The goal of the recruiting PROCESS: To proactively seek out and FIND the best fit for YOU, both as a college STUDENT and as a collegiate ATHLETE.
How can you move through the recruiting process as fast a possible to meet this goal (especially during a dead period)? The more you give the more you will get. The more you do (meaning action you take) the faster you will move through the recruiting process towards the end goal. You can speed up your own recruiting process!
Do these 3 things!
Email college coaches every week to every other week.
Send highlight video and “supplemental video” (defined below) within most of these emails.
Keep asking if they need your position in your grad year (if they don’t, take them off your list and add another school!).
The recruiting dead period was extended from April 15th to May 31st. This is a 3-month time frame when you can take specific action to prepare for June 1st!
A main focus for you now (other than getting better and better as a player) is to get as much video as possible of YOU and email the video to coaches.
Competing in tournaments
Practicing
Private lessons
Weight lifting/working out.
Your highlight videos can be clips from practice and competition together in one video, just don’t keep adding more clips to the same video, making it longer and longer. None of your videos should be longer than 3 minutes and 1-2 minute videos are fine in your check-in/update emails that you send every week to every other week. I usually recommend the camera placed towards the endline to see the whole court, see the ball, the whole team etc. Yes, I still think you should have this type of video as the basic highlight video for your intro emails…
BUT, I want you to put yourself in the college coaches shoes. Literally! Where would they be standing and from what angles would they be watching you play?
Because of the dead period they can’t watch you play live, so get camera angles that make them feel like they are courtside as they watch your video. I call this “Supplemental Video”.
I want you to also create this SUPPLEMENTAL VIDEO, which is video from different angles and kind of close up, as though the coach was watching you live. Your parent can take this video from the sideline with their phone, it’s great to get other angles and have more video to send coaches. The more clips of different skills your parent can get from their phone from various angles the better.
Keep up with these 3 types of video to take advantage of the dead period:
HIGHLIGHT VIDEO of you from the endline.
SUPPLEMENTAL VIDEO and video of practice, lessons and workouts to include in check-in emails.
Start to look through your video for UNEDITED GAME VIDEO.
If the coach responds they need your position in your grad year AND they like your highlight and supplemental video, this means they see you as a possible fit for their program and you are on their radar!!
At this point, a college coach might ask for unedited game video. Especially, since they can’t watch you play live during the dead period the next best thing is unedited video (when they want to recruit you). I suggest that you do not send this unless they ask for it. As you’ve been creating video and pulling clips, always look for individual sets where you played well and reserve them for later. Very rarely, if ever, is unedited video perfect and you will have some errors included, which coaches expect. They also like to watch how the player interacts with teammates and watch as though they were there live. Choose a set with fewer errors (preferably aggressive errors vs. silly, crazy errors) and only send a full match if they ask for it. Then, send video of the match where you and your team played well against the best competition possible.
***REALIZE the GOAL at the end of the dead period is to have several college coaches ready to watch you play June 1st and to have back and forth communication via email. By this date, you would already know they need your position in your grad year, you’ve talked to them on the phone and they like your highlight video. (note: below I address this goal for freshman and sophomores with the NCAA June 15th rule.)
- If you haven’t started the recruiting process or want to make sure you’re covering your bases follow this College Volleyball Recruiting CHECKLIST and also join my email list!
- Ask yourself these important questions and work to answer YES!
- Have I emailed college coaches highlight video with my intro email?
- Do I have several schools on my target list that I KNOW need my position in my grad year?
- Have I been communicating via email and on the phone with any college coaches yet?
- Have I been keeping in touch with check-in emails every week to two weeks?
***If you are a freshman or sophomore and college coaches can’t respond to your emails, which I’m saying to send every week…what do you do? KEEP SENDING THEM! D1 and D2 coaches can’t respond, but add in all of your emails…“if you need (your position in your grad year), you would be interested in attending a camp or clinic this summer”. They are allowed to send you camp brochures! And if you are a sophomore, they can respond to you June 15th and later. If you’ve been emailing them consistently you will be one they respond to! You can also ask your club coach to reach out to some schools and ask if they need your position in your grad year because they can answer broad recruiting questions from your coach, just not specific questions about recruiting you. This helps a lot if you have a few schools you would love to attend their camp, you can have your club coach ask them some general questions about their recruiting needs!
You got this! Feel free to share this article on social and with anyone you think could use this information. Please join my email list, so I can provide you with tips and strategies to demystify the recruiting process and help you move forward quickly!
Email me at dianne@proactivevolley.com or DM @proactivevolley, if you are interested in working with me individually or if you have any questions!