Alex Swenson, a former D1 coach with 11 years recruiting experience, says travel ball's value has collapsed because tournaments now host hundreds of teams. High school ball matters for team experience but works like spring training. The real move: make highlight videos, post on social media, attend showcases where coaches actually show up, and target schools that need your position.
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Travel ball versus high school ball, which one actually matters in recruiting? We're going to be covering that today. 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 athletes and their parents navigate this college recruiting process and get them placed into a school that's a good fit for them, not only athletically, but academically, geographically, and help them get exposure, help them get their name out there. Because college coaches can't recruit players that they don't know about. So if you get anything from this video, please smash that, like, button that thumbs up right down here. And if you're listening on the podcast, please leave a review. That helps a lot. Now let's get into travel ball. So travel ball used to be the golden ticket to get recruited, to get exposure. The problem is it has just gotten completely watered down these days. There's too many teams, there's too many organizations, there's too many tournaments. There was a tournament just the other day that I saw that had over 400 teams in it, and I talked to these college coaches on a weekly basis, and they just can't see that many players at tournaments like this. And they can't be everywhere. It's a very small percentage of players and athletes that they go see, and they already know who they're going to see prior to these tournaments. And you probably know this. You can kind of do a self evaluation. Do you see college coaches at your games on a regular basis? The answer is likely no. And that's not to your fault, really, at all. And. But there's got to be the question, well, how do I get exposure, right? How do I get seen by these college coaches? And then of course, you have high school, which is great. From, hey, one, just the pride of playing for your high school team and your team environment the four years that you will be there. College coaches do look at that like, hey, are you playing for your high school team? Are you contributing to your team? And there's some nostalgia with that as well. Playing for your high school team, I remember. And most parents that played in high school and went on to play at the next level, they remember their high school years. That's super important from that aspect of it. But from recruiting, it's not that big of a deal. Think of it as more of spring training for what's to come, maybe in the summer or whenever your recruiting season is going through that. So you Want to play high school baseball for sure. Get skill development and also travel ball. It's good for skill development, it's good for competition is typically better. It's just now not the best from a recruiting standpoint. Okay, so what is the best way to get recruited and to get noticed by these college coaches? And that is marketing yourself. This is very important. College coaches can't recruit players that they don't know about. So just going out to tournaments and kind of hoping to be found is not a good strategy. Hope is not a good strategy. Going through this recruiting process, that's where we need to be proactive and have a good strategic plan going through this, whether having a good highlight video, getting that out to college coaches, that can go a long way from a marketing standpoint. Social media, whether it's X and Instagram, that's a great way to go about this. Finding schools that are a good fit for you athletically, academically, again geographically, and then also going through this and making sure that that school is in need of your position in your class is also really important going through this. Because not every school's in need of every position each year. So targeting the right school. So coming back to travel ball versus high school ball, they have their benefits from like skill development to competition for travel ball and then also that team camaraderie. And college coaches will check if you're playing for your high school team. Because if you're not playing for your high school team, there's a little bit of a red flag of why aren't you playing for your high school team? You know, from that aspect of it. So you want to continue to play and do your best to. There's something beautiful with going after your district championship, then your state championship, right? That that's like a small little thing that you will get to experience at the college level, just more magnified there. So it's. Those two are not like the biggest thing from a recruiting. It's your proactiveness going to the right showcases and camps that the right college coaches are there. We want to make sure we're getting in front of the decision makers at these camps and showcases. And if you're going to go to a school camp, making sure that school's in need of your position and that it's a good fit for you overall and every aspect of it. Because the name of the game is getting your name out there and getting exposures. But if you have any questions, please visit my website down below. In the description, I help with high school athletes getting to the next level, and you can also comment down below and I'll see you in the next video. Take care.
