This past week I shared some insight on IGTV about how the recruiting process can help you overcome those moments of pressure when you are in contention or shooting your new low round. You can view that HERE Written by: Brandi Jackson, RecruitPKB College Consultant For more information about college recruiting, please contact Brandi at bjackson@pkbgt.org
Had a great conversation with a coach a few weeks and she made an important point. When you’re going through this process it really is you “branding” yourself for what type of person, student, and athlete you are. Are you doing things only because someone is telling you to do them? Or are you doing things because that genuinely is who you are? Coaches will see through this a lot of times. It’s ok that you may not know what to do or how to do it, but once you’re given some directions or suggestions, how do you then attack it? Throughout this pandemic, I’ve encouraged my girls to film some videos beyond just golf swings. Some girls never bothered to do it, others did it only bc they were told to do it, some were nervous initially but really did their best, and some used that [...]
Even the best players in the nation face rejection when going through the recruiting process. There could be any number of reasons that a coach may not accept a player on their team. These reasons may have nothing to do with the player's game or personality. When a player faces rejection, it is essential that it is handled properly. Most importantly, a player should not take rejection personally and allow it to diminish their confidence on the golf course or beyond. Try to accept that the fit is not right and that it only takes one school to believe in you. Use the rejection to fuel your energy at practice/tournaments and strengthen the determination to find the right school Secondly, when a player is turned down by a coach they still have to be respectful. It will only harm the player to respond harshly to the coach [...]
This past week, the NCAA made the decision to extend the Dead Period until April 15th. This means DI coaches can not recruit at tournaments or participate in a recruit's campus visit. This will continue to impact in-person recruiting, but if you are a 2021 or 2022 recruit you are still allowed to communicate with coaches via phone, video, text, and email. So make sure you are staying consistent and active with your communications. Written by: Brandi Jackson, RecruitPKB College Consultant For more information about college recruiting, please contact Brandi at bjackson@pkbgt.org
This past week I shared some additional insight on IGTV about building your resume that I wanted to pass along to all of you. You can view that HERE Written by: Brandi Jackson, RecruitPKB College Consultant For more information about college recruiting, please contact Brandi at bjackson@pkbgt.org
I've been having some discussions recently with some of my players about how they get caught up in their score and wondering how they can prevent that. And my answer was, you can't! In my opinion, it's just part of getting better and knowing that you’re close to shooting a new low round. It is just part of the process. You can't really just ignore the obvious at that point, which is your score. To expect a young golfer to not think about their score when that is really the ultimate goal they are aiming for is really tough to ask. But thankfully, each time it happens and you are aware of it, then it gets easier the next time. So I recommend giving yourself a little bit of a break from thinking that it’s such a negative thing right now. When you’re in those moments, [...]
During a recent player consultation, I had a discussion about the number of schools a recruit should contact. This player shared her list of about 30 schools that she had contacted and out of them, at least 20 of them were top 75 ranked DI programs and the other 10 were top 125 ranked. This particular player had an average score of 79 as a 2022 recruit. And while I am an advocate for having big goals to work hard to achieve and keeping some dream schools on your list, you just have to be cautious about what percentage of dream school vs realistic schools you have on your list. In my recruiting checklist, I say to contact 50+ schools but as with many parts of this process that is dependent on many factors. The reason I use that number is for the average player who is [...]
Recently the NCAA made the decision to extend the Dead Period through the end of the year. The Dead Period prevents college coaches from recruiting at tournaments and does not allow in-person contact such as a meeting when a student-athlete is visiting campus. While this continues to make the recruiting process difficult for all parties there are still some ways to remain active. Also, keep in mind, DII, DIII, and NAIA programs are not under this Dead Period rule. If you are pursuing opportunities at DI programs then you need to both remain active but also patient. As long as you are being realistic with the programs you are contacting, then you need to continue to update the coaches and try to provide more visual updates via video and social media. They can't actually see you in person right now so you need to try and give [...]
Based on the NCAA rules that apply to the current period for your grad year, once you get a resume put together and do some research on schools and programs, you should begin to send out intro emails to coaches. A well-written intro email (by the student-athlete) is the first step in contacting the coaches. This email needs to provide some insight about you as a player, student, and person and have your resume/video attached or linked. You can use the same format for all of your intro emails but make sure they are specific and personal to each coach. Use your research notes! You can send intro emails at any point, there are no rules or restrictions on players sending emails to coaches. But a coach can not reply to emails or answer phone calls until June 15th prior to junior year so keep that [...]
A good quality resume that a college coach can easily access and get all of the important information they need to see is a critical step in the process. This is typically the first impression you are going to make on them. There are several ways you can create a resume. It can be online via a personal website, you can use a resume service such as the one that @juniorgolfscoreboard offers, or you can do a simple document/pdf. Any of these options is perfectly fine, but most importantly keep in mind this is a resume, so it needs to be professional and easy to follow. Don't be afraid to have a little fun and be creative with it, especially if that is your personality, but if you go overboard it may turn a coach off. Most importantly, it needs to be clear and concise with all [...]
