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#Post#: 105--------------------------------------------------
Making a Softball Skills Video
DIR By: SoftballDad
Date: July 10, 2012, 8:28 am
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Making a Softball Skills Video
By, Nic Nelson Head Softball, Coach Lake Land College.
Make sure you read this first before making a skills video. Our
head coach has seen thousands of them so let him help you make a
skills video that works.
Matt Simmons
Now lets take a little time and talk about skills videos, which
is a necessary evil softball recruit needs to have. Why do I
think they are necessary evils because 95% of what we see are
bad which end up hurting the players recruiting changes. Plus I
have yet to see a video that makes any player look her best.
Everyday I get five to seven skills videos and sorry to say, but
a lot college coaches and myself don’t even open most of them.
And if I do you have less than one swing or one fielding of the
ball to keep me watching it. Here are some helpful hints to not
only get your skills tape open, but viewed.
How do I use a skills video. Only use a skills video when there
is no way a coach can see you play or when a coach request to
see one. Right now I’m interested in a player from South Africa.
I think you all would realize I’m not going to fly South Africa
to see this kid play. So, I have asked her to send me a skills
video. If I like it then at that point we will figure out how I
can see her play in person. In your case it might be a coach
trying to decide whether or not to go to a tournament to watch
you play in person. Please realize any good coach will not sign
a player just on a video, and once they have seen you play you
do not need to send them a video.
Only send skill video when requested. If you just send out an
email unrequested it will get deleted or a short view. If a
coach requests your video then the coaching staff is going to
look at it. How do you get a coach to request your video? First,
have an advocate who knows a coach who trusts their opinion and
contact them telling them they should that a look at your video.
There has been more than once I have called a coach recommending
they look at a video which they did. Why? Because they trust my
opinion. This is how I got interested in the player form South
Africa. From taking softball teams overseas to play, I have made
some great contacts in others I trust. (That way from time to
time see players from overseas on our roster.) Remember from my
email last week on how to email a coach I said end with a
question. Well, that question could be “If you like, I have a
video if you would like me to send it to you? This is another
way to get your video requested. Most coaches will say yes.
Find out what the coach wants to see. Don’t be afraid to ask the
coach what they want to see and what angles they want to see it.
As I said earlier, I’m sorry to say but most videos we receive
are terrible. They do more to hurt your chances than help. The
other day Michelle Glenn one of our All American players was in
my office while I was looking at a skills video. So, I told her
to tell me stop when she thought I stopped looking at it. Half
way through the first swing she said stop and she was right.
What if the coach looking teaches rotational hitting and your
are a liner hitter? What if the coach looking at it wants to
see a continuous series of fielding and you have edited each
ground ball? What if the coach does not like the song you
selected? If you are going to take the time and from what I hear
pay a lot of money to make a skills video, make sure you send us
what we want to see. Now I’m going to speak for myself and my
coaching staff here at Lake Land College on what and how we want
to see it.
Hitting: Needs to be first on the video showing us 4 to 5 swings
from the opposite side of the plate and if you slap 4 to 5
slaps from the opposite side of the plate. I would also like to
see those swings with a live pitcher throwing. I’m just
interested in your hitting technique.
Pitching: We would like to see four to five of your best up
pitch, down pitch and off speed pitch. The camera needs to be
angled from behind the pitcher showing your whole body in the
pitching motion and being able to see it move at the plate. I
would also like to have a batter standing in. We would like to
see four to five from the side of the same pitches being able to
see the whole pitching motion. If you can show the speed on a
radar gun that would be great.
Throwing: I would like to see you throw a couple of balls to
first from third. With the camera set up behind the first
baseman, so I can see the entire throw and hear the ball hit the
first baseman’s glove. What I’m trying to do here is get a pop
time to see how hard you throw. If you have a radar gun then
show me the speed. Here is how I would like you to make the
throw. Make a twelve foot triangle from third base going down
the line and have the fielder stand beside third base. Roll a
ball to the fielder the fielder must catch and throw the ball to
1st base with out coming out of the triangle. I will start the
stopwatch when the ball hits your glove. I will stop the watch
when I hear the ball hits the first baseman’s glove. Have the
first baseman straddle the bag, make sure she does not reach for
the ball. Do this twice and use the average of the two times.
Fielding: I don’t really care if I don’t see it at the plate I’m
not interested.
Running: Start at home with the camera being able to see you run
all the way to first base. This way I can get a home to first
time. Remember the slower you are the better the hitter you need
to be, unless you’re a pitcher.
Length of the video: As I mentioned above we get five to seven
videos a day with an average length I would say of 7 minutes. I
don’t have that much time to watch them all in there entirety.
So, keep it short as possible. Attach your resume that way they
can open it to get your information and they can get right to
your skills. Five years ago I went out to the University of
Arizona, because I was looking into doing a west coast Elite
Softball Evaluation tour. While there I asked the asst. coach
how many videos and resume the got every year. He said that the
year before they received 4,000. Your not the only one out
there.
Music: Personally I don’t care. I think people spend to much
time worrying about music editing than how they look on the
tape.
DO IT RIGHT! If you are going to spend the time and money make
sure it makes you look good. A few years ago I was at the Rising
Stars tournament in Florida and saw what we call a five tool
player. When I got home I call a few coaching friends of mine
and said they need to look at her. So I call the young lady and
said to send out her video to these coaches. Four days later I
got a phone call from one of them asking if she was really as
good as I said she was because the video didn’t show that. I
then call her and told her to throw away her video and do
another one, but let me look at if first. Her name was Jessica
Davis who is now one of the top hitting short stops in the Big
Ten Conference. Make sure someone who knows what a college coach
looks for looks at your video before you send it out.
I hope this information will help make your recruiting more
successful.
Always play to win,
Matthew Simmons
Assistant Coach for Recruiting, Lake Land College
NJCAA D1 2011 Region 24 Champions
NJCAA D1 Academic All-American Team
5001 Lake Land Blvd
Mattoon, IL 61938
C (402) 326-5332
Email: matt.simmons32@gmail.com
Check out LLC Softball at the NJCAA D1 National Tournament by
logging onto
HTML http://www.lakeland.cc.il.us/athletics/softball/index.cfm
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