The breakdown of a good highlight tape
College coaches receive thousands of emails every year from players all across the globe who are looking to play at their university. Of course, a coach would like to sit down and watch every highlight tape and read every email, but unfortunately, that isn’t realistic. So how can you make sure that your highlight tape gets looked at?
Getting game film has no longer become a problem. Top leagues such as MLS Next or ECNL have made it mandatory for members to record every game, and plenty of clubs not within those two national leagues still record their games. Needless to say, there are hours upon hours of game film for nearly every player out there.
Pick Moments that Highlight Your Position
No coach wants to watch a 3-minute highlight tape of a center-back who just completes 5-yard passes the entire game. Think of what clips you should include in the eyes of a coach. A college coach wants to see a center-back winning aerial challenges and breaking lines when on the ball, a striker scoring goals and creating chances, not just holding up the ball to bounce back to a midfielder. A highlight tape should be broken up into segments. Below is a rough list of segments that should be thought about or included in a highlight tape:
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Goal Involvement (Goals and Assists)
1v1 Dribbling
Passing Ability
Link-up Play
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Goal Involvement (Goals and Assists)
Dribbling
Dialogue with Midfield
Passing Ability
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Goal Involvement (Goals and Assists)
Build-up Play (If it leads to an immediate positive action)
Passing Ability
Tackles/Interceptions
Dialogue with Midfield
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Tackles/Interceptions
Aerial Duels
Passing Ability
Recovery Runs
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Saves
Distribution
Cross Managment
Not all of these segments are necessary. However, if you are wanting to play as a forward in college, there should be some goals scored in the highlight tape. The more you can express who you are as a complete player, the better off you are.
Don’t Make a Coach Download Your Film
As I previously mentioned, college coaches only have so much time when it comes to finding recruits. The worst thing you can do is have a great highlight tape but force the coaches to download it to their computers to watch. Upload your game film to YouTube or a streaming service and create a hyperlink in the email. With one click, a coach should be watching your highlight tape. There are plenty of coaches out there who are interested in your highlight tape, and the moment they click the link and it takes them to a download gives them one more reason why they should click on the next person. Not all college coaches care as much about downloading as others, but the worst thing in the world would be to miss out on a possibility because of a long download.
Tekkers Media's highlight tapes are created and shared through their YouTube channel to give players and coaches easy access to each film. Click here to see Tekkers Media's portfolio for inspiration on how easy it should be to watch a highlight tape.
Ideal Timeframe
The ideal timeframe for a highlight tape should be anywhere between 3-5 minutes. Anything under 3 minutes can be hard to highlight the entirety of a player, and anything over 5 minutes starts to get a college coach disengaged. I believe that you can convey who you are as a player and touch on all the segments above within a 3–5-minute window if you are intentional with the highlights you include.
Placement of Highlights
It is important to engage a coach early on in the process. Put your best highlights in the video straight away, as you do not want to lose the coach's interest by having your best moments towards the end. In my opinion, it is best to include your two best highlights at the beginning of the tape to immediately capture the coach's attention. Then, break up the remaining highlight tape into segments that showcase different aspects of your game.
Highlight Yourself
When creating a highlight tape, it's easy to know when you're the person on the ball, but a college coach may not be able to tell. If there are four passes in a highlight clip, how will a college coach know who's who? Unlike you, they don't know who you are on the field, and this may be the first time they've seen you play. To avoid confusion, for every moment that could be slightly unclear, have a short 1-2 second break in the film and highlight yourself, preferably before the clip starts unfolding. Identifying yourself as a player allows the coach to notice your movement before the play builds up, and this doesn't confuse them about who to pay attention to. A highlight tape should stand out, and what better way to highlight yourself than to make it clear who you are?
Overall
Highlight tapes are an essential part of the recruiting process and can give a player the upper hand in attracting a coach's interest if made correctly. If you need a highlight tape, recurring advice, or just want to ask a couple of questions, head over to the Tekkers Media page or leave a message below.
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