Top questions to be ready for from college coaches

Hey, you know that feeling that kind of stirs up when you're not prepared or you're not confident in what you're about to do? Yeah, we want to avoid that as much as we can because that is not a good feeling. I've been there before. And we want to prevent that as much as we can. What makes a person confident in what they're doing? Right? And when you watch somebody that is confident for the most case, they are prepared, right? They have prepared for that moment or whatever they're about to, to do. So we're going to talk a little bit about that today from a recruiting standpoint, from talking to a college coach. So you were prepared when that time comes and maybe even from a recruiting process standpoint, making sure that you are prepared for this. And so you're not at the deadline, if you will, because there is a deadline to this recruiting process. When we're in high school, we're only. There's only so much time we're in high school, right. So we want to be prepared. I have a saying, proper preparation prevents poor performance. The five Ps, right? Proper preparation prevents poor performance. So let's be prepared. Guys, you're new to this channel. My name is Alex Swenson. I'm a former Division 1 college coach, Scout and recruiter. Now I'm here to help you or your son play at the next level and be prepared to play at the next level and go through this recruiting process. So if you get anything from this video, please smash that like button, it's right down here. And subscribe to my channel. I put out a weekly video. Alright, let's get into it. Hey, before we get into the questions that you can expect from a college coach or a college program is when a school starts expressing interest in you, whenever that time comes, make sure that you go through the process with them. Okay, let me explain. So maybe there's a school that reaches out to you that you've never heard of or it wasn't even on your radar, or maybe even you're not interested in. Okay, what is the harm of going through the recruiting process with them, of talking to the college coach? Maybe going to visit the campus, especially if it's locally or not too far away, and you walk the campus and you're walking with the coach or sitting in the office with the head coach, they're explaining about the program, you're meeting the players, you're going through this whole recruiting process and who knows, maybe you really enjoy or fall in love with that program. Who knows? Maybe that's going to be the only offer that you do have. All right? And hey, you can always say no, right? Don't close a door that doesn't need to be closed at an early time. And you can use it as leverage with other coaches and other schools. One of the questions that the college coaches are going to ask you is, hey, are you talking to anybody else? Do you have any interest in these other schools? That's basically one of the questions that I'm going to cover here in a minute. And it's, you can use that as leverage. So saying yes, I am talking to a college coach. I have gone on a visit. I do have an offer that gives you leverage because that gives you more validation in that coach's eyes. All right? Because these college coaches that are going to talk to you does have interest in you, right? They're expressing interest in you and any other things that can validate them that, hey, you're a good fit for the program that can help you use that. Right? And it doesn't mean that you have to string other schools along. But I'm also saying is you could find a real gym. There's over, there's over 1500 college programs in the country that do many, many of them, a lot of them, I won't say all, but a lot of them do an outstanding job with their program. Most of these college coaches are excellent guys and not only teaching the game, but raising young men and preparing them for life after baseball. Because by the way, there's a lot more life after baseball than just baseball. Alright? So we got to prepare for that and having a good mentor. From a college coach's perspective, the whole point of saying this is, hey, don't be in a mindset of like, hey, SEC or bus, ACC or bus, PAC 10, PAC 12, Big 10, Big 12, whatever, all the, all the Power 5 schools, right? Or bus or D1 or bus. Hey, go through the recruiting process with all of the schools that express interest in you because it's going to help you, prepare you for other schools and give you leverage. So I just wanted to make sure that I came across. Let's get into the questions. One of the first questions a college coach is going to ask you is, hey, how is the spring, the summer, the fall, the winner going for you? All right? Depending on the time of the year, because recruiting is 365 days out of the year. Recruiting does not stop for these college coaches. They're always trying out their fine players. So it could be in the winter. Time, it could be in the fall time. And hey, just let them know how things are going and talk, talk about your team. All right? Talk about your team. That is a really good characteristic. When a college coach asks about you, you talk about the team first because you care about the team and you want the team to win. And then, yes, you can get into your highlights. And hey, go into your highlights, all right? You don't have to talk about everything, but just highlight your best stuff. Give them a quick little overview of how, hey, the spring went really good. You know, our team won. We came really close to winning districts or we made it to regionals, we made it to states and a lot of the guys stepped up and performed and, you know, hey, coach, I was happy. I'm happy to say that I had a good year, you know, in the field, pitching, at the plate, you know, fortunate enough to where, you know, I hit seven home runs or three home runs or, you know, 15 doubles, RBIs or threw out. I threw out 15 guys. And the pitching, hey, I had a 1.5 ERA. My strikeout to walk ratio was four to one. I'm just, I feel very fortunate and, you know, look forward to continuing to improve. That's, that's, that's what you can kind of say, that kind of tonality. Hey, you, because you are going to need to express how you are doing and brag a little bit about yourself. Now, you notice how I said that is I'm not braggadocious, I am thankful and I feel blessed that I am performing at that level. And maybe, hey, maybe it's not that you didn't have the best last year round, but you can find highlights of how you're doing and you can talk about your grades, which is your next one. So college coaches, the next question typically is, and these aren't in exact order because it is. College coaches will kind of go, but that's usually the first one. All right, the next one is, how are you doing in school? This is pretty upfront, pretty straightforward. Let them know how you're doing, GPA wise, and let them know if you've taken your test scores or you're planning to take your test scores. Especially if you're talking to a higher level Ivy League, high academic school that you're planning to take your test scores. And then you guys can have a conversation of like, all right, hey, what, what is that school looking for as far as GPA standpoint or transcripts standpoint? You can get more information from that. The next question, a college coach can ask is, what are you looking for in a school or a baseball program so you can dive into? Hey, maybe if you're a pitcher you're diving into, hey, really looking forward to where I can come and to help the team right away on the mound and that I can compete. I'm