Highlights are critical for recruiting and creating buzz for your game. With Hudl, they’re also ridicu­lous­ly easy to make.

Highlights are absolutely essential for athletes these days. Whether you’re looking to get recruited or simply show off your skills to fans, friends and family, highlight videos are the most simple and effective way to build your brand and get your game recognized.

The thought of creating a highlight might seem daunting on the surface. Creating a well-produced video figures to require a lot of work, time and computer expertise.

That couldn’t be further from the truth.

We want to make the process as simple as possible for you, and crafting an eye-catching video takes just minutes on Hudl. Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a fire highlight.

1. Find Your Top Moments

There are two ways to do this - either watch game video and mark your top plays, or use the statistics to find your best moments.

For the first option, begin watching video from any game. When you find a moment you like, click the star icon. Drag the handles to trim your highlight, then click “Save” in the upper-right corner.

To make life even easier, simply use the stats function. Once your game is tagged with stats, hover over the “Reports” tab and select your name on the left side. Now you can access video of any stat simply by clicking on the number. Want to see all your 3-pointers? Need a playlist of your best saves? One click will aggregate all the clips of that stat into one playlist, allowing you to easily pick and choose which ones to include.

2. Create the Highlight

On your Hudl homepage, hover over “Highlights” and select “My Highlights.” Click the “Create a New Highlight Reel” button.

After naming the video, click the + icon in the lower-right corner. You can add video, music, title slides and pictures. When you add video, a list of the plays you previously selected will appear. Now simply order them in the manner you want.

Be sure to put your best plays first. Recruiters have a finite amount of time and can’t watch all the video they are sent. Grab their attention by showcasing your top plays right off the bat. If they like what they see, they’ll keep watching and check out your team’s full game video.

Create a title slide that lists your height, weight, key stats and academic information. Feel free to include music to add some flair and make your video more noticeable on social media. But be careful with your selection - using obscene or questionable lyrics can turn off a recruiter or coach.

Once you’ve finished, hit “Publish” in the top-right corner.

3. Share It Out

Now it’s time to show the world what you’ve done. Blast your highlight out on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms or email it to family members. Share the video on your athlete profile page and encourage friends, family and fans to check out what you’ve got.

If you want to play at the next level, this step is very important. Identify some schools and email a link of your video to those coaches. Take advantage of social media by sending them your highlight and some of your stats. You can also request that your coach send out a recruiting package to schools you’re interested in.

And that’s all she wrote. Making a highlight video is as simple as that. 15 minutes could be all that’s separating you from a killer video that shows just how talented you are. So what are you waiting for? Get started today.

Ready to learn the ins and outs of the recruiting process?

Check out our College Recruiting Guide for Athletes.