Hey, second baseman. We’d like to create more engaging content for web video, and that involves telling a story. Your story needs to be clear and concise, and have a distinct beginning, middle, and end. To make this distinct from 99 percent of other recruiting videos, we will omit the clichés.
When athletes are interviewed they tend to move quickly to the end of a question set with pat, recycled responses. In crafting this piece of video, we have the advantage of preparing the response so that it is more thoughtful.
We’re looking for you to describe a single at-bat in detail. The best at-bat would be a success (base hit) with a multiple pitch count.
What we are trying to show is a well-thought-out path and process that is combined with your athletic ability. A coach or recruiter viewing this will note:
- Attention to detail
- Following and processing coaching
- Situational flexibility
- Athletic ability
Begin thinking about the at-bat as you would be describing it to another player or friend. You’re speaking to a peer, perhaps someone who will be facing this same pitcher and situation. You’re excited at what you learned and the result and want to share detail with the other ball player so that he can hit off this pitcher. Examples of possible responses:
- “We faced this pitcher before earlier in the season. He’s got a great fastball and a decent curve.”
- “Coach told us to build pitch count and let him miss with breaking pitches and wait for inside fastball.”
- “In this situation, I had a runner on first base so I was thinking about this . . . “
- “The third base coach was reminding me of this . . . “
- “Behind in the pitch count with a runner on, I was reminded of this coaching . . . protect plate/make contact, etc. “
- “You’ll see on this pitch I check my swing (I saw what I thought was a breaking ball and backed off . . . .”
The key is conveying a sense of mastery, joy and intelligence during such a brief, simple act as swatting a baseball. So think though a favorite moment and rehearse it with a friend or your family so that when we shoot video, you won’t have to be loaded up with a lot of questions and cliches. You want to convey honesty and intelligence and passion for your craft. This will make you unique from most other recruiting videos. Let me know if you have any questions or ideas.
