember, these recruiters or coaches are having to go through hundreds of these videos of potential players, trying to look for the needle in a haystack. To help you leave a resonating good impression, you’ll want to not make your video work for them by being less work for them..

2) Put your best foot (play) forward first:

Did you score a game-winning touchdown in the last three seconds of the State Finals? Did you do a bicycle kick and score upper-90? Hit a three-pointer right as the buzzer was going off to secure your team a place in the semi-finals?

Your most impressive moments caught on film should be placed first. You only have, at most, around 30 seconds to catch a coach’s attention and prod them—no implore them—to keep watching.

By placing your best moments as the first clips in your video, you’ll force them to move the mouse away from the pause button and stay locked in.
 
3) Show more than just one aspect of your athleticism:

Although you might be known for your free-kick taking ability, it’s important that you also show how versatile of a player you are. Make sure to include not only your top 5 best goals, but also that (completely legal) slide-tackle defensive play that saved your team from getting scored on or the way you sprinted the entire field length to win the ball back after you’ve lost it.

It’s okay to not show perfection the entire time. A coach wants to see how you act in-game and how you react to certain situations. So, you’ve made a poor pass—mistakes happen, no player is perfect. It’s what you do after the play is made.
 
How do you react? Do you put your head down and jog back—or do you get off the ground and sprint after the opponent who now has the ball? These are important aspects of the game that a coach wants to see, too.
 
4) Keep video effects to a minimum

Although you may be tempted by graphics, music, and special effects, don’t let that temptation get the best of you. A coach isn’t interested in how savvy you are with iMovie.
 
Aside from the every-so-often graphic of an arrow or circle indicating where you are on the field, (very helpful for a coach instead of always looking for your numbered jersey) you should try and keep the extras to a minimum.
 
You should also include your name and contact info (your email or phone number)—possibly your team’s name and their coach’s contact information (name, email, and phone number) at the first slide or first few seconds of the video—and the last. Remember, these coaches have most likely never met you before. They don’t know what you look like and again, receive hundreds of thousands of videos each day. Adding this touch to your video can help them identify who you are and connect you back to your email and Player Profile (see next tip).

Also, be careful with your music selection! You can turn a coach off to watching your video with the song you pick. When in doubt, background music should also be left off—most coaches often mute the volume, anyway. However, if you feel that you must add something, stick to instrumental tracks that have no singing or rapping so the coach doesn’t get distracted. You also wouldn’t want to choose a song with profanity—not only does this look unprofessional—but this can turn a coach off to view your video, especially if you’re submitting to a religious school!
 
5) Back it all up with a quality email:

You wouldn’t just email your resumé attachment in response to a job application and leave the rest of the email body blank. Normally, you include a cover letter or a short message saying who you are and why you’re interested (and qualified) for the position.
 
With sports, it should be exactly the same approach.

When you send off your highlight reel, you should also include an intelligent, formal, and yet personalized e-mail ready with your Player Profile listing all of your achievements (sport-related) to-date, your quality highlight video, and a written invitation for the coach to see your next tournament or game.

It’s important that you leave the conversation wide open and make sure all of your information is correct (tournament, date, field, etc.) Most important of all,
think of this invitation as your first impression. So please, please, please write the correct name of the coach (whether it’s the assistant or head) that is aligned with the email and school. There’s probably nothing that has a coach deleting an e-mail quicker than reading the first line of it and having their name wrong (watch spelling, too), the name of the school wrong or just a poorly written e-mail in general.

Last-Minute Tips

Before you hit send, make sure you’ve checked off these last-minute tips when it comes to your recruiting video. Your video is your best foot forward and the highest chance of getting a response or sparking interest from a coach.
 
Here are a few last-minute tips to include:

In-Game vs In-Practice

• Although we may be living in unprecedented times where games have been put on-hold and seasons postponed, do your best to cut footage from games rather than training. Coaches want to see how you are when under pressure and when it counts. This can help them evaluate not only your playing performance but also your decision-making.

Get a good quality camera set-up and set it up correctly

• If you do have control over how your game is filmed, making sure the camera is steady on a tripod to stabilize the footage is just one aspect of filming that needs to be done. No coach wants to sit through five minutes of motion sickness as your footage shakes and moves.
• Your best perspective would be footage where at least 1/3 of the field can be seen. If it’s higher up from a bird’s eye viewpoint, that would be best! The wider you can get the angle to be, the better, which allows the coach to view the progression of the play and where the athlete has decided to position her or himself.
• For highlight film - you want to be able to see the player being highlighted.  Being able to zoom is important.  Capturing film of a player across the field with a fish-eye lens can make it extremely hard to see.  Make sure that you have a steady set-up that can zoom in so you can see the player and his surroundings.  

