FOLLOWING UP

A.        CONTENT

Under the NCAA rules there is absolutely no limit on the number of times your player can initiate contact with a coach.  She can write, email and/or call as often she wants.  So follow ups are simple.  Just keep the coaches informed with periodic updates of information about schedules, tournaments, grades, honors, accomplishments, etc, anything you think that the coach may be interested in.  This can be done by email or by hard copy or both.  Whenever it is possible, attach a photo of the player, with a clear shot of her face.  College coaches that I have spoken to say they like the updates and it is my belief that it accomplishes a number of important goals.

1.                  It keeps your player’s name in the mind of the coach.  You always want your player’s name to be familiar to the coach. 

2.                  The picture makes your player a person and not just a name.  The pictures also make your player easier to spot at tournaments and showcases.

3         It can enhance your player in the eyes of the coach based on the content of the communication.  Basically your player is updating her profile with her current accomplishments.

4.       It gives the coach your tournament schedule.  Your player wants to be seen by the coach.  How can this happen, except by blind luck, if the coach does not have the schedule?

5       It tells the coach that your player is seriously interested in the school.  Coaches do not like to waste time recruiting players that are not interested.  You will notice that this is a recurrent theme.  I can not emphasize enough that coaches want to recruit players that are already interested in their program and their schools.

B.         ADVICE

Try to create at least some of your follow up communications in a way that invites a response.  You are again looking to see who has serious interest, with the idea of narrowing your search.  Ask questions.  It does not matter what the question is, so long as it is relevant to the conversation, so long as they do not directly deal with the idea of recruitment or scholarships.  Examples:

1.                  What is a good hotel to stay at near the school?

2.                  Are you having a winter clinic?

3.                  Are you having a summer camp?

4.                  Will you be going to any camps or clinics run by other schools or coaches?

5.                  What showcases do you attend?

6.                  In there anything specific you would like to see in a recruitment tape?

C.        FREQUENCY

I would suggest sending updates on a regular basis, at least one to two times a month.  However, there are times when this should be more often.  Specifically, any time the coach communicates with your player, she should respond, in addition to or in conjunction with the regular updates.  In addition, if you and your player plan on visiting the school for any reason to meet with the coach, then there should be more frequent communications to confirm the arrangements and a letter or email should follow the visit, thanking the coach for his or her time.    

D.        RECRUITMENT TAPES

Eventually one of your follow-ups will send a recruitment skills tape.  This is a video tape or DVD that you have shot showing your player hitting, fielding and throwing.  As a general rule, the tape should be between 6 and 10 minutes in length and should include the following, depending on your player’s position:

1.                  An introduction including your player’s name, high school and travel team.

2.                  Hitting: Video angle should be from behind opposite batters box, facing the batter as they are in their stance, close view. Show your full swing and finish. If you can hit from both sides of the plate, show your left and right swing.

3.                  Bunting: Show sacrifice bunt technique from behind pitcher and from opposite side of batter box. Show your Bunt for Hit and Drag Bunt technique from behind pitcher and opposite side of batter box. Show your Slap Bunt technique from beyond opposite batters box.

4.                  Base Running: Video your home to first time after you swing, and home to home times, after you swing. Preferably show times on a stop watch in the video.

5.                  Sliding: Show your  playing stealing of 2nd or 3rd and demonstrate different slides you have learned. These should included figure four, hook slide, and head first.

6.                  Throwing & Catching: Demonstrate your fielding technique and release. Show fielding balls at you and to the right and left. Show the throw to a base. Camera angle should be stationary to capture the complete play with no movement in following the ball after release.

7.                  If you are a catcher, you should also show: Blocking techniques for balls in dirt. Show some right at you, and side to side for lateral movement. Demonstrate how you field bunts and your release to a base. Demonstrate your pickoff technique (from knees or up to stance), show throws to 1st and 3rd base. Show your release technique on steals of 2nd and 3rd. A stopwatch time should be included from the point of pitcher release to the completed throw to the base. You should be in full catcher gear in each of these video technique demonstrations.

8.                  Corners Should Also Show: First and Third players should show their technique in fielding bunts. Demonstrate throws/release to all bases. First base should show stretch and receiving throws including those in the dirt. Third base should show fielding technique when brought in, throws from home, and from the outfield to demonstrate tag technique.

9.                  Middle Infielders Should Also Show: Footwork and agility in making double play, covering and receiving  throw at second from catcher on steal (SS) and outfield, coverage of first on bunt (2nd base),  pivot throws and  popup behind the corners.

10.              Outfielders Should Also Show: Fielding of fly ball and grounders, some directly at you, some to your right, left, forward and back. Show footwork and arm strength with throws to 2nd, 3rd, and home.

11.              Pitchers: Preferable with the use of a radar gun to show speed of pitches, demonstrate each pitch in your arsenal. Show fastball, rise, drop, curve, and change. Camera should be from the side to show technique and also directly behind the catcher to show movement of pitch.  Also, field grounders and bunts, throwing to all bases.

The people who shoot these know what to put on them, but if you have any questions at all, email a coach and ask him what he wants to see in a recruitment tape. 

Personally, I would suggest that if your player has a particular strength then it should go first on the tape.  You are trying to grab the coach’s attention.  If he/she is not interested in your daughter in the first 2 minutes of the tape that could be the end of possible recruitment at that school.

VIDEO or DVD?

I have been asked several times whether it is better to do the skills video in video or DVD format.  Someone gave me some decent advice about this, which was to always assume that the softball coach is on the low end of the school budget's food chain.  This means that every coach will have a VCR but not everyone will have a DVD player.  That was a few years ago and I am not sure that the advice still holds.  However, having the video changed into different formats is not expensive or difficult.  If possible, I would do the video in three different formats:  VHS, DVD and CD.  Then you can ask the college coach which format he/she prefers.  In today's age, if I could only choose one format, I would choose a CD-Rom.  While not every coach has a DVD player, everyone of them has a computer capable of playing CD-Roms.  It also easier and less expensive to mail than a VHS tape. 

SUGGESTION:  It was recently suggested me that players should upload their recruitment videos to utube and send links to college coaches via email.

RECRUITMENT TAPES DOS AND DON'TS

DOS

1.   Put a short introduction where the girl identifies herself, her year of graduation, her travel team and her positions.

2.   Put a label on the top of the video with her name and contact information on it along with a label on the back of the video with her name.  Templates are available on the handouts page. The templates were done to be consistent with an Avery or other similar labels that are easily available. One is called a video label, the other a video spine. 

3.   Send it in a video container.  They are available in any staples or officemax and are cheap. Get the kind that have a plastic cover that allows you to slip something in between it and the cover.

4.  Use a video cover sheet  This will be placed between the plastic  sheet and the container.  There is a template for the cover sheet on the handouts page. The way I did it was to make it a modified version of the profile page, but some people put the schedule on the back instead.

5.  If doing either a dvd or a cd-rom, use a hard plastic container when you mail it.  Again, this cheap and available at your local staples or office max.

6.  Do a label for the disk.  I do not have a sample of one, but they are round labels available anywhere that labels are sold.  Put the name and telephone number on the label.

7. Do a cover sheet.  A template is available on the handouts page.

DON'TS