How to make a softball highlight video coaches will actually watch

Build it for the person watching

A coach watching a highlight video is looking at mechanics and athleticism. Does the swing or the pitching motion repeat? How does the athlete move? What level is the competition? Music, slow fades and long intros don't answer any of that.

A structure that works

• Open with a short title card: name, graduation year, positions, school and travel team, and contact information.
• Put the best clips first, not in season order.
• Group by skill: hitting, then defense, then pitching or catching if those are your positions.
• Keep it short. A tight two- to three-minute video is more likely to be watched all the way through.

What to show by position

• Hitters: full-speed at-bats from behind the plate or straight down a line, including hard-hit outs.
• Pitchers: several pitches from the side showing the whole motion, plus a view from behind that shows location.
• Catchers: receiving, blocking, and a throw to second from a game.
• Fielders: keep the footwork and the throw in the frame, not just the catch.

Make each clip easy to read

• Trim each clip tight: from just before the pitch to just after the play.
• Mark the athlete on the first frame of each clip with an arrow or a circle.
• Show clips at full speed. Add a slow-motion replay only after the full-speed version.

What to leave out

• Music that drowns out the clips.
• Transitions and effects between clips.
• Unlabeled cage or practice footage mixed in with game clips.
• Clips where the athlete is hard to see.

The hard part is having the footage sorted

Most of the time a highlight video takes goes into finding the clips. If the season lives in a camera roll, that search can take longer than the editing.

In PlayerPath, clips are filed by game, date and athlete and tagged with what happened as you go, so choosing clips means picking from a labeled season. Families on Plus can also put favorite moments into highlight reels.

Before you send it

• Watch it once with the sound off on a phone to make sure it still makes sense.
• Make sure the contact information on the title card is readable.
• Keep the original clips so you can update the video as the season goes on.