Track the ball and the player

• The athlete should also be in the footage as much as possible—even if she or he doesn’t have the ball. However, try and choose clips where you’re showing your foot skills and technical skills as well as your decision-making rather than when you don’t have the ball.

 
Show Quality Performance with a Quality Video

A recruiting video is where a player puts their performance where their mouth is. You might be college-material and know how to talk your way into a meeting but you might not have the footwork to back it up.

Offering up your highlight video not only gives coaches the opportunity to visually see you play and entice them to watch more, but it also shows them that you're confident in your own abilities to show them who you are and how you play, right off the bat.

SVT Can Help

Highlight videos are essential for coaches to be able to see you.  Most college coaches receive large quanitites of emails from players hoping to have a chance to make their team.  To stand out – you need good video.  SVT provides economical and very mobile camera towers to help you record soccer games easier.
 
Why should you choose to go with SVT? We work with clubs and teams across the US and several other countries.  We have several packages to choose from.  Our Package 3 is the most popular and consists of a strong, lightweight aluminum tripod with a sturdy 16-foot carbon-fiber composite camera pole, plus a monitor and remote. We provide power packs and all of the cables and cords that you need to make the system work together. Once you purchase our system – use it as much as you like.  There are no contracts.  Contact us today for more information.

When it comes to getting better as an athlete, everyone has heard the saying, “Practice makes perfect.” And although training on the field and in the gym can prepare you for game day physically, most sports take so much more than just muscle memory to excel.
 
As an ex-professional soccer player and former Division I student-athlete, I learned firsthand that no matter how much I trained, both on my own and at team practices, nothing could replace developing my game IQ.

And to better my understanding of the game—the ebb and flow of play-making, positioning, and team shape—I would need to do something more off the field and outside of the gym. I would need to watch game film.

In soccer, we use film for so much more than just making a highlight video to send recruiters (but more on that later). We use it to evaluate our team, the other team, and even ourselves while we play to help better our performance for the next game.

In this article, I’m going to be showing my firsthand account of how game footage has personally helped me advance my career from my earlier years in club ball than as a professional soccer player in Europe, while playing on two national teams (both Brazil and Portugal).
 
Our Team

If you’re doing your part on the field, focused on the task at hand, and holding yourself accountable in performing your best, it can be hard to concentrate on your team’s overall performance. After all, the responsibility of noticing a team’s weaknesses on the field and correcting them often lies with the coach, who has the power to make certain changes that a player often doesn’t have.
 
However, looking back at film of a game or training, whether on your own or with the entire team, can help give you a better view as to what really happened out there regarding positioning, set plays or ball movement—whatever you may need to work on as a team.

 
Team Film: How does your team move together?

In soccer, there is a lot of creativity in play. It’s very seldom that you have certain “plays” that you need to follow, where every player knows where exactly they should run. One can only practice together so much during training and know which areas they should be covering according to their positions.
 
Watching game film can help point out problem areas when it comes to following roles regarding set plays—whether or not I’ve been able to reach that first post or not during a corner kick or if I simply need to start my run earlier.

It can help regarding defensive or offensive shape—is our right midfielder a little too wide when we lose the ball? Should our left-back be tucking in more to seal the hole in our flat back four?
 
Having a team move perfectly in sync can be almost impossible—especially in such an unpredictable and creative sport. However, watching game film can help you or your team, as a whole, point out those minor mistakes that need to be adjusted or can help you or your coach identify an entire issue that may mean the difference between letting a goal in or not.
 
Our Opponent

Whether it was our Tuesday morning film session in college or our before-the-kickoff game footage of our next opponent on the National Team, we were able to gain an advantage heading onto the field that teams and coaches could only dream of decades ago.
 
We had access to the other team’s playbook—their set plays, their formation, their key players—all in one easy-to-view video. Although some video quality was better than others, a bird’s eye perspective of how a team moves together and favors one side over another or one player over another definitely helped us strategize a way to best defend them.
 
No matter if we were playing against a team from a completely different part of the world, where we would not be able to understand a word on the field that they were saying, we had the footage that spoke for the speechless. We were able to watch what they did and how they did it without understanding one word of what they said. It puts international games at an equal level.
 
Team Film: Scouting out your opponent can help you prepare for your next game.

