Latest / Yips and Giggles / Recruiting & College Visits [Pt. 2]
Transcript
- speaker-0: What's up guys, welcome to our podcast. speaker-1: She finally realized that it was speaker-0: So I kind of want to go into what to actually focus on when you're going through the recruiting process. ⁓ Starting off with, like, what do coaches normally look for, right? And again, we're not coaches, so we can't say exactly what they look for, but this is from us talking with our previous coaches and to the best of our understanding. Performance matters, but not how you might think. And again, it depends coach to coach, school to school, sports, sport, but I would say. Consistency over flashes of talent, coachability, competitiveness, and body language are probably the most important things. And what it really kind of boils down to is like... Do they think you're going to be a good performer, right? Or do you have the potential to grow into a good performer, right? Like execution and talent-wise. But is it more consistent versus flashes of talent? Are you actually going to be able to listen to the coaching that they give you? Are they going to be able to teach you, help you grow? Are you going to react well to feedback, right? Coachability. Are you competitive? Like, do you actually want to win? Are you going to put it all out on the line? Are they going to be able to... depend on you in tough situations. And kind of along with that is, again, like body language, I think is such a big thing when you are getting recruited. You don't really want to show that you have a bad attitude, that you can't, that you get so negative after, you know, when you're handling pressure situations or stressful situations that you're just going to go off the rail and just lose your head and you're going to be a hot head. Right. So I think those are kind of some things that are Important again not saying that like if you don't have the best attitude you're not going to get recruited you still will get recruited but if you want to give yourself a better chance of going to a school that you really want to. These are things that you should focus on. speaker-1: Again, yeah, obviously, like I was even talking about with the draft, like performance is obviously the majority of it. But I think there are situations where if your personality and your attitude doesn't fit with the team, they might not take you. You know what I mean? And yeah, I also think another thing to add is also versatility, like being able to. kind of adapt to the team situation. like, for example, I went in as sort of a backhand side player in doubles. And so for anyone that doesn't really understand that, you have the do side, you have the add side. And for righties, the add side is the backhand side. And so that's what you're playing for a majority of the time. like, fully, like that was my best shot. I was fully confident, like... That's what I played in juniors, did not play the forehand side once. Once when I was in juniors. I get to college and they're like, you're on the forehand side. I was like. speaker-0: What? speaker-1: Well, it's just because like so many of us had a good backhand side or they were like lefties with a forehand on the forehand. So it was like, well, and so I was kind of stuck. Like I was really, I was never comfortable on the forehand side. I was constantly battling with that. I think the only time I played on the backhand side was when I played with you, Anya. speaker-0: Yeah. Well, so here's the interesting thing. I was mostly a backhand double side player in juniors too. I played the backhand side mostly. Yeah. I did not know that. And obviously in college, I literally played the forehand side the entire time except for one time. My freshman year, I played the backhand side. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, I would go back and forth a little bit more in juniors, but a lot of the time I was backhand, like with a lot of my doubles partners, I remember. because they had significantly better forehands than I did. Yeah, Peyton and I were the dream team. Me forehand side, Peyton backhand side, fingers back. speaker-1: team bring it back man. I was also going to say versatility can work in any sport like yes it's good to be very very good at a certain position and if you can like count on that and be like I'm going to be the best on this college team yeah that's great stick with it however I feel like a lot of the times it is very helpful to be versatile because you might have to switch positions in certain situations. Like you need to be flexible. Like you might have just an absolute superstar happens to be in your position in college. And like, for example, Alistair, my husband, he played college soccer and pretty much his entire college career. He was a center mid and his senior year, literally a senior year of college switching to a right back and. That's what he is now. And now he's playing professionally because of it. So