RecruitPKB: Valuable Info from College Coaches

Over the weekend, I traveled to DC to be the guest speaker during the Mid-Atlantic College Golf Day at Congressional CC. I was honored and excited to join a group of great coaches that included the Virginia Tech men's head coach, Marshall women's head coach, Towson men's and women's head coach, Naval Academy men's head coach, Bridgewater College coach, McDaniel College coach, Shenandoah University coach and several others. After presenting my talk, I was fortunate to have the chance to sit in on the breakout sessions that were led by the college coaches and I wanted to take a few minutes to share some of the highlights of those sessions that I feel would be valuable information for you. When comparing your scores as a junior golfer to a collegiate player's scores you should add 4-5 shots more to make it a fair comparison. Courses aren't just longer but they are [...]

By |2017-09-13T11:50:59-04:00February 11th, 2016|College Recruiting Articles|0 Comments
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RecruitPKB: Utilizing Social Media

Social media can be a very useful tool to utilize during the recruiting process but it can also be a way to cost you opportunities if you don’t use it wisely. While there are rules on the coach’s end for connecting with recruits through social media, they can still do their homework to investigate what you are posting about, what your friends are posting about, and how you present yourself when you aren’t in front of them. However, if you use social media wisely, it can be a great way to learn more about the coach, the golf program, and share your own progress throughout your junior golf career.   Furman University Head Women’s Golf Coach shared her thoughts on the use of social media: “We are a little limited on who we can friend and things like that, but there’s probably a good chance that I [...]

By |2017-09-13T11:50:59-04:00February 4th, 2016|College Recruiting Articles|0 Comments
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RecruitPKB: Learn to be Creative

Almost every camp that I host I will include a session that requires the girls to tap into their creative side. Many times the girls think I am crazy for the ideas I come up with but it's always fun to see how each player approaches the activity. You may not realize how important it is to be creative as a golfer but it is a crucial skill necessary for success on the golf course. No this does not mean you have to be an artist or be good at arts and craft, but tapping into your creative side can really help you develop better feel and touch around the greens, it will help you see shots and shape them better, it will help you assess situations when you are in trouble and figure out your best options for getting out of it. It will also help [...]

By |2017-09-13T11:45:22-04:00January 20th, 2016|College Recruiting Articles|0 Comments
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PerformPKB: Warm-up For Injury Free Power

This article is part of guest series to the RecruitPKB "Complete Golfer" program by Chris Finn, owner of Par4Success in Cary, North Carolina.  ---  RecruitPKB Perform: Warm-up For Injury Free Power With the season underway I have been getting a lot of questions in the past month about what my juniors can do to increase their distance in the short term while their strength is improving over the long term. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to answer the loaded question with one of the many options as my response is usually, “Well, it depends.” There was a study done recently that looked at the effects of how golfers warmed up and what effect that had on their power output, if any. The study started by having everyone go out and hit golf balls without a warm up and their performance was measured. The next day, the [...]

By |2018-03-21T20:45:20-04:00January 9th, 2016|Physical Performance Articles|0 Comments
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RecruitPKB: Set Your Goals for 2016

As we kick off 2016, it’s the perfect time to set your goals for the new year. But by “goals”, I don’t just mean your New Year’s resolutions stating that you want to do something better next year, I am talking about very specific process goals. Yes, you need big picture outcome goals such as scoring milestones, tournament finishes, your dream university, etc to keep you motivated and driven to reach the end result that you are working towards, but when setting goals you need to be very specific in what you need to do day in and day out, week in and week out, in order to achieve those big outcome goals. I had a lesson in goal setting myself recently that I thought I would share to help encourage you to set your goals for 2016. All the way back to my college golf days, [...]

