Alex Swenson, a former Division 1 coach, explains that modern travel ball is "watered down" and unreliable for getting recruited because tournaments often contain hundreds of teams and offer limited coach exposure. He urges high-school players and families to take agency: create a proactive recruiting plan, identify target schools (including realistic targets, reaches, and safeties across D1/D2/D3/JUCO/NAIA), perform targeted outreach with highlight videos and schedules, attend relevant camps/showcases where decision-makers will be, and continue core development (skills, weight training, academics, mental toughness). He offers paid help via his website and asks viewers to subscribe for more guidance.
Chapters
Travel ball organizations have changed drastically over the years as we've seen with recruiting. And travel ball has just become watered down. There's so many teams out there and not to say all of them are bad. There are some good ones out there. I just don't want you to rely on travel ball because it is not the same anymore as far as going through the recruiting process and getting exposure. You guys might have seen these tournaments out there with 300, 400 teams, with thousands and thousands and thousands of players, and you're just going to these random tournaments on random fields out in the middle of nowhere, maybe with no college coaches, and you're just hoping to be found. That is not a good strategy going through this. And I just want to take a couple of minutes to talk to you and explain the college recruiting process in this new landscape. And I want you to really just take agency of your recruiting process, not rely on your travel ball organization or again, these tournaments hoping to be found. And you be proactive in this. And there's nothing wrong with getting help for sure. That's honestly what I do. And if you're new to my channel, my name is Alex Swenson. I'm A former Division 1 college coach, scout and recruiter with 11 years of experience. And now what I do is help high school baseball players and their families navigate this college recruiting process and put them in the best possible position to play at the next level. If you're looking for more pro personal help going through this to really streamline this college recruiting process and put your son in the best possible position to play at the next level, you can visit my website right here down in the description. We can set up a call and see if this is a good fit moving forward. But the name of the game in the recruiting process is getting your name out there. So what is your plan, guys? A plan is key. You have a plan, you're one step ahead. Don't just wing this. So how are you getting your name out there? I can pretty much guarantee your travel ball organization is not doing that when they have hundreds of other players as well going through that. So you again, you need to take agency and control of this because college coaches can't recruit players that they don't know about. They need to know who you are, right? And for 99% of the players out there, high school baseball players, they don't know about you, right? So that's where, again, you have to be proactive in this recruiting process. And hey, outreach is massive. And know the schools that are Recruiting your position in need of your position in your class, that is key. Finding that good athletic fit where you be able to have the opportunity to play at the next level. And the beautiful thing is there's all different types of levels in college. D1 and there's tiers within D1 and there's D2, there's tiers within D2, same with D3. We have juco and we have NAIA as well. And being open minded to those schools is massively important. Nothing wrong with going after a big time schools if it's a good fit for you and whatever that reach school might be if it's realistic for you. But you also want to have target schools that are realistic for you and that's going to be a good fit. And some safety schools as well. And if you're a contributor to your high school team, there's going to be a place for you to play. So just being proactive and finding those schools that again are in need of your position, reaching out with them with a good highlight video. Having your schedule so they know where to come watch you play or we go directly to them depending on the camp and showcases. I know you get a lot of emails of coming to this and come to that and what's worth it and what's not. There's a lot of money makers out there, but there can be some good ones depending on the schools that we're going to be targeting. Going through this is massively important because we want to make sure we're getting in front of the decision makers, not like a volunteer coach or an intern coach. We need to get in front of the decision makers and also understand the foundation of the college recruiting process. Right. Is one skill development. Got to continue to work on your skills. They're not expecting you to be D1 right now, especially if you're a sophomore. You got to continue to have projectability as a part of this. But skill development is key in your positions. Then we have weight training. Massively important. Getting physical, of course. Academics, we got to have good grades. Don't let that be a separator for you. And then mental toughness, especially when we're kind of struggling or hit slumps or going through some adversity. We have to be mentally strong. Those guys at the college and professional levels have adversity as far as going through and they have to be mentally strong going through that. So having again coming back to the agency of being proactive and having a plan of action. Because if you don't have a plan, planning to fail going through this recruiting process. If you're looking for more personal help, I'll be happy to help you. Or just follow my YouTube channel. Go on ahead and subscribe and we will go from there. Good luck.