it can be good for good reasons. It can very much work out in the end. ⁓ So I think it's good to have a couple tools in your back pocket to be able to switch it up if you need to, for sure. speaker-0: I agree. And also kind of along those same lines, like about 70 to 80 % of college athletes were kind of specialized in their one sport by their like called mid to late teens. But I think playing different sports like up through high school is really, really good for developing different skills, coordination. ⁓ reaction, hand eye, foot eye, like speed. And that just makes you a better rounded athlete as well. speaker-1: Yeah, that's a huge, huge, huge thing in sports psychology. And it used to be like a really big debate of like, are you going to sample a lot of sports when you're younger or are you just going to go straight into this one sport and just hammer it down? Yeah. You know, from the very beginning. And it's like now people are like, well, you can transfer your skills from other sports and you won't have as much burnout. Yeah, if you're constantly playing the same sport over and over and over again since you were four years old, you know. speaker-0: Yeah, I think that's a big point too of like just being able to do something other than the one sport. That's kind of the one thing I wish I had done when I was younger, played a lot of different sports because I didn't really do that. I did tennis, I did dance, I did piano and I did art. So... speaker-1: You have like a breadth of things. It's not like it's just you did one thing. speaker-0: Yeah, but I wish it was kind of like I wish I'd done soccer for like foot I coordination more or just like basketball for like being able to react quickly, like jump higher, things like that. But yeah, I think I think not specializing in sports can be really, really helpful. But you do have to like kind of do it in the right way, because obviously the like the more time you spend doing another sport is less time you spend developing maybe. some of the other aspects of the main sport that you want to do. So just something to keep in mind. But again, like coaches recruit people, not just your stats. Again, going back to that idea of like effort and attitude, coaches watch even when you think they're not watching, right? Throughout the recruiting process. They're always crawling around at whatever tournament, whatever match. They are, they're like ants. There's so many of them there. speaker-1: You're crawling. I'm stalking you. speaker-0: They are, like you think you're fine and then you turn around and you see like a coach at the back fence like under a palm tree hidden in the shade watching you. speaker-1: Hey, I have actually seen ⁓ that is normally the case. I have also seen when I knew one of my friends was committed to a school already and her like future coach was at the tournament. I'm not lying. He literally sits his chair on top of the fence, like right next to the court. I'm like, that is not helping anyone out like that. Like pressure you would feel. Just like seeing your future college coach just like on top of the fence watching your every move. I was like, why would you do that? Yeah. Why? Like, are you trying to like test her? Like, what's going on? I thought that was crazy. But yeah, normally they're like trying to like be all sneaky. speaker-0: I would be shaking like a leaf. That's the thing, they want to watch even when you think you're not watching, they'll come watch, like for example, this is tennis specific, but even if you're playing in consolation, you got to try in consolation, you got to have a good attitude. Coaches watch when the stakes are low. ⁓ You need to put in effort even when it feels like it's inconvenient, because again, it just shows kind of that discipline and that competitive desire and just that character, right? ⁓ You don't want to show that like, ⁓ I'm out of the main draw. This match doesn't matter. So I'm not going to put in effort. That is a big show of speaker-1: A lot of people do or they even like just pull out of it completely. Yeah. I was never like the reputation. Yeah. Right. If you get the reputation of like pulling out of consolation matches, that does not look great in my opinion. Like if you, if you can make a run in the back draw or even like win the backdrop, that's big because you're still playing very good players. speaker-0: unless it's figured. ⁓ Yep. And it almost shows like that resilience and like the ability to bounce back from loss. speaker-1: Yeah, 100%. ⁓ And I think that goes hand in hand with like how you act if you're benched basically, or how intense you're going to be at practice even if you're not in the starting lineup, ⁓ what you're doing in the off season. So it's a lot of like little things that you don't really probably think about that actually do matter quite a bit. speaker-0: Yep, 100 % agree. What would you say are some things that like attitude wise you 100 % like should not