A player I know sent more than 50 emails, introducing himself to college coaches.

He received more than 10 responses, some expressing legitimate interest and some generic camp invitations.

He replied to all the coaches, but then made two critical mistakes:

• When he responded, he didn’t ask a question to put the ball back in the coaches court to respond back to him (more about this here).

• He didn’t send updates to coaches beyond his initial reponse.

Six months later, he reached back out to the coaches and didn’t receive the same response:

• A couple told him they had finished recruiting for his grad class.

• Several sent generic camp invitations again.

• A few didn’t respond at all.

• Only one still expressed legitimate interest.

He cost himself multiple potential options by not communicating well.

We’re In a Coaches Market

The scenario I described above isn’t uncommon.

Many players lose options by not communicating well.

Many players expect college coaches to put in most of the effort in the recruiting process.

This is a losing strategy for most players.

We’re in a coaches market.

There are more players to recruit than coaches have time to communicate with. They have the luxury of focusing on those who DO communicate well.

Consider a pitcher, for example, who throws 82-85 with a good breaking ball.

He may be the best pitcher in his hometown. He many even be the best pitcher in his high school conference.

But when compared with ALL the pitchers college coaches CAN recruit, he doesn’t stick out at all. There are HUNDREDS of 82-85 pitchers that coaches can look at.

College coaches will focus their energy on two types of players:

• Those who are in the top 5% of all players available.

• Anyone else who’s good enough to play for them AND communicates well.

Attention = Currency

Attention is currency is the college baseball recruiting process.

Unless you’re one of the best of the best, you need to work hard to gain attention from college coaches.

How?

Communicate better than everyone else.

Most players DON’T communicate well, so you can stick out if you do.

Once your receive initial communication from a college coach, I recommend the following:

• Always respond to coaches within 24-48 hours.

• Respond skillfully to move the process along (click here for more details).

• Provide updates to coaches regularly.

It’s this last point that I want to focus on here.

I recommend sending updates to college coaches four times per year:

• At the end of your off-season

• After your spring season

• After your summer season

• After your fall season

It also makes sense to update coaches if you had a particularly good game or showcase.

Some coaches may want update more often. Ask them how often they want updates during your first phone coversation.

How To Gain and Maintain Attention

Here are the best practices for gaining and maintaining attention from college coaches:

Cast a Wide Net

Before you need to worry about how to hold a coach’s attention, you need to draw attention in the first place.

The recruiting process is a job search.

You need to send out a lot of "resumes" to find your best fit.

Casting a wide net is the best strategy.

Start with AT LEAST 20 schools from each division at which you have the ability to play (more than 20 is better). The more the merrier!

Determine which colleges show interest before eliminating colleges from the list.

Respond Within 24-48 Hours

Whenever a coach sends a message, respond in NO MORE than 48 hours (within 24 hours is best).

Think about how frustrating it is when YOU send messages to coaches who don’t respond quickly (or at all).

Don’t give a coach a reason to feel frustrated with you.

Even if you receive a generic response (i.e., camp invitation or questionnaire link), always respond within 24-48 hours.

Respond Skillfully

It’s not enough to just respond.

You need to respond SKILLFULLY.

Here’s my golden rule for responding to coaches:

ALWAYS ask a question to put the ball back in their court to respond back to you.

The goal for each message is to clarify the next step in the process and/or move the process along to the next step (click here to learn more about the communication cycle for the recruiting process).

Click here to learn more about how to respond to specific types of messages from coaches.

Capture A LOT of Video

When you send updates to college coaches, you need QUALITY content to send them.

You can (and should) send updates on metrics, stats, grades, honors, etc., but sending quality video is more important.

SHOW the coaches how you’ve improved.

Ask your parents to film every pitch you throw and every at-bat you have. Then use video editing software (I use iMovie) to cut out the dead time and pull out the highlights.

Each time you sent an update, include a 1-2 minute video with in-game highlights. Including a separate 1-2 minute video with practice highlights is also a good idea.

Click here for a tutorial on how to film quality game footage.

Send Update Messages

I outlined the intervals at which to send update messages above.

Here’s what you should include in an update email:

• Greeting (”Coach Smith,”)

• Introduction (include name, grad year, position, high school, and state)

• Reason for writing (i.e., “I sent you an email a while back and am writing again to provide some updates”).

• Call To action (i.e., “Will you take a look at my updated information below and let me know if you have interest in me as a prospect for your program?”)

• Profile link (or link to videos)

• Updates (include how your season went, updated stats/metrics, any honors you earned, updated academic information, etc.).

• Closing (i.e., “Thank you for your time and consideration.”)

• Sign off (i.e., “Sincerely, John Smith)

• P.S. (include names/emails/cell numbers for important references)

Thank you for reading!

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reply to this email.

See you in two weeks.

Matt

P.S. Click here to learn more about how I can help you maximize your options and find your best fit for playing college baseball.