Skills Vid age?

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May 30, 2013
1,442
83
Binghamton, NY
Wondering if someone can comment on best age to start considering putting a skills video together for college recruiting?

It seems that most I find out there are 2nd year 14U to 1st year 16U pitchers.
What is curious is I don't see many that are older than that, and also not many older, updated vids on the same player.

Do skills vids serve a purpose for recruiting early on in the process? (HS Freshman) and not as useful later on?
 
Oct 1, 2014
2,218
113
USA
Great question Corlay, I have been wondering the same thing and have noticed exactly what you mention.
 
With the accelerated recruiting going on now the timing of when to do a recruit video has moved up. A general time frame now would be prior to the summer season after completion of the 8th grade.
A word of caution.....if your pitcher is not advanced in her skills she can do more harm then good....so wait until she can show some high level stuff. She needs to display sound mechanics, decent speed (58mph), three pitches that actually perform as intended....dropball, change up, then a tie between rise, curve, or screwball.
Another word of advice....make sure to video from the rear and from the catcher view so the coaches can see her ball movement.....3-4 of each pitch from each view is ample.
The skills video will hopefully entice a coach to watch her in a live game........not likely you will land a scholarship based on your video.
 
Feb 4, 2015
641
28
Massachusetts
The video does not have to be high-production and forget the music. Using your iphone or a decent video camera, you can put something together for coaches to see. Keep it short, 2-2.5 minutes just to give them enough of a glimpse of everything. If it's 5-6 minutes long, with rep after rep, they're likely not to watch it all and will miss some of the skills in the second half. Attach a link to every email your DD sends out.
YouTube has analytics where you can see how many views you've received and how long those views lasted. You can also see what states the views came from. This has been a good motivator for DD to see that when she sends letters out, coaches actually view her video.
You probably don't see older videos because when players update their video they may take the old one down so as not to confuse coaches on which one to watch.
 
May 30, 2013
1,442
83
Binghamton, NY
You probably don't see older videos because when players update their video they may take the old one down so as not to confuse coaches on which one to watch.

I actually DO see older vids of players, when they are young, and not many of sophomore and junior age kids.
 
May 30, 2013
1,442
83
Binghamton, NY
A general time frame now would be prior to the summer season after completion of the 8th grade.
A word of caution.....if your pitcher is not advanced in her skills she can do more harm then good....so wait until she can show some high level stuff. She needs to display sound mechanics, decent speed (58mph), three pitches that actually perform as intended....dropball, change up, then a tie between rise, curve, or screwball.

Well, that's a loaded response!

8th grader with sound mechanics, 58mph+ speed, and good movement.
You just narrowed-down the list of kids that should post a video to a small handful. ;-)
and I'm guessing kids that truly meet all of this criteria, don't need to make a video at all. lol.

In the vid examples I have watched, NONE of the young pitchers meet all of this criteria.
I do see vids of kids throwing a LOT of different pitches, but none look radically different to me spin-wise.
Average speed in these vids seems to range from 55-58. Certainly haven't seen many 60mph+ "Skills Videos" posted.
A few examples have either good drop ball OR curveball movement - but I haven't seen both in the same vid.
NONE look like they are throwing back-spinning riseballs.
Most have decent inward trajectory on a screwball.
Many have very good looking changeups.

Just my own observations of the dozen or so vids Ive watched recently.

But I do agree: don't make and post a vid, unless you've got the goods.
You get one chance to make a good first impression.
Posting a vid too early in a pitcher's development could probably hurt, rather than help, recruiting.
 
Last edited:

JAD

Feb 20, 2012
8,231
38
Georgia
My $0.02...do one at 2nd year 14U or first year 16U. If you pay for a professional video (@ $200-300) it will probably be a one time thing. If you have some video editing skills you might want to do an updated one at 2nd year 16U if your DD is still being recruited. Remember that the primary purpose of a skills video is to get a college coaches attention and make them want to come see your DD in person or to invite her to their camps. Keep is short and sweet (less than 5 min) and you need to get the coaches attention in the first 30-45 seconds, do not put your DD's best skills at the end.
 
There are a few kids around who fall into this category...mostly in SoCal and Florida.

Ray.....in general I think that may have been the case 7-8 years ago, but I've seen some dramatic improvement in pitching skills by a lot of kids on the east coast/midwest. With the advent of some of the strong organizations in the Atlanta, Chattanooga, Birmingham, Chicago areas there is a real balance beginning to happen. I suspect that the rise of the SEC/ACC conferences have inspired a whole new group of young pitchers.
 

Josh Greer

DFP Vendor
Jul 31, 2013
934
93
Central Missouri
I also think there is value in creating a playlist on YouTube with your players progression with small highlight reels. Start it early on in their career (within reason...show skill not memories), clearly name the video with the age and date related information. But don't go overboard with the amount of videos. And don't use music. We got feedback from coaches on videos we didn't send them. If you make it easy for them, they might check it. But you have to get their attention first. And if you do showcases, I would go as far as put a QR code to the highlight reel in your book for coaches to scan. They all have phones.
 

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