looking for a program where a freshman can come and compete for starting role. And I'm looking for a good academic program or school that has academic support so you can go into. Of course, this is all personalized to you, what you're looking for. And just be upfront and honest and prepare for this. All right? Prepare and think about what you're looking for from a college program and a school. Also, a college coach could ask you, hey, what are you working on to improve? And you should have this out. And again, just think to help you prepare not only for this conversation with a college coach, but for you, right? What are you working on to prepare? You should be thinking about this. How are you trying to improve in the certain areas? Because, by the way, you have areas where you need to improve, right? There's always areas to improve. And the foundation of recruiting. The foundation of the recruiting is development and skill development, right? We have to be improving to get to the next level, and then the next level and the next level. Okay, and levels within levels like high school, right? You have to prepare for high school, and then once you get on the high school team, you have to prepare to get better and better at your position, especially as you get older. There's always levels within the high school level, the college level, the professional level. We're always trying to prove and where the foundation of that is development on the field and skill development. The next question a coach typically asks is, hey, what are your hobbies off the field, field. What do you like to do? This is the easy question. And just be up front. Maybe it's fishing, maybe it's hanging with your guys, Maybe it's playing catch with your dad. Maybe it's like, hey, really like to. You can kind of brag a little bit. Just, hey, I like to get extra training. And, you know, we practice a lot as a team, but I like to. I have a routine at night where I hit or work on my footwork or, hey, really like to be in the weight room, coach. I'm really focused on driving, working out with my legs, building my leg strength, protecting my shoulder, arm care. Also working on visualization. I've been hearing more about visualization, picturing that there's. There's different things that you can go into if you don't have all the biggest hobbies, if you will, maybe collecting cards, anything. Have fun with this. And one of the last questions, and again, these are no particular order really, other than the first one is, hey, our school, are you talking to anybody else? This could be up front. This could be at the beginning, after, maybe after a coach asks you how things are going. But they're going to ask this question, typically not guaranteed, but typically they'll ask like, hey, are you talking to anybody else? Are you interested in any other programs? Because they're trying to get a feel where you're at. Okay. And if you're not talking to anybody else, that's okay. It doesn't mean that they're not going to be recruiting you. You just be honest with them. Right? So if you're not talking anybody, they're not talking about it. And if you are, all right, this is where you can, you can say, you could be generic with it, but I would just be honest with them. Yeah, I'm talking to this school and this school and this school. Because you could say, yeah, I'm talking to a few other schools and just leave it there. Or you could let them know and you. I'll let you make that judgment. So those are about six questions that you can expect from a college coach that are pretty much given when you talk to a coach. And usually when you talk to coach, you'll talk to them again, third time, fourth time, possibly, and then even on campus or maybe even at the baseball field. Right. But a lot of this might be over the phone or again at the baseball field or on campus. Let's talk about what questions you can consider asking. Let's get into that. The top question you should consider asking when talking to a college coach, Coach, is what is the day in the life like as a student athlete in your program in the fall, in the winter and in the spring. And the reason I go and I say it like that is because the fall is when you get there, especially freshman year, the falls, when you start there academically but also athletically, then you go to the winter, of course, and then you go to the spring, and then we can talk about summer. I actually have a question here coming up. But then just let them talk and let them explain the day in the life as a student athlete and see what they say. The second important question you can consider asking is, what do you look for in a catcher or a pitcher or whatever position you play? Let them talk. Right? And this can give you some Good information and data about what they're looking for. And hey, give you a valuable information, hey, I'm feeling good about this area or I need to improve this area, right? And you, you need to focus on that area, right? Where can you improve? Remember, developing your skills, developing your position, your skills at your position. But that is a very important question to ask the college coach of what they're looking for at your position. The third question you can consider asking is do you guys have academic support? That's super helpful. It was super helpful for me. It's been super helpful for a lot of student athletes because you're doing a lot as a student athlete. It's more than a full time job. You have 6am workouts, you have classes, you have practice. Then typically study hall, but some programs have it and then some don't and find out what they do. Do they have tutors available, do they have study hall, etc. The fourth question that you can consider asking is, hey, what is your strength and conditioning programming like? Especially if you're a position player, if you're a pitcher, you can consider asking this, what is your arm care development or your long toss program or whatever? What do you guys do to improve velocity and or arm care? That's an important question to ask a college coach and see again, just sit back and listen and see what they have to say. The fifth question is do you all help with placement in summer ball? So summer ball is very, very big in college. It gives an opportunity for guys to go play in a competitive summer league. You guys have probably heard of the Cape Cod League. There's an Alaskan league, there's a team out in the Midwest, there's in Florida, I mean there's, there's all over, there's in New York, there's some are, some are leagues all over the place that are very competitive and just helps helps guys improve and develop and skills. Especially if they're a freshman, they maybe didn't play a lot or they're getting close to the draft and again they're working on their development or pitchers that didn't throw that much, they're going out and getting extra innings and pitchers is kind of hit or miss. If you threw a lot of innings, a lot of coaches are getting to a point where they're not sending guys out and letting them rest and really working on PT, physical therapy, strengthening, doing arm care, etc. Okay guys, I know this was a longer video than usual. If you stayed this long, man, congratulations. That's awesome. Give this video a like and subscribe to my channel if you haven't already. Please put any questions down below in the comments. If you guys have anything at all. Again, I really appreciate you staying this long and feel free to share this with anybody going forward. All right? Hey, hope you have a good day and I'll see you in the next video.