9 UNpopular Opinions About Recruiting

Hey, how you doing, Alex here. Thanks for joining me. And in today's video, we're going to be talking about my unpopular opinions about recruiting, the recruiting landscape, the recruiting world that I have been living in for now over a decade. And if you're new to my channel, my name is Alex Swenson. I'm a former Division 1 college coach, Scout and recruiter. And now what I do is help high school baseball athletes go through this college recruiting process and really help them find the best collection college fit. And the reason why I'm doing this video and talking about these unpopular opinions, if you will, is to give you a different perspective, maybe give you something that you haven't thought about. And again, you might disagree with it and that's completely fine, or you might agree with it after you kind of hear me out, talking a little bit about these points. I'm not going to try to go too long with these videos because I know I can't hold too much attention as we in this world in this day and age with so many distractions. So I want to hop right, right in it. The first one, these are in actually, no in particular order. And I try to hit all different avenues. And I've had, I actually have a lot more other opinions about things, but I'm just trying to dive in. There's about eight or nine thoughts here that I'm going to talk a little bit about. Number one, travel ball is very much overrated. Very overrated from that standpoint. About five, 10 years ago, it was a good, it was in a good spot. They really helped in the recruiting process. Now travel ball has just exploded and it has flooded the market and saturated the market. You almost probably feel like you have to play travel ball, but you don't have to play travel ball in particular recruiting. Now, why is it overrated? Because one, you're wasting a lot of time and you're wasting a lot of money. You go to a lot of tournaments, I bet that are out there, that really there's not really any college coaches out there. And the thing is, you're going to know, right? You're going to know about this because you're sitting in the stands or you're playing on the field and you know that there's college coaches out there for the most part. Usually they're with hats on. Some of them are flying the flag, meaning they have their logo. And some of them just look like scouts are writing stuff down. They have the hat, they have radar guns, all that stuff. All right, so you pretty much Know, now if you're playing travel ball for the purposes of recruiting, you want to get exposed and you want help through this college recruiting process. Some of them, some of these travel ball organizations say that they help recruiting, but, you know, some might and some don't. So, you know, if you're part of a good travel organization, and don't get me wrong, there are some good travel organizations out there, but they're starting to become fewer and fewer of them because they've just become so big and it's great to play games and all. I think that helps with development. But that's another thing. Being a former college scout and coach and talking with these guys is they talk about the developmental things in these travel organizations aren't there. These coaches aren't really coaching the travel ball coaches. They're just throwing guys out there and letting them play, which is healthy in certain aspects. But these guys got to learn the game. These college coaches want them to have at least the fundamentals come when they come into their program down. They want to have the fundamentals down. So I'm a big believer you can do a lot of your developmental things locally. You can train locally, you can get better, you can play games better locally, and you don't have to spend all the money that you spend on travel organizations. And I'm not just talking about the fee structure. I'm talking where it really adds up is the travel, right? The hotels, the gas, the flights. Some of us are going to certain regions across the country. So that's where travel ball is really, really overrated. And you don't have to play travel ball. Things are starting to, I think, play pop up locally. In certain areas where you can play locally, you don't have to go to all these tournaments. Not all tournaments are bad, but a lot of them are starting to get, again, saturated, where it's kind of worthless. And that's where it's number two. Showcases and tournaments are becoming useless from a recruiting standpoint. Remember, I'm talking about recruiting and some of these showcases, all you do is a pro style workout. A pro style workout, which is you run a 60, you hit 10 to 15 swings if you have that, and then you throw across the diamond. If you're infielder, you throw a bullpen, and that's it. It's only you're basically getting metrics. And some of this is good from getting some metrics. Okay. And getting some video. But if we're going for recruiting purposes and we're getting. And we're going for exposure we want to make sure that these college scouts are going to be there and if you don't know if college scouts are going to beat there and you're going for that and I wouldn't recommend going now. If we're just going to get some updated video, get some updated metrics, that's a different story. But if we're going for showcases or even camps you want to look for, you're going to do a pro style workout, everybody does it. But you want to play games. Being a pro style workout, it gives you a full picture, just gives you metrics, it doesn't give you your game performance, how do you perform in the game. And ultimately this is what the college coaches want to play in the game as far as watching you and how you are playing in the game. So make sure when you are looking at showcases, in especially showcases that you know the college coaches that are going to be there and they are decision makers, they are the recruiting coordinators or the head coaches or the other assistants. Most volunteer coaches aren't really heavily involved in recruiting, so look out for that. Some of these showcases will just use a school logo to get you there. And it's not a decision maker, that's the fact of the matter. Alright. But college camps, school specific camps are usually really, really good. Just make sure that the college camp because, and the reason why they're really good is because they usually have the college coaches there that are decision makers. The head coach, the recruiting coordinator, the other assistants. Some nuance to this is they can have three college Division one can have three coaches out recruiting. Alright? They can't have four. Where usually they have, they have a volunteer, two paid assistants and a head coach. Usually the head coach and the two paid assistants are the decision makers. So they're usually there at the camps. Just make sure when you go to a school camp that they're going to do pro style. Again, that's kind of what you do, pro style. And then you play a game, make sure that they have, that if they don't have a game, it's probably not worth going to. Okay, so that is the showcases and tournaments. Next one is it's a big mistake to commit too early. Now I want to really say that this is maybe an unpopular opinion, but guys that are committing in eighth grade in freshman year, I think it is a huge mistake of committing that early because all the things that could happen, not just for you and I'm not talking, I'm not even talking about injuries, okay? And you don't honestly need to necessarily worry about it. I just think it's way too early to make a decision. This is what my opinion might be unpopular, that you're making a decision, a huge life changing decision of where you're going to college. One of the top two or three decisions in your life, right? Maybe behind who you're going to marry. But