I was taking my team to an out-of-state showcase. A pretty good opportunity in general but some of the parents on our team didn’t think so or couldn’t afford to go. I had room for an additional pitcher and middle infielder so I look through the list of pickup players that the tournament provided.
So..what is one of the first things I do? I take their name and plug it into youtube and vimeo so I can analyze their play and see if they can help us out. Well…to my dismay….more than 90% of them didn’t have a video!! How could I evaluate them? How did I know that they were going to be able to play at the same level of our existing team? Am I going to trust a parent’s word of mouth? Call their travel coach? Have they ever sent a video to a college coach? Is anyone teaching these girls what to do in the recruiting process? Some of these players were uncommitted seniors who I always want to help out whether they are in our organization or not.
So what did I end up doing? I didn’t pick up any players and went with the team I had… Thankfully, no one got injured and I didn’t have to play any girls out of position…..
Video doesn’t have to be fancy.. Camera doesn’t have to be fancy – use your iphone or flip cam. Videotape games, practices, lessons.. Edit using windows movie maker or imovie. Easy video for free and much better than nothing at all!
With a video, perhaps an invite to attend a showcase from a team you never heard of might have come your way!! Or more importantly, a tool to show a college coach what you can do….