The 5 Straight Truths About Getting Recruited For College Football & Sports
The 5 Straight Truths About Getting Recruited For College Football & Sports
I want to go through today, something real important, I think in the recruiting space, that parents really need to understand, and that is the difference between caring about how your son gets recruited, and their performance, and worrying about what other people think, or find you, or how they found your son, and all those kind of things, that mean absolutely nothing to do with recruiting. My name is David Schuman; welcome to my podcast, today it is critical for parents to understand not just a recruiting process, but really to investigate.
Okay, how they can get their son recruited, so many times parents come to me and ask, how do I get started, what should I do, how do I find the information necessary? first of all; the first step is to write down what you want to accomplish, because if you and your son or daughter don’t write down what you want to accomplish in the recruiting process, and where you want to go, and how you want to go about doing it, you’re nowhere.
GET A PLAN, TRAIN, COMPETE, REACH OUT!!!
You have to know what your goal, and what you’re looking to accomplish, and then look at your own process as far as training, educationally, performance wise, and find out what that path is. Wishful thinking does not help you in recruiting, wishful thinking does not help you, the process of going about and doing, and making things happen. So, let’s start at the beginning, at the start.
Number One: you must have a plan; you must understand where you want to go, what you want to accomplish, every single athlete in the country wants to get an athletic scholarship. So, let’s just take that off the table, because there’s almost no athletes that have ever gone in every single event that I’ve run since 19 — since 2004, every single athlete when I’ve asked, who wants to go and play Division 1?
I kid you not, 99 out of a 100 hands will go up, when I ask, how many guys want to get athletic scholarship 99 out of 100 hands go up? So, let’s take off the fact that you want to be a division 1 athlete that your son wants to be in division 1 athlete, completely off the table, as what you’re trying to accomplish, because everyone, that’s their goal in athletics.
Now, let’s figure out, how do you get there, how do you get to get a division 1 scholarship? Training: Number One; you must develop your skill sets to an elite level. Number Two: Assessment; you must understand how good you actually are, step out of the town that you live in, and go outside, and compete against others. One of the things that I hear all the time, my son is the best athlete on his team, who cares? That doesn’t mean anything to a college coach.
There are over a million football players in the country, are you in the top twenty five hundred in your class? Because that’s what it takes to get a division 1 scholarship. Are you in the top twenty five hundred in your class? Out of the 10,000 schools, high schools playing football, or in your sport, 10,000 schools; let’s say there’s 20, let’s say there’s 25 seniors on average on a team. That’s 250,000 football players, take 10% of that that would be 25,000, take 10% of that, which is 1%, that’s 2,500.
So, you must be the 99 percentile, to give you an understanding of how — what that is. Okay, the 99th percentile is; when you take a test, okay and there’s a hundred people in the class that means that you were number one, or number two. number one or number two, if there’s 25 seniors on your team on average, if you couple four teams together; one, two, three, four, pick the four competitors that you have, that you go against, is your son, or daughter, athletically; the top one or two of those hundred players?
Now, you start to understand what it takes to get a division 1 scholarship. So, in order to be that good, you have to be blessed with certain gifts. Number One; a lot of times, a football a tight size, with athletic ability, strength, speed. Okay, then you have to be blessed in developing the skill sets that you have to the maximal ability, to the maximal ability, that is not you — can’t be a part-time player, that means you’re full-time player, and that doesn’t mean you’ll play other sports, that means you’re full-time player committed to the success of doing what you have to do to be the best, and a lot of times, that is playing other sports; like track and field is such a correlation to football.
I don’t understand why more kids don’t run track of field, if I was a college coach, and there was a skill athlete, and he didn’t have a 100 meter dash time, I wouldn’t even waste my time recruiting them, because I don’t know how fast he is, but I guess in today’s day and age that’s changed a little bit, but to me there’s no better proof as far as how good you are, as how fast you are. So, how committed are you to that process, how much are you working every day, academically; are you working every day to be the best student that you possibly can, are you working every day on developing a better SAT-ACT score, are you working every day on being a better person?
Those are things that are part of the process, to get your skill sets to the level of being Division 1 athlete. So, that part you have to have that commitment on, the next thing is, where do you go find the opportunity to compete against other athletes? Obviously, one is in season, no doubt about it, in season you play against people in your league, in your town. That’s not enough, you need to go, and compete, and other showcases, camps, combines, events.
