Alex Swenson, a former Division 1 baseball coach, breaks down five recruiting mistakes: waiting to be found instead of reaching out yourself, starting too late (aim for sophomore year), trusting only travel teams for exposure, not contacting enough schools (shoot for 30+ across all levels), and giving up after rejection. Being proactive and casting a wide net matters more than waiting for coaches to notice you.
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Hey, how you doing Alex here. Thanks for joining me. In today's episode, we are talking about the five common mistakes that players and or parents make going through this college recruiting process and gets them overlooked or just not recruited going through this, which is what we want to avoid. So avoid these five common mistakes. And if you're new to my YouTube channel or my podcast, my name is Alex Swenson. I'm a former Division 1 college baseball coach, sky scout and recruiter. And now what I do is help high school baseball players in their parents navigate this college recruiting process and put them in the best possible position the play at the next level. And if you are looking for help, feel free to reach out to me. Actually have a couple spots in my program open right now. Only work with a select number of guys. I'm going to go on and leave my website down below in the description. You can also find it on the podcast in the description as well. So that said, let's go on and dive in to the five common mistakes of the recruiting process. Number one is sitting back and hoping to be found, being passive in this college recruiting process, not having a plan. Don't wait for college coaches to find you. Take control of your recruiting process. Be proactive in your college recruiting process. And you go find these coaches, you go recruit these coaches. That is the best way to go about this college recruiting process. Especially if you're not the elite of the elite and most of us are not the elite of the elite. I wasn't the elite of the elite. I was. I went on and played Division 1 baseball, had a great career. I loved every second of it. But I was by no means elite in high school. I was just a good athlete. So you need to find a way to stand out. And you sitting back hoping and depending on your travel team or whatever it may be that you're just going to be seeing that is the biggest and number one way to get missed. So don't just sit back and be passive in this college recruiting process. Number two is starting this college recruiting process too late. When do college coaches really, for the majority of them, start this college recruiting process? It's sophomore year. So do you think you should start sophomore year? Absolutely. Get on the radars of these college coaches. If you're a junior watching this and you're like, oh man, I'm late to the game. You, you're a little bit late to the game. But guys just get the ball rolling. Now obviously do not start your senior year by the time you're a senior. Things are wrapped up for the most part for the majority of these college coaches. So sophomore year is definitely when I said suggest getting the ball rolling. And freshman year, you've probably seen commitments. Some of these schools, some of the power fives, the bigger schools start freshman year and yes, and if you're that kind of caliber of a player and you're some of those outliers, it's like less than 1% those, then yes, you're going to start then. But for the majority of us, if you're an athlete like myself, I wasn't elite by any means. I was just a good athlete. I went on and played Division 1 baseball, had a great career, but again, I wasn't elite, whether it was in high school or in college. I was just a good athlete and I started my sophomore year because again, college coaches start sophomore year and that's when you want to get on their radars. Number three is depending on your travel team. Just because you're playing on a travel team doesn't mean you're going to get recruited. That's it doesn't mean you're going to get great exposure. And you guys are going to know this, right? If you played on a travel team before, just because you go to this tournament doesn't mean you're getting really good exposure. You know, if college scouts are there, they have a hat on, they have a backpack on or a bag, they have a radar gun, they're taking notes, they're very recognizable, right? Unless you're getting that on a common basis, seeing a bunch of scouts at a bunch of games all the time, then great. All right. Hey, you're on a good travel team and you're maximizing exposure. But if you're not, you have to ask yourself, is this worth it? Especially if I am playing travel ball to maximize my recruiting experience and exposure. And if that's the case, most of these travel teams are not worth it. Again, spending all this money on tournaments, on the fees of it and the travel of it, the food of it, the gas, all of that stuff, you got to ask yourself this, is this best helping me? I would argue no, it's not for most of us. Again, are there a small few of travel team organizations out there that are good? Absolutely. Number four is targeting the wrong schools or not targeting enough schools. And I want you to reach for your dreams. But if you're only looking at the Vanderbilts of the world, the Florida's of the world, the UCLA's of the world, that is not a good strategy. That is how you get missed. You want to go from Division 1, Division 2, Division 3, NAI and JUCO, if that makes sense for you. And I'm not here to not tell you to reach for your dreams. I want you to reach for your dreams. But I also am here to help you reach your dreams. And if those Vanderbilts of the world is just not a good fit for you athletically and some academically as well, we're not going to be reaching our dreams, guys. It's just the reality of it. There's plenty. It's like less than 1%, less than a half of a percentage Vanderbilt guys and some would even argue it's probably 0.01% are Vanderbilt guys. And that's just because you don't play at Vanderbilt doesn't make you any less of a player or person. You want to have a wide range of schools so you don't miss opportunities. You need to ask yourself, why do I want to play college baseball? Do I want to play college baseball? Because I love it. I love the game of baseball and everything that's going to come with college baseball. From your friends, friendship to the mentors, to the life skills that you develop, the network and just setting yourself up for success after baseball. That is the, that is the dream right there. And you get that at all of these levels. So make sure that you're starting with a vast number of schools, 30 plus schools, and target all ranges of reach schools, target schools and safe schools. Because again, I want you to reach for your dreams, but I also want you to be realistic as you navigate this process. And number five is getting a no from a school and quitting. Guys, we have to have resiliency going through this college recruiting process. We're going to get silenced. We're going to get, hey, it's not a good fit. We're going to get up straight up no's. We're going to be like, hey, we don't have any spots or scholarships or we're not recruiting your position. You have to keep moving forward if you want to be successful in this game of recruiting. Frankly, the game of life, you're going to get no's in your face. I got a lot of no's going through this college recruiting process, but it only took one for me and it changed my life. It changed my life. So you just have to keep moving forward and persevere through this until you find that one school. Guys, I hope you got something from this video. Please avoid these five mistakes going through this college recruiting process. And I will see you in the next video. Take care.
