Creating a highlight film can be an important part of your recruiting process. Maybe you plan to send it to college coaches or upload it to a recruiting website. But what elements should you include? Here are a few tips we suggest.

• Make sure to include your name, class, height, position, school, etc. at the beginning of your highlight film

• If possible, make sure your clipsare against good teams or in the playoffs. It’s a bad look if the score is 64-10 in the background of your film.

• If you put music in the background, make sure it’s clean and doesn’t have any outrageous lyrics

• If you’re going to use slow-mo or arrows or circles to show who you are, make sure it enhances the quality of the film. Often times, these elements detract from the quality and are annoying to viewers. If the clips are good, it’s obvious which player is being highlighted. You don’t need anything else.

Be Organized

Having an organized highlight film is a more enjoyable viewing experience for college coaches. It also allows them to clearly evaluate each skill displayed and move from skill to skill if they want (fast-forward/rewind). If you have a wide range of highlightable clips, we suggest doing an Offensive Highlight film and a Defensive Highlight film.

You could outline it like this:

Offensive Highlights - Finishing, Shooting, Passing, Rebounding (if applicable)

Defensive Highlights - Steals, Rebounds, Blocks (if applicable), Charges (if applicable)

Highlight Multiple Skills

Scoring is definitely important, but it’s not the only skill coaches care about. They want you to highlight your best qualities and are looking for what will complement their program’s needs. If you’re not a great shooter, but you facilitate for others or have really good transition offense decision making, highlight those offensive skills over scoring.

Coaches also use highlight films as a first evaluation tool before they come see you play live. Try to show as much diversity in your game as possible so they have a clear idea of what you can do.

Keep It Short

While highlighting multiple skills might mean a longer highlight film, try to keep it under 3 minutes. You don’t need 8 different clips of you making a 3. Try not to show more than 3-4 of the same type of clip. If you’re an incredible shooter, you can show multiple clips of you making 3s, but you need to highlight different ways. It shouldn’t be 8 catch a shoot 3s, it should be 2 off the dribble, 2 catch and shoot, 3 off screens, etc.

Coaches don’t want to watch you do the same thing over and over. It’s better to have a shorter film than a long redundant one.

High Quality Only

I know it can be difficult to sometimes get film, but you should only be using high quality clips. Pulling film off BeTheBeast where it’s super far away and hard to tell who you are is not worth it. It’s frustrating to watch and sometimes confusing, even if you circle who you are. While it is annoying and more responsibility, try to have a family member or friend film, or use clips from your high school season if your coach uses HUDL. You want to make sure the viewing experience is as enjoyable and easy for coaches as possible.

Final Things to Consider: