College recruiting is STOPPING...what to do about it.

Hey, how you doing, Alex here? Thanks for joining me. And in today's video, we're going to be talking about the fall recruiting calendars and the changes that are coming up. We got a lot going on over these next three, four, five months and really talk about how to navigate this. We're going into the quiet period, then back to the contact period, then back to the quiet period, and again, just how to best go through this to optimize your recruiting process. And also, I'm sure you're getting bombarded with, with camp invites in your emails and showcase emails. Come to this, come to that. And honestly, there's good ones out there and there's unfortunately a lot of bad ones out there. We're going to talk a little bit about that and what to be doing, in my opinion, how to best navigate the fall from a recruiting perspective and a skill development perspective to help us be recruited as we go through this process. And if you're new to my channel, my name is Alex Swenson. I'm a former Division 1 college scout, coach and recruiter. And now what I do is I help high school athletes and their families navigate this process so you don't have to do it blind and find the best college fit. So if you get anything from this video, please smash that, like, button that thumbs up right down here and subscribe to my channel. I put out a weekly video on recruiting and development, all of that good stuff to help you go through this process. All right, let's dive in now before I pull up the fall NCAA recruiting calendar, which is important, which is going to tie into everything that I'm about to talk about now, which is the three things that I think should be your top priority going into the fall, and it is not fall travel ball. I think fall travel ball is really overrated. You'll kind of see why I'm saying that off the recruiting calendar. Actually think summer travel ball is actually overrated for different reasons. If you follow my channel, you may know why that is the case. But let's dive into the top three things you need to be focused on this fall. Number one is skill development. Honestly, this needs to be the focus all the time, is your skill development. This is the foundation of the recruiting process. We have to have skills to play at the next level, right? So training the skills at your position, if you're a middle infield or working on your hands, working, working on your feet, working on your swing, working on your speed, working on certain metrics, of course, pitchers, catchers, working on your transfer Working on your throws, working on your blocks and receiving. Working on, if you're a catcher, really working on guys that are throwing hard. Pitchers doing ghost pins. Ghost pins are bullpens without you throwing. There's all these different things that you need to be focused on that's going to help your skill development. That's going to translate into the game. As we go through number two, which I would actually pair it to number one, it might be one A skill development and one B is strength training. Getting in the weight room four to five times a week and following a good system that's really going to strengthen your glutes and your quads and your hamstrings and your core to your chest to your shoulders to your back, everything. Forearms, wrist, all those things. Guys. Strength training can solve a lot of problems on the baseball field. When I say problems, I'm basically saying, hey, improving your metrics. Do you have a problem like, I want you to get to a certain metric? Strength training can solve a lot of it. These college coaches want physical guys. They want big guys. As you guys, if you're new to my channel, I'm shorter. I'm five, seven, man, I'm a short guy. But I knew I had to really work out because I didn't have that tall physicality. I knew I had to be really strong in the weight room to make up for being short. Okay, being short, hey, and if you're. If you're taller than 5 7, which probably most of you are, hey, that gives you just even more of an advantage. Imagine if you're 5, 11, 6 foot or whatever and really focus in the weight room. Have you seen any of these college guys? These guys are super, super physical. Like, super physical. And you should see their weight training that they do at the college level in season. They still work out in season. Big leaguers do this all the time. So big focus there, almost hyper focus where playing kind of takes a step back and you're working on that skill development and weight training to bulk up. Now you can play locally. I'm totally for if you want to play locally, but you don't need to be traveling around the country or around the region. And fall travel when there's only a few weeks of the kind of contact period. And a lot of coaches aren't out and about at certain tournaments. There are definitely some, but we can go to specific camps and showcases, which is my next thing. Number three is your showcases and camps should be the big focus, not necessarily fall travel ball. There's, of course, exceptions to this, that fall travel, maybe you're getting really good exposure, but you're gonna know this, right? Have had. If this is not your first time playing with a fall travel organization, have you gotten exposure in the previous years? Did you get a lot of exposure in summer? All right. It's