do? speaker-1: I kind of went into a little bit of it of the red flag and the draft is like blaming other people. Yeah. I think that like if you're out there and you if you like get off a court and you lose and you're like talking to a coach like college coach and you're like blaming your now coach or something or if it's doubles and you're blaming your partner, it's like, come on now. You can't be doing that. ⁓ Or if you're like, you know, on more of a team sport and you're blaming like the rest of your team. It's like, doesn't look great. ⁓ But I think also just like acting like an idiot and being really frustrated and just like, for example, in tennis, like slamming your racket or just like completely slumping your shoulders or like screaming, but also like cheating. That's really not, not a great idea. speaker-0: Some coaches don't care about it. Correct. Because like we talked about in, I don't remember what episode it was, but there are some people who are just like notorious cheaters get known for being cheated and they somehow got recruited. So yeah. speaker-1: Yeah, which I mean, eventually maybe coaches think like, ⁓ there's refs. So like, it'll get better. OK, I don't need but like, hold on, like, let's dive a little deeper into the cheating. Let's look at more so of, OK, that person's comfortable with cheating on the court, like in a public situation. How do you think they are behind closed doors and on a team and things like, you know what I mean? Like, let's look at like the individual. Exactly, exactly. Like, it's not maybe the actual speaker-0: character. Yeah. speaker-1: Like, I guess it is the actual action of cheating, but I mean, it takes a certain person to do that. at the end of the day, I can get a little tricky. speaker-0: Yeah. Make sure that you maintain a positive attitude during this really, really stressful time. I know it can be really hard to get down on yourself if you're not ⁓ feeling like you're progressing as much throughout the process, if you feel like your results aren't as good as they are maybe due to the pressure that you're feeling. But also just continue developing the skills that you need to develop in order to be successful at a higher level in college. communicate with the coaches, ⁓ talk with them and be like, hey, like, you know, what do you want me to focus on? What do you want me to do to develop in order for me to have a chance to be on your team or in order for me to be successful in college? And remember that academics still matter. ⁓ Again, it's different person to person, but I do have to say like academics still matter. Again, only 2 % of college athletes go pro. ⁓ So please have a plan for what you're gonna do after college and don't just completely shirk the academic portion of it and really pick a fit that's good for you. speaker-1: Personally, I'd really love to get into visits, recruiting visits. I think we have a lot of stories and maybe some advice on things, what not to do and what to do. ⁓ And it's gonna vary obviously by school and by program, things like that. I talked about this a little bit earlier, but... I always felt like I was a smaller person every time that I talked to someone who was kind of in an authority figure position, like a coach, during these processes. And I wish I would have asked more questions on my visit that would have helped me understand more about their philosophies and things like that when I'm on the visit, rather than just listening to them talk. You know what I mean? I wish I was a little bit more proactive and like confident and be like, okay, you know, like you said, you can ask coaches certain things like what do you want me to do now to like improve and get better before I actually get here? Or I think it'd be really important to ask what's your coaching philosophy or like if you're on a team sport or something like that, like what's your like game strategy? Like how does that fit into my game versus what you want out of your team? or things like how do you foster team culture or what is your team culture? What are the aspects that are important to you guys? Because I think that tells a lot about a coach in a program and you're actually like actively asking about it, which I think they would also be impressed by. They'd be like, ⁓ like this person's actually like interested in kind of the intricacies of our program. so, yeah, that's one thing that I wish I would have. kind of. gone into a little bit more of my visits, but. speaker-0: Yeah, and I also wish I'd asked the people already on the team, because you do get interactions with the current players on the team, a little bit more about the coaches as well. I feel like I asked them a lot of questions about the school, but maybe not the coaching staff. And that's kind of a tricky situation, because you never know if they're going to tell you the full truth or not. Right? Like that video you sent me the other day about... speaker-1: Yeah. speaker-0: