Is your goal to pursue athletics in university or college? Or perhaps you have a long term goal to play for the National Team, go to the Olympics, or play professional?
It is important that you seek out an honest evaluation of your athletic performance. this evaluation will help you to determine where you stand currently, outline goals and actions you can take to take your game to the next level, and can also help you identify post secondary options that will allow you to achieve success.
In recruiting, it is important to put yourself in a position to be evaluated by coaches, such that they know who you are, are aware of your skill level and what you will bring to their program.
Coaches usually want to evaluate you at least three times, before they form any conclusions about your skill level or make decisions on where you might fit into their program, read on to see some ways you can facilitate these evaulations.
How can you be Seen and Evaluated?
Here are some ideas how to make that happen
1. Athlete Resume– Keep this up to date, and remember to include the direct link to your profile in every communication with coaches. Make sure your resume is comprehensive and includes a head shot image, statistics and highlight video. Brag about your accomplishments and include as much info as possible.
2. Tournaments and Showcases- Make sure coaches are aware of all your competition dates in advance, give them a chance to plan a trip up to see you if it’s possible. Attend as many showcases, or recruiting tournaments as possible. These are events where collegiate coaches do extensive recruiting and you can be seen by many scouts in one weekend. Make sure when you attend these events that your target schools are well aware of where, and when you are playing!
3. Summer camps and prospect camps- Most teams run their own summer camps, this is a great opportunity to visit the campus, meet the coaches and players as well as have your skills evaluated. Coaches use these camps to identify their top recruits and compare skill levels between players. There are also often summer camps that are not affiliated with any specific university, where many different coaches will attend at the same time. Camps like this are a good way to be seen by a variety of schools at once. Prospect camps are run by coaches in their
4. Highlight Video – Often families find it is cost prohibitive to travel regularly to recruiting events and tournaments. Highlight video is perhaps the best and easiest way to demonstrate your skill to coaches, and it doesn’t have to be difficult to get!
ALL coaches will request to see your highlight video in their first few communications with you. Highlight video is a collection of your very best on and off ball moments from recent competitions, as well as a focused look at your personal technical skills (could be passing, receiving, shooting or other specialty skills)
Find out more about highlight video HERE