Soccer_Newbie wrote:Thank you. Yes, we just want to start learning now so we have time to get it right for when it matters. I don't want to be sending this post out 2 years from now from when it really matters. I think making highlights to just post on YouTube and send to his family is cool for now and hopefully, he masters it by the time it matters. But...I still don't know how to get him started. Still don't know what step 1 is.

Read the above comments?
1) get some video editing software
2) search for tutorials and learn how to use it.

Thank you. Yes, we just want to start learning now so we have time to get it right for when it matters. I don't want to be sending this post out 2 years from now from when it really matters. I think making highlights to just post on YouTube and send to his family is cool for now and hopefully, he masters it by the time it matters. But...I still don't know how to get him started. Still don't know what step 1 is.

2x experienced college recruiting dad here... First, this is pretty early. There's nothing wrong with having some U15 highlights, but they probably aren't going to make the reel(s) you use to actually get recruited. Colleges (at least D1 and D2) can't talk to him for two more years. So they aren't going to put much time into watching highlights unless your son is on the U15 Youth National Team (and if he is, he doesn't need to make a highlight video anyway). So think of this as more practice for the future.

If your son (or you!) wants to learn video editing, and this is a good excuse to get into it -- great! There are lots of tools, many free or cheap, and tons of YouTube videos about how to use them. And it's a really useful skill to have these days! But there should be no pressure to have a finished product right now. Having a video by the end of sophomore year *may* be helpful. But more than likely it's going to be what you do junior year that matters. And those older highlights won't look so good by then -- you and all your opponents look so small and slow! The key is just to collect the raw game video files from the second half of sophomore year and beyond. Sometimes they get harder to find as time goes on, so grab them to your local or cloud drive when you can -- just remember to name them with the game date and opponent, in case you want that when you put the clips together.

Hope this helps!

Doesn't Veo have highlights and editing already built in?

https://support.veo.co/hc/en-us/categories/4429234734993-Veo-Editor-analysis-platform-
https://support.veo.co/hc/en-us/articles/4454306853905-Add-highlights-tag-players-and-write-comments

Ask your club about getting access to the editor/highlights features in Veo. If they don't know anything about it, contact Veo customer support.

If all else fails you could always hire a college athlete recruiting service to create the highlight videos for you. The cost might be worth it rather than spending hours and hours trying to learn how to edit videos.

PowerDirector is a great, easy to use video editing software.

https://www.cyberlink.com/products/powerdirector-video-editing-software/features_en_US.html

You said that "We get no support on this from our club that I know of."
Have you asked them specifically?
I can't imagine any team/program with players that are capable of playing in college wouldn't have at least some resources, or at least know where to point you.
At this point with you lack of tech knowledge, I'd advise you to hire someone to do this for you.
You certainly can get an editing program...iMovie on a Mac is your simplest solution...and use online resources to learn how to use it, but if you're starting from zero you're going to have to a lot of work to get up to speed.

Thank you for your reply. When I say we don't know how to do this, I'm including my kid. He does not know how to make videos. For some reason, he is clueless even though he spends all day on his phone. He tells me none of his friends or teammates know how to cut up and edit video either. So that's why I said...we are like 2nd graders. We know nothing. We first need to know HOW to create a highlight video before we concentrate on what to include in it.

There are different software tools to help you do this and the level of effort is different depending on what you use. You can find videos on youtube showing you how to use whichever too you use. I had my teenage son work on it, most teenagers have made a video for tiktok and have the basic skills required. If your kids aren't into that they know plenty who are and could help and would be happy to for a couple hundred.

A couple tips on the video content: make sure you highlight yourself at the beginning of the play--an arrow pointing is good enough for that; if you're sending this to a US college soccer coach the clips you include should be divided into sections and the emphasis placed on these two sections; Aerial Challenges, and Tough Tackles. After that add whatever is relevant based on the position you play and what your biggest strengths are as a player.

Hello, My son is starting HS next year. He wants to start making highlight videos for college recruitment purposes. He has no idea how to do this and neither do I. We have access to videos of complete games from Veo and from parents home videos that they put on YouTube. We get no support on this from our club that I know of. Can anyone provide some information how we can learn how to create and edit these videos? Where do we start? Are there local classes? YouTube videos? Software? We'd even be willing to pay someone to come into our home and teach us. Unfortunately, we are truly lost on this. We need to be taught as if we were 2-year olds. I really appreciate any advice on how we can get started on this.