What YOU think matters but does NOT in recruiting

Hey, how you doing? Alex here. Thanks for joining me. And in today's video, we're gonna go over two fun topics to dive into that hopefully helps you focus on the right things to play at the next level, to play in college. And the first topic we're gonna be diving into is what high school players think gets them committed, gets them to play at the next level, what they think maybe college coaches want, but is actually not technically wrong. But it's not the full picture, but the things that they usually focus on. It's almost some of these high school athletes and sometimes even parents. And hey, I was guilty of this when I was in high school, but it's sometimes I almost thought this, that it's the end all, be all that I have to be at this certain point. I have to do these certain things. But of course, there's a lot more to the picture, as I found out when I committed and played that the next level. And then I became a college coach, recruiter, and scout. So we're going to dive in and talk about that, and of course, we're going to talk about what college coaches actually want. So we're going to dive in and let's hop right into this. But before I do, if you're new to my channel, my name is Alex Swenson. I'm a former Division 1 college baseball coach, scout, and recruiter of 11 years of experience coaching in that world. And now what I do is I help talented high school baseball athletes go through my program to help them play at the next level, to help them play in college. We've had a lot of success, and I'm also here to help you just give as much information as I can doing these videos. I do a weekly video on the recruiting process as well. So if you get anything again from this video, please smash that, like, button that thumbs up right down here and subscribe to my channel. So you can see these videos as well. But let's go on and dive in. Here we go. So what high school players think gets them to a college. And the first one I see is rankings, right? I hear players, well, I'm ranked this or I'm not ranked this. So I'm not gonna play at the next level. So I think I got as high as like, seven in high school, a perfect game. But there's. And there's some players that are nines and nine and a halfs and things like that that are not committed to play at the next level. So there's nothing wrong with being ranked for a Perfect game in pbr. And I get that you want to get the highest ranking that you can, but it is not the end all, be all. And it's. Think of this, some of these, some of these rankings, they see you for one day, all right? And they see you maybe 5 to 10 swings. If you're a position player, they take you. They rank you off of five ground balls and they see you run. And that's your ranking. Okay. For a lot of these. Now, of course, there's exceptions to this and they seem a lot, but you can't just rank one player off a showcase and not any game experience. Right? So don't take the rankings too seriously. And again, I understand if you want to get as high as you can, but it does not. Does not really help you in recruiting the next one's. Being the best player on your high school team doesn't technically mean you're going to be recruited. Depends on your high school, right? You could be in a. On a field in South Dakota or North Dakota and be the best high school player. Doesn't mean you're going to play at the next level. Okay? Now, of course we want to strive to be the best player, but just being the best player at a high school team doesn't mean you're gonna play at the next level. What travel organizations you play for guys this, you know, you want to be on a good one. You. Some of you guys might know about travel organizations. How I feel about travel organizations these days, I think they're really overrated, but there's a few good ones out there. And the reason why I think they're very overrated is because you could travel all across the country. Country. You can play a lot. You play around the region, you pay a lot of money, and you don't get any exposure. That doesn't really help you. Okay. And just a name of an organization doesn't get you to the next level. The next one. This is some physical stuff, just throws hard. So if you just throw hard doesn't mean that you're just going to automatically play at the next level. There's nuance to this. Maybe this is a good one that I hear a lot. Has a good exit flaw. Just because you have a good exit velocity or don't have a good exit velocity. Velocity. Does it mean you're going to play at the next level or not going to play at the next level? I've seen guys that have 100 plus exit velocities, but they get in a game and they can't hit in game pitching, right? So that just. That alone doesn't get you. Nothing wrong with having a good exit velocity. Okay. Nothing wrong with throwing hard. But there's again, more to this, right? Just runs fast. That's just not going to just automatically get you to the next level. Being flashy and at high school, hey, I like guys being athletic and being making plays, but just being flashy and intentionally just being flashy to think that you're going to get to the next level. Not necessarily the case. All right? And I'm doing this to hopefully help you focus on the right things. And if you're not, just because you don't throw hard doesn't mean you can't play at the next level. Just because you don't have an exit velocity doesn't mean you can play the next level. Just because you don't run fast. We had a guy at Ole miss run like a 74 at third base. And I mean, that's a 7475 60. And he was. And that's above the high school average, which is around 74739 somewhere around there. And was an all American at Ole Miss. So there's things to this and there's nuance to this. So I want you to make sure that I don't want to discourage you, but also want you to focus on the right things and I want you to hopefully relieve some stress off of. Off of this. Now let's dive into what college coaches actually want. So they want strong skills at your position, 100%. So, you know, you guys have heard of the five tools, right? So that's hitting, hitting for power, that's fielding, that's running, and that's throwing. Now, if you're a first baseman, you don't need to technically run that fast. It would be great if you do. Doesn't mean you don't work on it. Right? But that's why I said strong skills at your position. If you're a pitcher, you don't technically need to run fast, right? You want to be athletic, doesn't mean that you don't want to. But not work on those things. But again, it's specific to the position and you want to work on those skill sets. Game experience is huge. Okay. Not a lot of people think. Think about this for some reason, right? And game success is just because you have good showcases or just because. Or if you're not a very good showcase player. So I'm an example of I wasn't a good showcase player. What does that mean? Is the Kind of the pro style, fielding, taking BP and running your 60, those three things. So no, really in game, I wasn't a man. My metrics weren't like out of this world at all. Some of you guys know I was like below average. And then I worked. It got better at this. But my game, I was a gamer, as they call it, right? I really performed in the game. I did the, the things that helped the team win. I performed under pressure. I was clutched sometimes, right? It wasn't clutch every time, but that was big. So game experience and game success, and then as the higher levels go, game success, it gets really good competition. That's big. Especially as we get higher and higher. Prove you can make in game adjustments, Hitters you can make in game adjustments, pitchers you can make in game adjustments. That's huge. That's what these college coaches actually want. Makes the routine play big time, all right? Clutch. We talked about this. Perform under pressure, mentally tough and composure is key. Consistent work ethic, baseball iq, all right? Understands the games, understands the situation, looks ahead, is situationally aware as they go through the game. And then of course, it brings good energy. Guys, these coaches want good players with good energy, all right? They want to be around you. It's not only when it comes down to the bottom of it, like when decisions are going to be made about offers and things like that. Do they want to be around you? Are you the type of player that they want to be around? Are you going to be a nuisance? Are you low energy guy? Are you complaining a lot? All those things. Because they're going to be around you for four years, three or four years in college. So if they don't want to be around you, they're just going to go to the other guy. And then team first player, team first player is really key to this. And being a guy that cares to win and puts the team first, cares about their team and cares about the players that are at their position too. I'm still really good friends with players at my position. I played in college and we were competing for spots. We were competing for starters, but we as, as much as we wanted to be that starter, we were rooting for each other too. It was genuine. Being that guy, man, helps you go a long way and the coaches recognize that too. Helping your team win, helping the guys around you, which ultimately helps the team win. And being coachable is a huge thing. So hopefully you got something from this. If you did again, please smash that, like, button that thumbs up and subscribe to my channel. And I will see you in the next video. All right, take care.