Before we dive in, do me a favor and move my emails to the primary inbox so you can see the next edition. Each of my emails going forward will have the “⚽️” emoji so they are easy to find.

Key Takeaways ⚽️

1. Personal highlight reel analysis 👀

2. Highlight reel software 🖥

3. Highlight reel mini guide 📝

This newsletter is a 3-minute read in total (5 minutes if you include the video)

Analysis Of My Highlight Reel:

Overall I think the highlight reel is decent for a high schooler who had never edited a long-form video before. Let’s go over what I think I did well and then touch on some things I can improve on.

Positive takeaways:

• Early Impact Plays: Starting the reel with a key moment grabs attention immediately. College coaches value impactful plays in the first 30 seconds.

• Variety of Skills: I showcased a mix of passing, dribbling, and defensive actions, highlighting versatility on the field. This gives coaches a holistic view of my game.

• Clear Visibility: The video quality and field positioning made it easy to track me during each play. Using a circle or spotlight before the action helped ensure I stood out.

• Game Context: Including clips from real matches gives authenticity, showing how I perform under pressure against competitive opponents.

Things to improve on:

• Lack of Footage: The highlights from this video are all compiled from 6 matches. Make sure you film more games to be able to highlight what type of player you are to coaches. The more the better!

•  Show Achievements In The Introduction: Within the first 20 seconds have a display of your achievements to capture the coach’s attention. One-liners like “Gatorade Player of the Year 2024” or “GA Cup MVP/Top Goalscorer” are great to include in the title or on the intro page.

• Shorter Clips: Cut out all the excess footage and quickly show your best clips. Keep the entire reel around 2 minutes.

• More Key Involvements: Only show goals, assists, skills, tackles, and saves. Anything that doesn’t show how you can help your team win shouldn’t be included.

Highlight Reel Software 🎥

Here is a quick list of my favorite editing software that is beginner-friendly:

1. Canva - free (paid pro version): Easy to use and relatively cheap.

2. Capcut - free (paid pro version): Best for making a full highlight reel on the free version.

3. Filmora - free (paid pro version): More advanced tools.

4. Hudl (paid): Automatically inserts identifiers and compiles game clips

Highlight Reel Mini Guide 💯

The main thing to focus on in the early stage is just collecting game footage. Try and make one for yourself or a child for each season played. If there is a national tournament consider making a condensed reel from it.

The next thing you should do is clip all of your best highlights. Remember, learn from my mistakes and only clip goals, assists, skills, tackles, and saves. Cut out all of the extra fluff. After all of your clips are in the editing software of your choice, keep these quick tips in mind:

• Keep the reel to about 2 minutes

• Include a flashy intro page with one-liner achievements

• Keep the music clean - can rub off wrong on certain coaches

• Clearly identify where you are throughout the video

• Create a flashy thumbnail

• Try and show who you are as a player and show different aspects of your game

Here are three highlight reels I found on YouTube that have some good features:

1. Johnny Rodas Hills

2. Become Elite

3. Andrew Privett

Feedback is appreciated :)

I’d appreciate some quick feedback to make this truly valuable for you and your soccer journey! In the comments let me know what you’re hoping to get out of this newsletter. Feel free to include topics, pain points, goals, and anything else that I can do to save you time and money on this, which, at times, is an overwhelming journey.