I Wish I Knew This About The Recruiting Process in High School

Hey team Alex here. Thanks for joining me. And in today's video, I'm going to cover six key points that I wish I knew going through this recruiting process when I was in high school. So whether you're a student athlete in high school or you're a parent of a student athlete in high school, hopefully this helps you kick start the recruiting process the right way. And if you get anything from this video, please smash that like button which is right down here and subscribe to my channel. I put out a weekly video on the recruiting process and how to get better on and off the field. And if you're new to this channel, my name is Alex Swenson. I'm a former Division 1 college baseball coach and scout. Now I'm here to help you or your son reach the next level. Alright, let's get into today's video. One of the first things that I wish I knew going through this recruiting process is understanding that all showcases and camps are created equal. There are some good ones out there, no doubt, and, and there's some bad ones out there. From a recruiting standpoint that's gonna help us with recruiting. We wanna make sure we're going to a camp or showcase that's gonna help us with recruiting if that's what we're going for. Now if you're going to a camp for developmental purposes, by all means, go to a good camp with good coaches. It's gonna really develop you. But for today's topic, we're talking about the recruiting process. We wanna go to a showcase or a camp that's gonna help us with recruiting. Now one thing that I see with showcases or a camp is that you want to avoid is the ones that are like half days, meaning you're just showing up. And for example, if you're a middle infielder, you take a, you take five ground balls, you throw five balls across the diamond, you take 10 swings at the showcase style workout and then you run a 60 and that's pretty much it. That does not pinch a good pitch picture of who you are as a ball player. You get a metrics aspect of it and if you've watched my channel at all. Metrics are important to a certain extent, but it's just one piece of the puzzle out of the five that these college coaches are looking for. They don't see you if you're just doing a showcase, they don't see you in game at how you play the game at your position, how you are against live arms, right? So if you're going to a camp or showcase, make sure you're going to one where they have games, games and that it's at least a day. And even that is kind of questionable. You want to at least go to a showcase or camp that's two days because it gives you a glimpse of, yeah, you'll sure you're going to do probably a showcase style workout, which is fine. You're going to do that. Okay. But you want to play games and you want to play multiple games if you can. So look for that. And then also if you're going to a showcase or a camp, or at least considering a showcase, their camp, make make sure college coaches are going to be there and make sure they're the assistants that are actually recruiting at their position. So there's usually four coaches, but only three of them can really be active in the recruiting side. Meaning make sure either recruiting coordinator is there or the head coach is there or the other assistant is there as well. Because those guys do the main aspect of recruiting, going through this process. So college coaches are there. If you go to a showcase or camp, you don't know who's going to be there. Avoid that from a recruiting standpoint. Make sure that college coaches are going to be there that are actually recruiting, going through this process. All right? So that's number one. Number two is college coaches will not just find you. I had this mindset when I was in high school and beginning this recruiting process. Luckily I changed my mindset on this. But college coaches aren't just going to show up randomly to a game and say, hey, yeah, I like that player. I'm going to pick them out, I'm going to offer them and then I am committed. Guys, that does happen, but it is so rare and it's such a small percentage. I'm going to go into that here in a minute. But these college coaches don't just show up randomly at games. It's very structured of who they're going to see, their schedule with, who they're going to to see. Okay? And there's only, remember I just mentioned this, there's only three coaches and that's max. Okay? Some schools don't have just three coaches, some will just have one. Okay? As far as what they're doing, a recruiting coordinator will go out and there's hundreds of thousands of you, all meaning high school baseball athletes, okay? There's so few of them and there's so many of you, okay? So don't go in the mindset of like, hey, they're just going to find me which brings me to number three is you need to be super proactive in this process to help yourself, all right? To give yourself the best chance, go in the right direction with this recruiting process and don't just hope that this is going to happen or think that you're just going to be found because as I mentioned, it does happen, but it happens for like the 2%. Okay? Those are the elite athletes that are just God gifted, that are just super mature at an early age, freshman year, going into sophomore year and they're