Although you shouldn’t adjust the entire way your team plays in order to defend your next opponent, you should give them enough respect to see how they play and identify their strengths (and weaknesses).
 
If you know No. 5 is a strong header off of corner kicks, game film is an opportunity to note that, take it into account in assigning your tallest player to mark her, and then adjust the play accordingly.
 
You can also take note of their formation. If they are playing with three forwards and you have only three in the back as well, you may want to consider adding another defender back there so you always have one player open to sweep up the defense.
 
In my career, especially on the national team and in college, we always watched footage of the opponent before our game. We either would watch the entire game to help get a feel of how they play as a whole or would watch clips of their highlights, so we would take note of their set plays, how they scored their goals or their weaknesses of how they got scored on. The film was pivotal for not only the coach to watch and plan our defense and attack accordingly, but also for the players to see, to truly grasp what was ahead.
 
Watching film during a team video session can also be an effective opportunity to have the entire team there at once, so you can call out players on what they need to do for the next game and why based on your next opponent.
 
Our Own Performance

The final whistle blows, you walk off the field, exhausted. In your mind, you’ve just played the game of your life. You have no idea why your coach was yelling at you about your positioning or your defensive marking, etc. To you, your performance was nothing short of first-class, top-notch.
 
However, that was just your perspective—and that’s the only perspective you’ve ever had access to. Not only did you experience the game through your eyes and through your eyes only, but you also have particular biases when it comes to how well you did—because we’re evaluating you.
 
Film, on the other hand, is a whole other ball game—so to speak.
 
What can I get out of watching a game that I’ve already played in?
Think about it like a bird’s eye view.
 
It gives you a completely different perspective—where you can view your game from outside of your own eyes.

It had helped me see where I was in regard to positioning to other players and on the field as a whole. It had helped me see my decision-making from an entirely different perspective—I knew why I made the decision in the heat of the moment, but now, I can see what better decisions there were to be made. It had helped me see my strengths and my weaknesses, what I can train harder at my next practice, and what to pay attention to come next match.
 
It helped me become a better player both individually and within the team. Game film gave me the best opportunity to see myself from an outsider’s perspective—and approach my performance with that same perspective, eliminating any adrenaline-game-bias or need to defend my own decisions.
 
It also helps me put my best moments on the field in one place. Throughout my career, this has helped me nail my first impression and catch the eye of college coaches, pro teams, and other scouts.
 
Film to Push You Forward
​
Whether I was analyzing game footage with highlight clips of every time I touched the ball in the game with my head coach, whether we were watching the other team’s best (and worst) moments of their last match or whether my coach brought together the entire team to watch our last game and how we moved together, game film was always a part of my soccer career.
 
Not watching game film to better yourself as an athlete or get better as a team together is like having access to the key to winning a match and not putting it in the door to unlock your potential.
 
There’s something powerful about seeing something physically and having it resonate with you as a player.
 
Whether you need to figure out how to start filming your games or practices or how to access that invaluable footage, doing so can be the missing piece your game has been needing to improve your performance and excel as an athlete.

SVT Can Help
 
If you are trying to figure out options for filming your child, club, high school or even pro team, we at SVT are here to help.  We would be glad to answer questions and discuss needs.
 
Why should you choose to go with SVT? We work with clubs and teams across the US and several other countries.  We have several packages to choose from.  Our Package 3 is the most popular and consists of a strong, lightweight aluminum tripod with a sturdy 16-foot carbon-fiber composite camera pole, plus a monitor and remote. We provide power packs and all of the cables and cords that you need to make the system work together. Once you purchase our system – use it as much as you like.  There are no contracts.  Contact us today for more information.

2020 has been a year of fast change and disruption.  We’ve gone from having families and friends attending youth soccer, lacrosse and football games to, in some cases, no spectators.  For those areas that allow spectators, social distancing and mask wearing are required and those who are more vulnerable to getting sick are not able to attend.

We’ve been asked by teams all over about live streaming sports. This is not currently a simple answer.  But for the interim, we hope the following will help. 
 
Disclaimer & Helpful Up-Front Tip

This is not a perfect process, and we are not streaming or “Facebook live” experts.  But we hope it helps those really struggling to find a way to live stream your sporting events.  We would love to hear back from you if you find tweaks or better ways to do this.  For this process, we would highly recommend that two people be involved.  One person needs to focus on filming.  The other person should handle the streaming portion.
 