early in your career it's like the top decision. You're making that decision four to five years out and it's most likely honestly way coaching is going out, that college coach is not even going to be there. And over recruitment, usually the schools that are are committing guys 8th grade and freshman year, they are over recruiting and there's a lot of like nuance to that and why actually that happens because I've been on that end. But over recruitment happens and it almost turns into a tryout in the fall. So you need to be really aware of that and wait to make your decision. I'm a big believer in that not committing too early. Go through the recruiting process and frankly if you're getting offers 8th grade and freshman year, sit and wait and get as many offers, see as many schools as you can and, and it's going to help you make a decision and wait. Sophomore, junior year, next one. These college scouts in schools aren't just going to find you, okay? If you're a player like me, that's not elite, elite level. I wasn't elite level in high school. They're not just going to find you. You have to be proactive in this process. There's a lot of mindset out there that hey, if I'm good enough, they will find me. That's not the case, okay? Guys get missed every year and you can see it every single year that could have played at a higher level or could have played in college, but they were missed because they just sat back and weren't proactive. Now, yes, our elite guys, there's of course exceptions to this, right? There's exceptions to all of my opinions here. But the exception to this one is the guys that are, hey, freshman year. That are throwing 90 miles an hour and just, God, get it. They're six two and they got good repeatable arm action and they're throwing, you know, getting 90 miles an hour. Yeah, it's easy for him. You're going to be found. There's no doubt. But there's a lot, a lot. The majority of the players that play at the next level aren't those guys. Most of the guys commit sophomore, junior year in that time frame. All right. But they're proactive in this process. Going through this next one is get help in this college recruiting process, whether it's your high school coach or your travel ball coach or somebody locally that knows what they're doing or, or a person like myself, get help. The argument that I hear a lot about this is like, hey, you don't need that service to help you through this. And I understand that argument, because the argument is that you can just do this all on your own. You can do this all on your own 100%. But you are going at this completely blind. All right. As far as targeting the right schools, getting a true evaluation of where you're going, what schools are recruiting you, your position, how to best navigate this process, how to best reach out to these college coaches, where to go, what showcases to go to so you're not wasting time, money and energy. There's so many things about this and how to utilize certain recruiting tools. It would be the argument I kind of go back at that is like, well, yeah, you could just, you could score 1600 on your SAT. You could do that on your own. You could teach yourself how to. No, there's tutors, there's, there's coaches. That's why you have coaches. Right? You could be a great hitter. You just learn it on your own, figure it out. No, you're going to have somebody help you either hit or pitch. Recruiting, it's like a recruiting coach. Right. And I'm not saying in general just like out there, I'm like somebody specifically helping you through this process. The best position yourself as you navigate this route, as you go. Because again, you could do this on your own. Absolutely. But it's going to take you a lot of time to gather all the information, what you're doing as far as evals, everything like that. Communicating with this, with the college coaches who do best communicate with. Are you communicating to the right schools based off of the positions need, based off of your evaluation and where you fit athletically, academically, all these certain things going through this process. So I recommend definitely getting help through this. And that's an unpopular opinion, honestly, in the recruiting world. Next one, sit back. All right. It's okay, but players and parents are not honest with their ability of going and they're selecting wrong schools. Okay. I've seen this time and time again that good baseball players could have opportunities at different levels, but all they're focused on are the Vanderbilts of the world of the Florida's, of the world of the Texas, of the, of the worlds of the UCLA's and their ability is not there, they're just ability but they could play at a different level. Okay, so I get the shininess of the Power 5 schools and all of that. But if your ability doesn't fit baseball wise, then you're going to be wasting a lot of time and energy and you're going to be wasting opportunities at other schools and other levels. The main objective, and a lot of people miss this, is think about why do you want to play at the next level? Why do you want to play college baseball at the next? Most people I think would say is I want to have a great college career and I want to play baseball as long as I possibly can. If that's what you want to do, then you should be open minded to all the levels, Division 1, Division 2, Division 3 in AI and juco because you're going to get great experiences at those levels. You're going to get life skills from a team environment and a group of guys and you're going to get a brotherhood and friendships and all of those factors. Leaderships and mentors, setting yourself up for sex, you get that at all of the levels. Okay, so think about that and be truthfully honest with your ability and where you fit. Doesn't mean you can't go after reach schools as we call them, because the school I went to was a reach school for me in high school and I made it and I had a great career there. So I'm not saying you can't go off, but you need to be also realistic. There's like a line, there's a fine line with that as we go through this process. Next one is most players are not willing to do the work. It's just the fact of the matter is being proactive in this process and doing the work. There is work to be done and there's ways to navigate anything good in life. Hey, it takes work and we have to make sure that we're able to work for this and go after this process rather than just sitting back and hoping it happens. Next one is on the college baseball program side is they need to be more transparent to the public about their needs in each class. Hey, what are their needs from a positional standpoint? What are they looking for? Okay, this is something that I'm actually trying to work on is to have more transparency. I kind of do this more manually, if you will, picking up the phone, all that stuff. But having them more transparent with the public about what their needs are are in each class and what they're looking for so guys aren't misled through this process. Last one is parents want it more than the actual kids themselves. Now of course this is not everybody but I have seen many, many times that the parents actually want it more than the kids and the kids might not want it as much and that's okay, but the parents want it more than the kids and push, push, push and honestly just burn out the kid and it doesn't make it enjoyable. The pursuit isn't as enjoyable when the parents want it more than the kid. The kid's got to want it more than the parent and the parent just help guiding through this process. So hopefully you got something from this video. If you did, please smash that like button that thumbs up. I went a little longer than I thought I was going to go but again hopefully that you got something and I will see you in the next video. Take care.