Quote of the Day:

“I would tell players to relax and never think about what’s at stake. Just think about the basketball game. If you start to think about who is going to win the championship, you’ve lost your focus”. -Michael Jordan

"Passion" vs. "Pressure" in Recruiting

 

With thanks to @DanTudor for this great article from his  excellent newsletter...if you don't know Dan, you need to check out his website www.DanTudor.com and subscribe to his newsletter!



Passion vs. Pressure.
There’s a big, big difference.
And quite honestly, most college coaches get it wrong.

When you’re trying to close a recruit, and get them to commit to your program, one of the worst things to do is to give them the feeling that they are being “pressured”.  Pressure might lead to an initial commitment, but in the long run that athlete is going to be a strong candidate for transferring or talking negatively about the way he or she was recruited.

In my opinion, after interviewing hundreds of current college prospects on how they made their decision in committing to a program, pressuring an athlete is bad.

Passion, on the other hand, is good.  Very, very good.

If you demonstrate passion to your prospect, it’s very likely you’ll achieve the same effects as you would hope to achieve by pressuring them: Excitement about your program, a strong reason for committing to you and your college, and a faster commitment.

Very few college recruiters, unfortunately, don’t do the passion part very well.

To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, and to show you what a big difference there is between the two, let me give you a few contrasting examples of “passion” versus “pressure” when recruiting your athlete:

Passion is when you tell your recruit why you like him, and what value you see him having in your program.  Pressure is when you matter-of-factly tell your recruit who else you’re recruiting at his position, and what he’s going to lose if he doesn’t make a fast decision.

Passion is when you tell them that you’ve decided you want her to play for you, and they officially ask her if she’s ready to commit because you are really excited about her future in your program.  Pressure is when you give her a 48-hour deadline after her campus visit to make her decision, or else you’ll yank the offer and give it to the next girl on your list.

Passion is when you smile and sit forward in your chair when you’re talking to your prospect.  Pressure is when you lean back, look at your cell phone every two minutes, and seem like you’re ready to walk your prospect over to admissions so they can start their exciting two hour PowerPoint presentation with the assistant to the assistant Director of Financial Aid so you can get back to work.

Passion is an impromptu visit to the office of a coach of another sport on your campus to introduce you to your recruit on campus so that they see the opportunity is with an athletic department family, and not just their sport.  Pressure is sitting with your prospect cooped-up in your office talking only about your sport.

Passion is taking a blank sheet of paper, sitting next to your recruit, and explaining to her what you see as the plan for her after she commits, and what the next twelve months look like for her when she joins your program.  Pressure is you talking about how she’ll have to pay her dues and wait her turn if she decides she wants to play for you.  (Note: Yes, that might be an honest assessment of their chances in your program.  But most recruits want to hear about what they need to do to beat out that Senior returning starter…because most of them think they can, and they’d like to see that you’re on board with that dream, too).

Passion is getting him to spend time with the Freshmen and Sophomores on your team and letting them sell him on coming there.  Pressure is putting them with a 23-year old redshirt Senior who they have nothing in common with, and sending the two of them off to lunch together for two hours (true story example there…one of the more awkward observation sessions we did for one of our clients when we were on campus).

Passion is involving her parents in all aspects of the recruiting message, which is what most kids want according to our research.  Pressure is what she feels back at home when you don’t do that, and she wants to go to your program but doesn’t feel like she can because mom and dad never really got to know you as well as your conference rival that she’s going to settle on.

Passion is consistently keeping in touch with her, showing him that you are in it for the long haul and don’t take them for granted.  Pressure is what they feel when they try to figure out why you haven’t talked to them lately (they assume you might not be as interested in them as you once were, and begin to look for coaches who they think will be more interested).

That’s a short list, but an important list.

The big question now is: What are you going to do with this information, and how will it change the way you recruit this current class of prospects? (No pressure).

Quote of the Day:

"If you could find out what the most successful people did in any area and then you did the same thing over and over, you'd eventually get the same result they do." -Brian Tracy

Sucess Quote from Denis Waitley

"Success is almost totally dependent upon drive and persistence. The extra energy required to make another effort or try
another approach is the secret of winning."

— Denis Waitley

Rebounding & Defensive Balance

While on offense, your players know what to do- they have plays to execute and patterns to run. When a shot is rebounded by the opposing team, your players know what to do- they sprint back in transition, protect the hoop and match up defensively. But what do your players do when your team takes a shot and the ball is in the air? 


I'm a huge proponent that rebounding balance leads to defensive balance. Most teams will simply "crash the boards" in an attempt to gain an offensive rebound. I believe this isn't good enough; a few adjustments can have a huge impact.

I would teach my players the following:

1) On offense, when the ball is in the air, the 3 4 and 5 players should sprint to the rim, with their hands up, and form a "rebounding triangle"; one person centered on the hoop and the two others on either side. It doesn't matter who is in which part of the triangle, as long as we have a triangle.

2) As the 3 4 and 5 are sprinting to the rim with their hands up to form a rebounding triangle, we would ideally like to have our 2 guard play "safety" by patrolling the free-throw line for long rebounds. There are three reasons for this- one, how many rebounds is your 2 going to get in the paint? Second, the 2 will be more likely to get long rebounds and also tap-outs from missed rebounds inside. Finally, if possession changes, the 2 will act as the first line of defense to prevent a fast break attack (and they also may be able to pick off outlet passes).

3) The final piece is your point guard. They should be at or beyond the 3 point line to play "protector".

The 2 and 1 are interchangeable, depending on who takes the shot.

So, now what we have is strong rebounding positioning with our 3 bigs balancing their positions inside while one guard is seeking long rebounds/picking outlet passes/slowing down transition at the free throw line and our other guard is protecting the backcourt and hoop.

Quote of the Day:

Strangers passing in the street

By chance two separate glances meet

And I am you and what I see is me

-Roger Waters

"They'll Walk If You Let 'Em"

Thanks to Bob Walsh for the assist on this post:

I was recently reminded of an article about the San Diego Chargers from a few years back.  This is the first paragraph:

Philip Rivers drives a Ford pickup truck with a custom-made bumper sticker on the back window that reads, THEY'LL WALK IF YOU LET 'EM. It was a message that former Chargers linebacker Carlos Polk used to shout at the end of long practices on hot summer afternoons when he knew that some players might be tempted to loll through the final special teams drills. Rivers became so taken with the saying that he logged on to makestickers.com early this season and had it printed up. Standing in the Qualcomm Stadium parking lot last Saturday night after the Chargers' 23--17 wild-card defeat of the Colts in overtime, Rivers said, "That bumper sticker has meant different things to me at different times. But right now it makes me think about when we were 4--8, and we could have walked the rest of the way. We didn't let each other walk."

It's a great phrase to remember when thinking about your team.  Most teams and players will give you what you demand.  But if you leave it up to them, they won't give you maximum effort.  They'll walk if you let 'em.

Quote of the Day:

"Basketball is a team game. But that doesn't mean all five players should have the same amount of shots." -Dean Smith