I hope everyone is safe and spending quality time with their family and love ones. Please I beg you to continue practicing social distancing. Nothing is more important than your family’s health. Today I want to help everyone who is concerned about there athletic future. If you listen and pay close attention to what I’m about to tell you, then you will increase your chances of getting recruited, despite all that is happening.
Nobody knows what will happen with the recruiting period. All you can do is be prepared for whatever happens…. but you must listen. You must let somebody guide you. I want every kid to make their dream come true and it will. But my track has no match so PLEASE LISTEN TO SOMEBODY WHO TRULY CARES!
YOUR BODY
There is nothing more important than you body right now. More than ever you must watch what you eating. It is very easy to eat poorly these days. You must have the discipline to eat healthy these days. Your diet matters more than ever right now. Get rid of the junk food, put the soda down, stop eating late. Make sure you sleeping, it’s easy to stay up late and sleep late these days. Get out of these bad habits now. You will pay for them if you don’t. Getting back into basketball mode is going to be hard enough, once we get back on the court
Next, try to stretch daily, but don’t go through the motions put effort into it . Go a long run at least once a day. But remember you are basketball players, add sprints to you running. You must also time your running, challenge yourself daily. But more importantly get into a daily routine. Be consistent with your conditioning. If your not sure what to do call a professional… NOT YOUR LOCAL FRIEND
Next strengthen your body. If you have weights at home great. If you don’t, now you must listen. Call a proven strength and conditioning coach. Not your local buddy who lifts weights, not your AAU coach and yes not your high school coach. CALL A PROFESSIONAL and ask could they give you a routine that can help you from your home. You better listen especially if you are off to college next year. Because remember you heard this hear first. There are going to be a ton of injuries this summer and this is the one summer you cannot afford a injury.
YOUR WORKOUTS
First, start watching video every day. Understand, there is so much film out there that covers so many disciplines. You can watch college film, you’re film or hop on youtube to get new drills. Video allows you to gain insight to parts of the game that you may not be aware of plus it allows you to develop IQ. That is the one part of the game no one will be able to work on right because we can’t play 5v5. Get on the internet and watch the great PGs come off ballscreens, watch the best shoots come off pin downs, and post players watch for footwork and how to properly post. Start every workout watching some video….YOU HAVE TIME. Video your workouts outs as well, they will act as a recruiting tool and allow you to see your progress. My daughter is an assistant coach at Fordham University, the amount of video she is watching everyday is shocking to even me…you should be doing the same.
If you have access to a basket your lucky. If not then you will need to be creative. But here is the thing you must understand. Any drill you do, you must put a clock on it. You must set goals, how many made shots in a certain amount of time for example. Now it’s time to listen real good again.. you better listen! If you don’t have a basket, your ball handling drills must not be all stationary. You must simulate full court ball handling. Get rid of the cones, use your Imagination. Pretend you are being guarded by the best defender you know. If you own a heavy ball get it out now. You do not need to get fancy or creative. Just be consistent in your routine and competitive with yourself. I’ll repeat the amount of drills on youtube for ball handling is staggering, get on and use that stuff.
If you have a sibling, your lucky. You and your sibling should do everything together, and make everything you do competitive. You simply cannot play enough one on one, half court and full court. Make the games competitive. Loser washes dishes, loser does the Laundry. The games must be competitive and it’s ok to argue and bicker, it makes for a more competitive atmosphere. If you don’t have a basket then do all your ball handling drills with defense… STAY AWAY FROM DUMMY balls handling as much as you can. Set’ your schedule so that your training the same time everyday…get into a daily practice routine… do work out based on when you feel like working out.
Remember to find a wall and work on your passing and vision. I will post a wall passing drill. Don’t Neglect your footwork. Your Pivoting, stopping on the dime, jump stops and balance is the first thing to go… trust me
*Any workouts under 2 hours doesn’t work for me. But I’m different so 90 mins might be your thing*
**Sidenote as well if you’re really trying to take advantage of your free time: Read a freakin book. Once again there is so much out there… mindfulness, biographies, emotional IQ book. They’re so many genres that you can find anything that might interest you. If you’re not a book person become one!! Audiobooks are a great tool for people who struggle to sit still and read.
The Recruiting game has been flipped
Now everyone better listen and I don’t care how highly you are being recruited. The recruiting game is about to flip. The new transfer rule has to make every college in the country re-evaluate how they are recruiting. If the ncaa lets transfers play right away, it’s a game changer for everyone and I don’t care who you are from UConn to Monmouth. Those offers you have, well you better think about them seriously because they may not be there, depending when the new rule takes place. You think a college will not want Dara Mabrey, if she doesn’t have to sit out? Trust me some school has offered a kid who plays position. Well newsflash if Dara Mabrey goes to that school that kid will be in the cold. I predict you will see less D1 signing from high school since the letter intent period started. That’s not to scare you, it’s a fact… SPEED YOUR RECRUITING UP NOW. Don’t let anyone tell you different.
How Can You Help Your Recruitment
- First stop dropping your highlights on twitter without tagging to coaches. 3 mins thats it
- Email Coaches: Personal email that tells them you did research on their school and program. Attach highlight tape, this will serve as the bait to get them interested. Attach best all around game (shooting, drives, pass, hustle, defense, keeping people in front, hitting the boards, etc). Attach a word document profile, see #3
- Profile: HS, AAU, All coaches and phone numbers, emails, GPA/SAT scores, any relevant newspaper articles (Not bullshit articles, real ones for milestones or major accomplishments).
- Remember you want to pad your profile but you also don’t want to water it down to make it look like your just adding shit to be relevant
- Be active but not overbearing on social media.. DO NOT BE OPINIONATED
- DON’T lie about your recruitment or grades
- Be persistent but not overbearing, this is fine line so walk it carefully
- 21s this will be so important for you guys since this is you’re last recruiting period and it might be taken away. Your goal should be to garner enough interest that a coach wants to come watch you play in the next live period. remember most coaches are not going to give scholarships out based on Highlights and film, you are just trying to get them intrigued enough to come watch you live.
Now you have a few tools, you be wise to listen and if you don’t your making a serious mistake. I know what I am talking about when it comes to this stuff… but you must allow the right people to lead you. You are going to have a lot of folks who appear knowledgeable giving you bad advice. You better be very wise who you trust during this process