How to Prepare Tennis Video for a College Tennis Coach

I already wrote about How to get athletic scholarship for a tennis player. Here I would like to talk about how to prepare tennis video for college tennis coaches. There are some advice how to make your best tennis video.

Remember that you are not supposed automatically send your tennis video or link to your YouTube video to a college tennis coach; the coach will let you know if he/she has seen you play, wants to see you play, or want to start with your tennis video. That gives you a good reason to contact the tennis coach, so having the footage ready makes sense.

Tennis video should include following:

• 10-15 minutes in total length. The college tennis coach usually watches only 3-5 minutes of the video. Be sure you start with your best footage.
• Start with some match points. Points that make your footwork look great and points that are several shots long showing the development of a point.
• Be sure to identify yourself in the clips – by using graphics explaining you are in the blue shirt on the far side, or with titles put on the clip. Also write it on the outside of the shirt so the coach knows which player is you. It is very important that this be clear, and that you are not selling one of your opponents to a coach instead of yourself.
• The tennis match does not should be a tournament match, though it can be. You can set up a practice match at your club, and film it with one stationary camera. That would get you enough footage to put together ten minute product. A high school match is also very good – the uniforms make it easier to identify the players and it looks more “official”.
• The editing does not need to be professional or slick. But t should be supervised/final edited by a tennis pro or good college level tennis player who can see if the clip makes your footwork and strokes look good, or not.
• Get this video footage no later than the summer before your senior year. There are so many summer tournaments and opportunities to get this footage, that this would be the best way to find an appropriate match to highlight your best play.
• A personal, short introduction of the tennis player speaking into the camera, smiling and showing positive attitude, is a nice touch. Player should state his/her name, city, state of residence, age and what match might be included in the footage.
• Add titles with your name, phone, and email, year in school, and date that was made.

In the next post I will write about what college tennis coaches are looking for when they are considering players for their team.

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