Module 9: 6th Inning – Skills

Description

One of the most important qualities that recruiters look for are your skills.  If you want to play at the collegiate level you need to have very good skills.  But don’t forget, different colleges/universities have different skill requirements.  If you are not the best player on your present team, or you are not on the state or provincial team it doesn’t mean that you don’t have a chance of playing at the collegiate level. Our goal is for you to have choice in which college you go to.  The better your skills are the more you will stand out so one of your highest priorities is to develop the skills that recruiters are looking for.  For this reason it is important to ensure that you are technically correct by seeking instruction from the best experts you can.  This does not mean that your coaches are not good.  You want to know that you are practicing the right skills the right way so getting the advice and instruction from top experts is important.  These experts can then become references for you and you include them on your resume…a very important connection with promotion!  Draw a connecting line on your Planning Chart between Skills and Promotion.  When a college recruiter looks at your resume and sees you have been working with well known and respected experts they will be more likely to want to take a look at you because you are technically correct.

Many student athletes do not fully understand the importance of  making the time to practice properly and persistently.  Make no mistake about it…you need to find time outside of your team practices to work on the fundamentals that your team practices don’t address.  How can you use your time and courses at school to practice the skills for your sport?  Can you design a school course that focuses on your skill development?  Make sure to draw connecting lines on your Planning Chart between your skills and school.

Another connecting line that you will want to draw on your Chart is a line between your SKILLS and your LIFE.  When we look at LIFE in an upcoming video we need to address the issue of how overuse of technology  is affecting the time, focus and energy of student athletes.  Too much phone = less developed skills, grades etc.