To compete against others, to pair yourself against others, and then to learn from others, and what they do well, and what you do well. That very, very important, just go out and compete, you gotta do that, you got to go to college, you gotta go out and compete. The next thing which is so critical, and people missed the boat on this; you have to do the research, the diligence, to find out the schools that you can play, and that means, by reaching out, and you can hire services to do it, but that should be a complementary part of what you are doing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrSIAY1kheI
You probably don’t have enough money to spend, to hire someone full-time to go and do the recruiting for your son or daughter, even if you’re paying them a few thousand dollars a month, you still have a ton of work that you have to do, because you have — are the one that goes to college, the son or daughter is the one that goes to college, and that person only, can find out, what school is the right fit for them. So, they’ve got to do the research, they’ve got to follow up, if someone else is reaching out, they’ve got to follow up, they’ve got to find out, they’ve got to go and talk to the schools, they’ve got to build the relationships necessary in order to get recruited, and it is a process.
So, what happens is, people get overwhelmed, they think I don’t know where to start, I don’t know what to do, I don’t know how to begin, I can’t figure out how to do something, and they get paralyzed by their inability to know what to do, because there’s so many things that they feel they have to do, and I’m gonna give you some simple things with respect to training, and commitment, and making sure that you want to do everything you need to do, you need to put down.
Number One; the sports that you want to play besides let’s say football, if you’re going to run track-and-field, you put football on track, then you put down, and this is all written down in columns, you’re gonna play football, you’re gonna play track. Okay, you’re gonna do strength and conditioning, and you’re gonna do speed, and now you have four columns, and then you’re gonna write three things very simply, that you’re gonna do each week, to make the most out of those areas.
for football; here are the three things I’m going to do, I’m going to lift weights, I’m going to do my core lifts twice a week, I’m going to run eight one hundreds, I’m going to catch 50 balls as a receiver twice a week, and you’re gonna put those three things down that you have to do, and then you’re gonna have that in track, and let’s say and then you’re gonna have that for strength training, and you have that for speed, you’ll see they’re things that cross over, and those things that cross over, help you knock off one of the things that you have to do.
So, now you’re looking — you really don’t have to do 12 things, you might be doing six or seven things that cross over to your four areas, that’s critical. Then, you go and say academically, what do I have to do? You write down your three things; improved SAT-ACT score, what do I have to do? Here are my three things. Socially; what do I have to do? I got to make sure I’m home on time. So, I can wake up early to do my work each day, I’m focused, I stay away from alcohol, drugs, any of those kind of things. All those things take you off, if you participate, and I’m not saying you can’t be a kid, but if you participate in illicit activity, and you participate in things that are detrimental to where your goal is, that takes you a step back.
So, you write those things down across academic SAT-ACT testing wise, and then social, and you see what crosses over, and you have your three tasks in each thing that you’re doing, in your process, and then you write down: competition; here are the things that you’re gonna do, the five things that you’re gonna go to do to compete, here’s the — I’m gonna go to three events of this, and I’m gonna go to two events of that, I’m gonna go to NUC Sports combine, and showcase there’s my shameless plug. I’m gonna go to Nike camp, I’m gonna go to University of Georgia’s football camp.
Okay, and you have your competition that is outside of what you do, then you have your internal competition. So, you have your outside competition, then your internal competition, which means in your main sport, how are you gonna compete there, what are you gonna do to be better? You can list some goals in there, and then what’s really important. Okay! So, we talked about that, and then your final area is: Recruiting, and in recruiting, you may have to have subsections of it, but you have to have outbound, which is you reaching out inbound, people reaching out to you prospecting.
How are you reaching out to them, how are you doing it, and what are you doing? And then research, have your research what schools you like, you need to have three areas of each there, and then the great thing is, you take those pieces of paper, and you put them on your wall, on your wall. If you need to put it in your phone, in your phone, what I love about putting things on your walls is, it’s a constant reminder. when you have a constant reminder of what you have to do, there’s no way you can avoid it, when you see what it is that you’re supposed to be doing, and if you don’t do it, then you are judged by that paper that’s staring right back at you, and when you’re judged by that paper staring right back at you, and you have to figure out things to go out, and make yourself better.