The girl, like someone trying to give you a signal to not come to the school. The coaches, they're... Oh, you're looking at these other schools. There's a really, really good school. There's a really, really good school. Yeah, no, I wish I had asked the actual team members, what... Like, how candidly they can answer, but... Yeah. Like, more about the coaching, what the schedules look like. speaker-1: Bye! speaker-0: what happens when they have a bad loss, right? Like how do you guys handle lineup changes, like things like that, so. speaker-1: literally be like, yo, be honest with me. Yeah, be honest with me. Like be straight up because let's be completely real. Everyone is going to be on their absolute best behavior on these visits. Like that is like number one that coaches are like, you need to show them a good time. Like you need make sure you go do this. Like make sure you show them that. So take everything with a grain of salt. Like it's not. Not everything is as it seems. ⁓ I remember Alistair was telling me a story when he was getting recruited by St. John's because he went there before he went to Wake Forest and he like flew down. They put him in like this really nice hotel overlooking Times Square, like in the city. And then the next day they actually take him to like the university and they drive him to Queens. And he's like, oh, like, this is not even in like the same. This is barely in the same state like this. So it's like things like that, like people are going to try to make everything seem just like rainbows and butterflies, which, yeah, fair enough. Like everyone's going to try and market themselves well. But I think you just need to have in the back of your mind, like this is not 100, 100 percent realistic. You know, exactly. speaker-0: You I completely agree. ⁓ Something's not to do on your visit as a player. Payton, you want to go ahead with this one? speaker-1: you So this was a crazy one, y'all. There was this girl, not going to call her out, trust me. ⁓ But, you know, as like freshmen or sophomores, we would normally have to host recruits when they came on their unofficial or official visits. And so like everything was going like pretty fine at the beginning, like there was nothing wrong with the girl. Like she was pretty chill. And then we meet up with her later and she just has this shirt that just has like an expletive on it, like just like fully across the shirt. And I remember our coach's face. He literally he made it like so it wasn't awkward. mean, it still was, but he made it to where he was trying to be like cool with it. And he was like, ⁓ nice shirt. I also remember literally like that night he was like, yep. That was pretty much, that was it. And she was like, just like no more recruiting for her. speaker-0: Okay, why would you even bring that shirt on the trip, first of all? Second of all, even if you packed it, why would you deliberately choose to put that shirt on in front of a coaching staff? ⁓ my God, yeah, that was so bizarre. speaker-1: As like a teammate, I would just be like, what are you doing? Like, what are you doing? That was weird. But yeah, it was pretty much like, all right, we're done. Like that's just weird and disrespectful sort of. So yeah, that was a weird one. ⁓ speaker-0: I remember I was once hosting a girl and it was, I was hosting a girl and I think you were hosting a girl too. This was when we weren't living together or maybe Sadie was hosting a girl. So everyone was like that night, I think we were all gonna like go get dinner and then go, I don't know, watch a movie or something together. Just like show the recruits a good time. And she literally just like... was not having any of it. I don't know if she wasn't liking the school. I don't know if she wasn't liking us, but literally like to the point where she told me she didn't like want to go to dinner, didn't want to go to the movies. So I was like, okay, that's fine. I'll hang out with you back in our dorm. And so, you know, I'm like, okay, what do you want to do? She's like, I guess we could watch something on your computer. I was like, do you want to watch something on my computer? She's like, sure. I pay for... Black Panther, because it wasn't on any, like I had to pay for, to rent it. It wasn't anywhere free at that point. We watched 10 minutes of it and then she like turns her back and says she's just gonna go to sleep. It was like 9 p.m. I don't know if she was tired. And yeah, apparently everyone else had a fantastic night that night. Like had so much fun with the recruit, with the other recruit. Meanwhile, I was sitting there in the dark. speaker-1: weird. Okay, let's be honest on visits a lot of time you're gonna go out and party and have fun. That's just a part of college ⁓ But if you don't want to do that that is completely fine and people are not gonna peer pressure you into that you can do other things like for example Go watch a movie or just go hang out in dorms like it's