committed, okay? That is such a small percentage. But if you are an athlete like I was or you are and I was just, I was a pretty good athlete, I was above average good athlete, but I wasn't elite by any means, all right? I didn't really stand out, but I was good. I was a good ballplayer. He put me in a game, I was a good ball player. And I just needed to navigate and go through this recruiting process the right way to give myself the best chance and actually had somebody help me go through this process of kind of come full circle doing this. But you need to be proactive during this recruiting process, okay? That's probably if there's anything to take away is be proactive in this recruiting process. Number four is take ownership and responsibility of this process and your future guys. Don't just rely and just think that your parents or your coaches are just going to do it for you. One, that's just. You don't want to go about this process the right way or any process of just like letting somebody do it for you. Because what's going to happen when you get in college or you get into the real world in your job and you have that, and you've been doing that for so long, nobody's going to be doing it for you, okay? Nobody's going to do life for you. You're going to have to figure it out. The, the sooner that you can figure it out and you can be proactive in this process and the sooner you can take ownership and responsibility of this process, man, the better you're going to be. Now that said, it doesn't mean like you don't take help, right? Get help, get direction from your parents and coaches, but you need to be doing the work. The sooner you can be doing the work yourself again, taking ownership and responsibility, man, the better off you you're going to be. Whether it's this process or any process in life is you take ownership of what you're doing in your future. Number five is the Big school does not mean it is the right school for you. I get it. The big schools are super shiny. They got these amazing facilities, they got everything there on tv. But it doesn't mean it's the right school for you. What I'm trying to say is broaden your school search, okay? Get to know other schools, right? Rather than just the Vanderbilts and the University of Texas, the ucla, the University of Florida. Obviously they are great programs, but those are so competitive. They recruit so early, they pretty much recruit freshmen. Okay. In high school, okay. So if you're a junior, it's likely that you're not going to go to one of those big time schools, okay? And there's amazing schools out there from Division 1 to Division 2, Division 3, NAIA, JUCO. Any school at the next level, man, you're, you're part of the, the 10% that made it out of high school. I mean that is high class. That's higher, higher success rates as far as it than SEALs, Navy SEALs, okay? So any school that is going to fit you is a great school right now. The thing is, you need to do your due diligence on the school and the program. Hey, does it fit you athletically? Does it fit you academically? Does it fit geographically, does it fit socially, does it fit financially? All of those things. Make sure you're doing your homework and going after the schools that are best fit for you and have a wide range of schools. Don't be just start off with five schools. Hey, 30 plus schools go after and do your homework and not all of them are going to be good fits. That's okay. It's part of this program process. Some schools are going to say no to you. All right? It's just like baseball. You're going to fail. You're going to strike out on some of these schools. That's okay. We have to answer back and continue to go through this process. Okay, Number six. Okay, I should. Number six is development is the foundation of this recruiting process. Guys, we have to make sure that we are developing and that has to be the foundation of the recruiting process because we are not developing and we are not getting better. We're not improving our skill sets. Then we're just, we're setting ourselves up for failure to play at the next level because you have to have a certain skill set to play at the next level at your position. And the sooner you can get your foundation and continue to improve your skills and improve your skills higher and higher and higher, the better chances you're going to play at a higher level okay so I have guys I hope you guys got something from this is something that I wish I would have known early on in the recruiting process again just to help myself go through this and hopefully one of you all anybody watching take something away from this whether it's just the smallest thing to help you go through and jump start this and go in the right direction and find the best college fit because I really think the plan at the next level is a life changing opportunity actually did a video on this here recently is it's a life changing opportunity to play at the next level be a student athlete in college I really feel that way because of all the experiences the relationships the disciplines you learn the responsibility that you learn all the skill sets that you learn that you take on for the rest of your life it's a life changing so it was life changing for me and I want that for you Hopefully I'll see you in the next video Take care.