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GUEST EXPERT ARTICLE
The Recruiting Labyrinth: Part 2; Becoming a Light Tower
Have you ever been in a boat late at night, trying to find your way back to the dock and you can' t even see the shore? You know it is there, but it seems so distant and you get a huge knot in your chest for fear that you may run into some unknown object and become stranded, or sink. For most of us setting out to get that coveted college scholarship can be a lot like that. Now turn this analogy around and imagine that you are the Special Teams Coordinator for a college football program and you are given the task of finding and recruiting the best available kicker you can find and you know that your job may depend on how well that new kicker performs during gut check moments when the game is on the line.
You, the coach/recruiter may also feel like a boat in a large dark ocean looking for signs of a savior on the shoreline you can't see. Your looking for a light tower to guide you through the trecherous waters.
As a student/athlete who desires to be that light tower guiding that coach to find you instead of any of the other thousands of guys he could discover, you need to start as early as possible to build your tower and enable it to shine brightly.
Besides the obvious, developing your skills to make yourself competitive at a top level among your peers, you must find ways to help them see you. You must become not only visable, but stand out brightly along side your fellow competitors. it is well documented that only about 1-2 % of high school athletes get those coveted scholarships, but that does not mean that it is too difficult to try. In fact, doing things the right way, and starting those right things early on, with a plan, will increase your odds dramatically.
Some kids today are getting offers before they even reach high school. This article is not about, or for those lucky few. This is for the typical student-athlete who may be good enough to play college sports, but needs to get discovered first. Let's start atmthe beginning for that typical prospect to be.
Freshman year. while most kids are just glad to be on a team, you are not most kids. You are different because you have a dream. When Magic Johnson was asked how he got to be so good at an early age he responded that most kids he knew would pick up a basketball when there was a game. He was different because as a young kid he would go to the courts so early no one else was awake yet. He would imagine himself in a very big game in the future and he would play full court basketball while imagining other players all around him. He always won his game and was always the hero. He concluded you need great imagination to inspire a great dream.
Step 1:
Building your Light Tower
Go to camps that give you quality instruction. Don't choose a college or university camp just yet, but find a great camp that will enable you to refine your skills. There are many such camps to choose from but be certain the camp you choose has a very low teacher-student ratio and that it is not a camp that is primarily taught by college kids, but by qualified experienced adult instructors.
One to check out is the "Kicking at the Lake" Camp which offers a 6-1 student/teacher ratio. Also Check out the "Top Tier All American Tryouts and Camp, which has more to offer than all other camps.
Most camps are for the primary purpose of getting discovered by the college putting on the camp, or colleges if it is conducted independently of a college.
If this is your intent, as a freshman or rising freshman, then this is fine, but generally speaking these camps do a lot less teaching and a lot more evaluation activities. There is nothing wrong with being evaluated as a freshman so long as you are there for that reason and that the evaluation is designed to compare you with only other freshman. In fact I recommend it as this is a great way to learn to perform under real pressure.
One such camp that does evaluations that are based on empirical data is the National Camp Series camps (nationalcampseries.com). They use a carefully designed mathematical system called the Kix system which was developed by mearsuring kickers, punters, and long snappers from all over the U.S. and Canada, using the exact same standardized testing plan. Within seconds of inputting the campers results into their web site the camper is automatically ranked nationally with others from the same graduation year. This takes the human judgement factor out of the evaluation that permeates all other similar camps. Human judgement is often influenced by the judge's profit motives. Learn more about Tom Feely >>> |
The Recruiting Labyrinth: Part 2; Becoming a Light Tower
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