By |2017-09-13T11:45:58-04:00January 2nd, 2016|College Recruiting Articles|0 Comments
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PerformPKB: Your Strength Window – Don’t Miss It

This article is part of guest series to the RecruitPKB "Complete Golfer" program by Chris Finn, owner of Par4Success in Cary, North Carolina.  --- RecruitPKB Perform: Your Strength Window - Don’t Miss It You will only swing as fast as you can control. That is our mantra with all of our juniors and all golfers. Just as you would not expect the brakes in a 1998 Toyota Corolla to stop a Ferrari Engine pushing a car to 200 mph, you can’t expect untrained hip and core muscles to control a 100+mph swing. This brings me to our topic of the month, strength and stability training in juniors. There exists a window of opportunity in all developing juniors that occurs between the ages of 1317 that is often called the strength window. This is a time when developmentally the body has an influx in hormones that allow us [...]

By |2018-03-21T20:45:32-04:00January 2nd, 2016|Physical Performance Articles|0 Comments
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RecruitPKB: It Takes More Than Just Talent

“It’s not about how talented you are, it’s about how hard you work to make the most of the talent you were given” –  Me   This may sound crazy, but one of the biggest detriments to a young player’s development is being told how talented they are. Check out this short video about motivation and hard work. I was one of those players who had a very natural talent for golf from an early age. I didn’t have to be taught a lot of mechanics, early in my golf career swing coaches wouldn’t make any changes to my swing except a few tweaks to my setup if it got off. I could naturally figure out how to properly swing the club, work the ball, creatively get myself out of trouble and hit different short game shots around the green without thinking much about mechanics.   Now [...]

By |2017-09-13T11:45:58-04:00December 10th, 2015|College Recruiting Articles|0 Comments
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RecruitPKB: Being Thankful and Gracious

"Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation". - Brian Tracy Being thankful and gracious are two topics that I catch myself emphasizing over and over again in my articles, evaluations and seminars but it simply can not be said enough, especially in today's world. While you may not think about the importance of these when it comes to college recruiting, they really can set you apart from so many others who don't take the time to be thankful or gracious. And not only in regards to college recruiting, they simply teach you two qualities that are so important in the world today and can even help to improve your mental state on the golf course. With Thanksgiving coming up, take the time to [...]

By |2017-09-13T11:45:59-04:00November 21st, 2015|College Recruiting Articles|0 Comments
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RecruitPKB: National Letter of Intent

https://youtu.be/zXcZeknDdQ0   Signing the NLI (National Letter of Intent) is a big step in the recruiting process. There are a few things you need to be aware of before you sign your NLI. Keep in mind the NLI is an agreement between the student athlete and the institution, not with the coach. So if a coach leaves you are still obligated to attend the institution unless you are granted a release. The NLI is an agreement that you are receiving athletic scholarship. If you are only receiving academic scholarship or paying your own tuition then you cannot sign the NLI. NLI's are only signed once with an institution. You will be notified annually if your athletic aid is being renewed, unless extenuating circumstances occur your aid will be renewed or possibly increased. All other institutions are obligated to cease recruitment of an athlete once the NLI [...]

By |2017-09-13T11:51:01-04:00November 11th, 2015|College Recruiting Articles|0 Comments
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RecruitPKB: 6 Ways to be More Coachable

"A proverb says that 'Only stupid men learn from experience. Wise men learn from other people’s experience'." I got this from an article written by August Turak about coachability on Forbes.com - http://www.forbes.com/sites/augustturak/2011/09/30/are-you-coachable-the-five-steps-to-coachability/ One of the number one qualities that a coach looks for in a player is coachability. They want to know that a player is going to be willing to listen, learn, practice and put into play what they teach them. This is one reason you need to do your research on the coach, their background and their coaching style. If you don't respect a coach's principles then you will never allow them to coach you to your potential. You must have faith in your coach because many times it will get worse before it gets better. so you have to trust they are doing what is best for you. You will miss out on so [...]

By |2017-09-13T11:45:59-04:00October 3rd, 2015|College Recruiting Articles|0 Comments
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