Alex Swenson, a former Division I coach and recruiter, warns athletes against two mistakes: targeting too few schools and letting other athletes' timelines pressure your process. Cast a wide net of 30+ schools across all divisions, and know most commitments happen junior year or later.
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Hey, team Alex here. Thanks for joining me. And in today's video, we're going to be talking about two things that could be hurting your recruiting that I want to make sure that you avoid. As you might know, on this channel, I talk about the recruiting process, how to optimize a recruiting process, how to get notice exposure, talk to these college coaches, find the best college fit for you or your son. And I just want to make sure I don't talk a lot about what could be hurting. So I wanted to cover that today. If you're new to my channel, my name is Alex Sway. I'm a former Division 1 college coach, Scout and recruiter. And now I'm here to help you or your son play at the next level. So if you get anything from this video, please smash that like button and subscribe. And also please comment down below. Anything you would like me to cover here? I put out a weekly video on the recruiting process and again, just how to get better on and off the field, but would love some feedback from you guys on anything that you would like to hear about, learn about from the recruiting side and maybe even also stuff that you don't like and you want me to stay away from or. I'm trying to keep this video shorter. I don't want to go too long. I want to keep it a little bit shorter. So we're going to dive into that. But anyway, any feedback that you have, I would love to hear that. All right, let's get into it. Number one is having too narrow of a school list. Schools that you are targeting, you may only have three, four or five, or you're just starting this. You, you want to have a lot more than that. Cast the wide net and then bring it on in. Why is that the case? Another and also things that I've seen is guys just focusing on maybe just power five schools. Nothing wrong with that. Especially if you have some athletic ability because that's the top of the top. And again, not that you shouldn't go for top of the top, but you also got to see where you fit athletically, academically, geographically, socially. There's all these factors involved. Right. But you want to make sure you're diversifying your school list. Okay. Not all Power 5 schools. Mid major schools, lower Division 1 schools, D2s and D3s, NAIA, JUCO maybe, if that fits you. I'm going to do a video on JUCO next week, by the way, so keep an eye on that. But don't have too narrow of a school list. Make sure you're diversifying from all divisions, okay. And have 30 plus schools, because these schools, schools one might not be recruiting your position. All these schools have different needs each year. They might not need a catcher. They might not need a middle infielder. They might not need a center fielder. Okay? So you got to make sure you're targeting the right schools, and you need to diversify and cast a wide net, okay? So make sure that you expand your list of schools, and in that, you're not just focused on maybe the power five schools. Okay? Number two is focusing on other athletes. Recruiting process, timeline. That was a mouthful right there. But my point of saying this is you need to focus on. On your timeline, because everybody is different on their recruiting process timeline. I've had guys in my program that I've helped as early as freshman year. That's super rare, by the way. They committed freshman year. And I've also had guys in my program that have committed after graduation. Yes, the summer after they graduated. And it was to a Division 1 program, by the way. So the spectrum is wide here. And yes, there needs to be a sense of urgency. I like for there to be a sense of urgency, but you need to have that with yourself and not be with all the noise on Twitter and summer league programs and high school coaches, parents saying this and that. Focus on you and what you need to be doing through this recruiting process to put yourself in the best possible position to carve your own path through this recruiting process. Okay? A little timeline, all right. And some statistics for you. Freshman year, okay? Most of us, literally over 95% of us, which means about 5% of the total commits happen freshman year, and it's probably close to 3, 2%. Okay. Of commits happen freshman year, then sophomore year. It's probably around. It's right around 20% or so. So you have 75% happen junior year or later. Senior year is getting late. There's no doubt about that. Okay? Senior, Senior. Especially after, like, Christmas break or into the spring of your senior year. So you got that semester left until you graduate high school. That's no doubt getting late. Okay? That's getting late. We want to have a decision by then. But things have happened, and things have definitely happened. In that case that I told you about, Things happen after graduation, okay? But the sweet spot is sophomore year, especially starting the process and you being proactive sophomore year and junior year. That is that sweet spot there in the summer after your junior year, okay? That is. So I want you to stay away from the noise. Focus on what you need to do and your recruiting timeline, not other people's recruiting timeline. And I want to close on this. This will make you an unstoppable athlete, an unstoppable person, unstoppable. Whatever you decide to do, if you have these two qualities. Number one, you have a burning desire to get better at what you're doing or what you're pursuing. And number two, you're not afraid to fail in front of others. Now think about that, right? You have that burning desire to get better. Most people will find that throughout their life, whether it's in sports. In this instance, they have a burning desire to get better. But where they stop and where they stop getting better is they're afraid to fail. And they're afraid to fail, especially in front of others, whether it's at practice, a game, or whatever it is. And then they're not getting better. Right? You're if you're pausing yourself because you're not trying new things, and right when we're trying new things or hard things, you're going to fail a lot. But if you're avoiding that failure, you're not going to get better. So find that burning desire to get better. And number two, don't be afraid to fail in front of others. Guys, thanks for joining me today. And if you got anything from this video, please smash that, like button and subscribe and I will see you in the next video. Take care of.