probably going to be the same. If you didn't get a lot of exposure in the summertime at these tournaments, which tournaments, in my opinion, can be really overrated. Now, I know that college coaches can be there, but they're so spread out these days. These tournaments where you're on random field here, random high school field over here, and there's no scouts there, again, it's just too spread out, can be really, really tough. But camps and showcases, especially showcases that might be in that contact period, you can maximize exposure. And then going to camps when we are in the quiet period can really help with our exposure as well. So those are the three things that I really think you should be focused on. And again, this is my opinion, but if you are on a really good fall travel team that's getting a lot of exposure, hey, not bad. It's not a bad option. But I just know that most aren't. That's just the truth of it is most. Most are not getting that great exposure. And I'm not against playing. I think playing is very, very important. But in the fall, I think the skill development training, either with a coach or on your own and being in the weight room can help a lot rather than just playing, because you just played a lot in this. You just played a whole bunch. And then focus on the exposure with camps and showcases. Okay, now, with that said, let me pull up the NCAA recruiting calendar. Pull it up right here. And what you will see is the next six months. I am releasing this video on August 11th. So we are right here on August 11th. And then we have just a few more days of the contact period. Then we're going into the quiet period. You might be asking, what is the quiet period? Well, the quiet period is a period of time where college coaches cannot go recruit off their campus. Basically, these tournaments that are out or showcases that are out, that's not on their campus, they cannot be there. They cannot have any in person or evaluate any players off their campus during the quiet period. Now, as we get into September, September 9th, we have few weeks here that. Four weeks if you. If we have. Yeah, four weeks that we have where we're in the contact period, where the college coaches can go back out and recruit at certain showcases and. Or Tournaments. Now, the thing is, how many coaches are actually going out? There's definitely going to be some, but some are not. Because they're starting their fall ball with their team, they're not going to be out as much as they definitely were in the summertime. Again, there's some that are, but it's not going to be nearly as much in the summer. So that said, the showcases and camps, they have certain tournaments during this time. Hey, yes, attend. Because we know that college coaches are. You should know that college coaches are going to be there. Hey guys, if you're going to a camp or a showcase specifically and you're going for recruiting and you don't know if college coaches are going to be there, don't go. Don't go. You should have a list of the schools and preferably the coaches that are going to be there. Because we want to guarantee exposure. That is the big thing, right? Sometimes these tournaments we don't. We can't be guaranteed exposure. That's why I really like camps and showcases, especially at this time, because we know coaches are going to be at a certain spot and they're going to be in the stands or on the field watching and sometimes even coaching, depending on the showcase. But then we get into October, so let's fast forward. And then October 10th, basically going to an event, a tournament or a showcase and you're going for recruiting purposes after the October 10, no college coaches are going to be there. Some of these organizations and events will say, hey, come to this camp, come to this showcase. Great for exposure. But there's no division ones or division two schools that are going to be there because it's the rules of NCAA with the quiet period that they cannot go off their campus. Now this is where you see a lot of on campus or personalized or the individual school camps pop up because that's all they can do, right? They can only recruit on their campus. So I recommend. Hey, of course you can't go to all the camps out there. Whether it's just travel, financially, all these things. Pick your top three schools that you feel are a good fit and you're really interested in and good fit wise too, that can be realistic that you can play at, can be realistic that you can get in academically, that you socially, geographically, all those factors and go there and play in front of them, interact with the coaches, is a really good option. That is the reason why I think showcases and can during the fall is a great option rather than travel baseball. Okay, now again, if you want to play locally I'm all for that. That's great because it's not. You're just driving to a local field. You're not spending a lot of money going in a hotel or flying or driving all that where locally. You can just play locally, but maybe save your money to go to a camp or a showcase where we know we're going to get good exposure. If you have any questions, guys, please let me know. But I really think that should be the game plan for the fall as we go and move forward. All right, Again, if you have any questions, please comment down below and I will see you in the next video.