Carter Armendarez is a senior at Wesleyan University, where he’s also captain of the wrestling team. Getting recruited to play sports in college is confusing to lots of athletes, but it really shouldn’t be. Carter has seen too many athletes fail to get recruited. So he made Acute Recruit’s College Recruitment Guide for Athletes so that doesn’t happen anymore.
Had me focus on becoming an expert in one skill vs trying to be OK at everything
Getting Recruited to college
The most overlooked area is grades
Start early
Coaches want to hear from the athlete, not their parents
Start a website to have as a landing page to share with coaches. Include:
A page with highlight films
An ‘about me’ with your accomplishments and bio
A contact page with your contact details and your coach’s contact details
A big opportunity
A lot of D3 schools have trouble recruiting quality athletes because their academic standards are too high. This is a great opportunity for athletes who may not have been the highest level elite athlete in high school.
Contacting Coaches
Meet them in person at tournaments
Research schools you want to pursue and look up the coaches online
The one that got away
Carter lost by one point his senior year on the match to qualify for state
What he learned: He learned to play to his strengths
Best Stolen Idea
Quote from Tim Ferris when he asked an professional skier what the most important turns are on the run: ‘The most important turns are the 3 years I spent preparing before the run.’
Parting Advice
Focus on the basics
Keep it fun!
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Michael Richards is the Owner and Operator of Elite Athletic Performance in Benton, Arkansas. After missing out on an opportunity to play collegiate baseball due to what he describes as “Youthful ignorance and a slightly bad attitude”, Michael began playing semi-pro baseball and attending his sophomore year of college. Shortly thereafter he began training fitness clients and young athletes as a sole proprietor. What started as a fun way to “Not get a real job” and make extra money in college, has turned into 16 years and approximately 30,000 hours of “in the trenches” training experience.
Today he strives every day to help kids be the best athlete and person they can be. A particular love for Velocity and Accuracy training for baseball and softball pitchers has led to a number of 90+ MPH clients, professional and collegiate coaching contacts, and a burning desire to learn new information whenever possible.
Michael had the athletic ability to play baseball beyond high school, but his attitude and his grades prevented him from that opportunity
Myths around youth sports
1 – Pitchers running day after pitching to flush the lactic acid buildup. J-bands (Jaeger bands) or massaging the muscles makes way more sense.
2 – Everyone needs to be hyper-flexible. Some people just aren’t very flexible, and while some stretching can add a bit of flexibility, there are other things such as massage rollers and dynamic stretches that are much more beneficial.
Multi-sport athletes
If kids love multiple sports, they should play them. But the belief that you must be a multi-sport athlete to be recruited to college is not always true. Especially in your junior and senior years – Don’t play a 2nd sport just to do it if you don’t love it.
Travel ball and showcases
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking the most efficient use of time is travel teams and showcases. Private lessons are often a much more time and cost efficient. And the lessons don’t need to be year-round.
Kathy Feinstein is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified Sport Performance Consultant (CMPC). Since 1998 her unique practice has empowered adolescents, adults, couples, families and teams to achieve greater satisfaction in sport, health and life. Kathy’s practice focuses on the 3 key areas: counseling, sport performance psychology and education through seminars and workshops. Kathy works with youth, high school, collegiate, adult amateur and professional athletes in such sports as golf, tennis, hockey, volleyball, basketball, figure skating, cheerleading, track and field, swimming and cycling. In addition to sport and exercise psychology consulting, she also offers team and coach consulting.
Kathy got really excited about her daughter riding horses, but she lost sight of doing what’s best for her daughter
Performance Anxiety
The first step is to normalize the need – kids need to know that performance anxiety is very normal
The importance of breathing
Anxiety is all about the future. What if…
Breathing is all about the present.
If you can do this 20 minutes per day, it changes your mindset
When you inhale, there will be a cool sensation at the tip of your nostrils. When you exhale, there is a warm sensation at the tip of your nostrils.
When you do this, you will start having some thoughts. Without any judgement, bring your focus back to the breath. Do this over and over again.
Do this for 5 minutes with your team, your coaches, your players, etc.
Recovery routines
Having a discharge routine – if you are upset about something, have a quick discharge routine to flush away the past. Then have a different re-focus routine that gets you back in the moment and focused on the future.
Growth Mindset
Encourage kids to take risks, risk making mistakes. Mistakes are an opportunity to get better.
Confidence inventory
Have kids make a list of all of their accomplishments. Then have them read it before a performance.
Post-competition routine
After routines, write down what you did well, then add 1 or 2 things you want to do better next time
Visualization
You have to train how to visualize: Have the athlete do a simple activity (touch your toes and and jump in the air.) Then have them close their eyes and visualize doing that same activity.
The more vivid the visualization is, the more effective it is. Try to involve as many senses as possible
Kathy had a presentation that went bad and she got stuck. She learned a new way to prepare for presentations, where she focuses on the audience and their needs.
Best borrowed/stolen idea
The post-performance routine
Well-better-next
Favorite Quotes/books
Quote: ‘What is before us and what is behind us are small matters compared to what’s within us’ – Emerson