Camera, Positioning, Awareness and Quality

We’ve tested out a few different platforms using cell phones.  However, in all cases, the quality and ability to see what was going on, especially across the field, was very difficult.   Being up in bleachers helped and provided perspective on spacing.  But it was still really difficult to see the play action in many points across the field. The digital zoom was grainy and trying to hold the camera steady becomes a problem.  You also need to be aware that most everything you say, and those around you, will likely be live-streamed as well if the camera is not elevated.  Comments from close by parents, fans and yourself will be broadcast.

We also tested out cameras, like the yi 4K+Action Camera mounted to the top of the SVT Advantage Tower.  This camera allows for streaming through Facebook Live and your mobile hotspot – which was really nice.  Again, the footage was not too good due to the fish-eye lens causing distortion.  It was also really hard to see the game when the ball was on either side of the field.

To really be able to see the game, we found that we needed to use a good quality camera with an optical zoom, without fish-eye distortion, elevated above the field at least 16 feet for a football field, soccer field or a lacrosse field.
 
Live Streaming Hardware & Software

After reading a lot of reviews and viewing a lot of videos, we finally found a set-up that allowed for us to connect and stream the output from a camcorder.  It is not perfect, requires a little patience and practice, and we are working on refining options, but we were able to get this to work.  In additional to our SVT Camera Tower and a laptop with a USB 3.0 port, we purchased:

1. A MoKose HDMI live streaming Game Video Capture Card Device. This card does not require a plug.  This device will support 1080P at 60fps – which is excellent for sports.
2. An additional 10-foot-long HDMI to HDMI cable

 
We had to download OBS Studio (free open source software).  It can be downloaded from https://obsproject.com/.
 
You Need Signal Strength

An important item to know is that you need decent 4G signal strength for this to work.  If you are in the middle of now-where without good signal, it will be very difficult to be able to stream anything. 
 
Now to Live Streaming

After setting up the SVT Tower, you will need to connect the HDMI cable coming down from the camera to the Mokose Box (input).  Use the new HDMI cable and connect the one end to the Mokose output, and connect the other end to the monitor.  Turn on the hotspot on your cell phone and connect the computer to that hotspot. 

The Mokose Capture Device comes with a USB 3.0 cable.  You’ll need to connect one end of the USB cable into the Mokose port and the other end into a USB 3.0 port on your laptop.  Your computer should install the Mokose driver automatically.

To run the OBS software, there are several really good YouTube tutorials.  One that was very helpful was https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTk99mHDX_I   Here are the steps we followed to start streaming:

Open OBS Studio and click on the “+” under “Sources”.  We selected “Video Capture Device” then select “Mokose”.  In the Properties for “Video Capture Device”, change the Audio Device to “Mokose”.  You'll also need to go into advanced settings and change the audio input microphone to be their laptop’s microphone instead of the webcam’s microphone.  Next, select “Settings” in the bottom right of the OBS dashboard and go to streaming.  You’ll need to select your streaming service as well as get your “Stream Key”.   For helps with how to do this – there are lots of YouTube videos on getting the stream key - which varies with the streaming service.  Some of these methods change, so look for the most recent videos.
 
Start Streaming

You should now be set up to start livestreaming.  Just click on “Start Streaming” on the bottom right of the OBS studio screen.
 
SVT Can Help
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We hope this will be helpful to those trying to live stream sports “on a budget”.  This was not a seamless process and took some time to figure out.  So please feel free to send us helps and thoughts.  We will continue to improve technologies for you to instruct and capture film of your sport teams.
 
Why should you choose to go with SVT? We work with clubs and teams across the US and several other countries.  We have several packages to choose from.  Our Package 3 is the most popular and consists of a strong, lightweight aluminum tripod with a sturdy 16-foot carbon-fiber composite camera pole, plus a monitor and remote. We provide power packs and all of the cables and cords that you need to make the system work together. Once you purchase our system – use it as much as you like.  There are no contracts.  Contact us today for more information.

We received the slide deck below from Scylla with the Edmonton Scottish United club on what they were using to live-stream their soccer games.  The set-up could be used to live stream lacrosse or football as well.  Thanks for putting this together.  Pictures of the slide deck are below as well as a downloadable pdf with each component hyperlinked.

Please also check out the attached helpful comment on additional options.

Additional Help 2

We'd like to thank Mr. O'Driscoll for sending in the video below on the system he and several others developed for live streaming.  This set-up does not require a computer, allowing for less hassel.  For questions - please  e-mail to k.odriscoll@thewinnercircle.net.