fun to just go and like meet people and hang out and see what college is really about But if you're literally not even gonna give your could be future teammate the time of day. Come on now. Like, why are you? You can't act like. speaker-0: Like it was just like, you weren't even like trying to give us a chance, you know? Like, and again, like we don't have to go and do whatever, but like, you didn't even want to spend time like with me, like your host. She like barely spoke to us like all night. I'm like, why are you even here on this visit then? speaker-1: That's just awesome. Like you're wasting people's time. It's just rude. I don't understand. I really. Yeah, that's very interesting. I I actually really enjoyed my visits pretty much everywhere I went. Like I I remember South Carolina was super, super fun. ⁓ Went to Alabama, like went on the football field. That was cool. Their stadiums sick. Obviously their football team's amazing. ⁓ There was one school. speaker-0: That was an interesting one. speaker-1: which was really weird. Like I, I'm not going to say who it was, but I had gone on kind of like an unofficial visit there and they like showed me around like the tennis courts. Like, it's not like I stayed over with the team or anything like that. Like I just kind of looked around campus and I was already familiar with it. ⁓ And then a couple months later, ⁓ I was texting, I think like the assistant coach and I was like, Hey, like I'm going to be in the area. Like, can I come over and do a visit while I'm over there? And they were fully like, yeah, yeah, we'll see you when you come around. And I was expecting it to be a full-on visit, you know what I mean? And they fully responded positively to my text message. I get there. And like my parents are with me, my brother's there. And I go up to like the coach, they're all like practicing outside. And I go up to her like, say hello and everything like that. She's like, all right, yeah, well like enjoy your time here. See ya, let me know if you need anything. I genuinely, Anya, I was like, wait. speaker-0: Is this not a visit? speaker-1: And they like Loki just ghosted me after that. I have never Experienced anything and I have a feeling you know who I'm talking about. But yeah, I was like What just happened but we ended up no. No, I'm not gonna say that no speaker-0: So I think is this the like I had like an experience with that school too. OK, correct. Yeah. So this school, I won't say who it is either, but I also got recruited by the school. ⁓ Correct. And, know, it was it was really bizarre because I really liked the school. again, loved it. I went on an unofficial as well, like didn't stay over. It was great. ⁓ Really, really liked it. speaker-1: Correct. speaker-0: on the visit, were on the unofficial, they were like, you are our number one choice, like you're our number one recruit, which I think they told you too, right? Yeah, and they were like, yeah, just like waiting for your SAT scores to come back and like, we'll move forward with the process. Like once we get those. So like, was like, oh my God, get a good SAT, done deal. I got a great SAT score. I text this coach. I'm like, hey, this was my SAT score. I'm going to send it over to you, blah, blah, blah. Like, so excited, yada, yada, like no response for a while. And I'm just like. speaker-1: Weird. speaker-0: Weird. Because they literally told me I was their number one choice. And I was like, I really like the school. And yeah, finally get back to me like a couple of days later and they're like, oh yeah, sorry. Like we, I don't even remember how they phrased it, but it was basically like, yeah, we're not offering you a spot. Like, or like we'll keep you in the back of our mind, but like we have a bunch of other recruits that we're looking at right now. And I was like, huh? speaker-1: And ⁓ it was weird. speaker-0: I mean, I'm glad I didn't go there, obviously. speaker-1: Same. That was a lot of fun talking about, you know, our own recruiting stories. Again, there's no single right path to getting recruited. Everyone does it differently and everyone's going to have a different experience. Don't get too focused on other people's experiences, you know, especially with social media nowadays. There's no need to rush the process. Don't feel like you're behind and have fun with it. Like being recruited is fun. Going on visits is fun. It's a long game, but at the end of the day, it's something that you need to go through and it's leading to something great. And yeah, if you guys have any recruiting stories or have any questions for us or want to hear about a little bit more about our times during recruiting and our visits and things like that, or if you have any questions about how to choose a school or what. to what are red flags that you're looking for when you're looking at a school. Feel free to shoot us a DM. We're happy to have a chat. So thanks for listening and we'll see you next week.