Every single day, you’re held accountable by what you do, we put those things on your wall, you put them in your phone, you make them into Instagram posts, if that has to help you remind it, you post them on your Snapchat, whatever you got to do to remind yourself over and over again, of what you’re getting done, and if you follow that, you can start to get the process down. Now, when it comes to recruiting, instead of being overwhelmed, you develop that plan, you develop those tasks, and you stay diligent on it. You stay diligent on the tasks, when you have your highlight film, you make sure you research and find, every single school that you’re interested in, and send those guys your information.
Tweet, DM, I’m gonna give you a quick tip, it’s the easiest thing, direct message via Instagram, and via Twitter, assistant coaches at the schools you’re interested in, with this important information; your height, your weight, your name, the graduating class that you’re from, your estimated [Unclear 15:26], and the school you go to, the position you’re in, the position you play, your GPA, your SAT-ACT score. you send that with your highlight link, and that in your direct messenger, and your college coaches, those college coaches have the information that they could start to move on, and I can tell you this, if this is the truth, if you’re a Division 1, if you want to be a division 1 scholarship athlete, and you play the tight end position, and use text my name is John Smith, I’m six foot six, 220 pounds, I run the four eight forty, and I ran it at the head UC combines, I go to River Ridge High School in Maryland, and I have an ACT score of twenty six, and you send that to a coach with your highlight link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK5VtCDtRlg
You can bet your bottom dollar, if you do that to fifty schools, your process is going to begin, because when a coach sees that you have certain height requirements, certain speed requirements, they are what we call triggers, and triggers tell the coach, or the recruiting coordinator that this guy could be a prospect based off of certain parameters. Now, what you might ask is, you may say: Oh! Whoa, I’m shorter. Well, if you’re shorter then speed becomes a premium in football. Okay! Well, I’m short and I’m not that fast. Well, then scholarship level Division 1 may not be where you’re gonna go.
So, then retarget the places, and research the schools that have players most similar to you, and then target them, that’s important. Target those schools, and when you’re able to do that, you really can begin to improve your process, and really, really start to generate recruiting. So, to recap; it’s important that you have a training process, a competition process, you are committed to what you’re doing on all levels, you understand what schools you’re interested in, and what categories you fit into from a recruiting standpoint, and you’ve done the research on those schools, and then you’re going out, and competing on the outside, not just in your high school, but going out and competing.
Those will really, really help you improve your recruiting process. If you don’t do those things, and so many high school coaches, and I get it, I’m a high school coach myself. they worry about things like injury, and I get that, by going out to ops outside competitions, but I’m never gonna put a kid in a box, I’m never gonna put a kid in the box, because that becomes my own selfish interest, when a coach says don’t go out and compete, because he doesn’t want you to possibly get hurt, that is his own selfish interest. If you choose that, you don’t want to go and compete outside, if you choose that, you don’t want to do it, that’s your choice, but if you think you need to compete outside to get better, or to go and get seen, you need to do it.
Now, where I do agree with coaches is, if you’re a guy that doesn’t do anything in the offseason, and then you want to go and compete in the outside, and think that that’s going to help you, it’s not. that’s why it’s part of the total package, and a lot of coaches might get upset by that, but coaches who don’t allow their athletes to have the opportunity to get recruited are flat-out wrong, flat-out wrong. It’s selfish to do that, the key is to make sure athletes are prepared, understand the best places to go, have the correct information, so they can make the right decisions. the limiting your athlete for your own selfish interest, because you want to win a championship, we all want to win championships, but overall, the best thing is to do what’s best for the kid, and if you could find the best possible situation, and he gets to go to a college, that he wouldn’t normally got into.
Then I guarantee the coaches will be very, very happy, because it helps their program, it’s important to take control of your recruiting process. it’s important to work with your coaches to help you with that process, and to figure out how to do that, and if a coach is resistant to it, you have to figure out how from that standpoint, to go and get yourself recruited, and get yourself out there, and you could do some very, very fundamental things, by reaching out to help you with that process.
I hope this is very helpful for you athletes, it’s important for you to go out and get your name out there, it’s important for you to do things that are necessary, work with your coaches to help you with that process, work with outside people that can help you with that process, if they know what they’re doing, and I wish you the very best. We’ll talk to you soon.
by David Schuman @nucfootball on twitter @nuc_football on instagram
you can contact him at dschuman36@gmail.com if you want further help with the process or at www.nucsports.com
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