NCAA Recruiting Terms 101

It’s that time of year again!

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, frustrated or anxious about the college recruiting process, trust me, you’re not alone.

College application deadlines are approaching, the early signing period for the National Letter of Intent is looming, and Coaching staffs are on their recruiting games. Players are taking visits, building relationships, and committing to schools. Whether you’re a Senior who’s a late-bloomer or a Freshman who’s just getting started, it would be advisable to take any advantage you can get in the recruiting process. To do this takes a unique understanding of what coaches are looking for, how to build relationships and a clear understanding of what coaches can and cannot do in terms of recruiting you.

Many dependent factors such as grad year, academic standing, and past performance will determine if a coach can or cannot recruit you.

Over the years, the NCAA has implemented strict guidelines which prohibit coaches from sending emails, making telephone calls, contacting you off-campus, or evaluating you on the golf course.

Note: the rules and regulations are different at all levels; NCAA D1, D2, D3, and even NAIA & NJCAA.

Here are a few recruiting definitions that you can utilize during the college recruiting process:

• PSA: (Prospective Student-Athlete) You are considered a PSA at the start of 9th Grade classes

• Contact: A contact happens any time a college coach says more than hello during a face-to-face meeting with you or your parents off the college’s campus.

• Dead Period: A college coach may not have any face-to-face contact with a recruit/player or his/her parents on or off the college campus at any time during a dead period. However, a coach may write and call a recruit/player during a dead period.

• Evaluation: An evaluation takes place when a college coach observes you practicing or competing.

• Official visit: During an official campus visit, the college can pay for transportation to and from the college for you, lodging and meals (Division I allows for up to three meals per day) for you and your parents or guardians, as well as reasonable entertainment expenses including three tickets to a Division I home sports event or five tickets to a Division II home sports event. Before a college may invite you on an official visit, you must provide the college with a copy of your high school transcript and ACT, SAT or PLAN score (test scores are required for Division I only) and register with the NCAA Eligibility Center.

• Unofficial visit: An unofficial campus visit is a “trip” taken by the recruit/player and his/her parents to a college campus. All unofficial visits are funded by the recruit/player. The college and/or coach may not pay for any expenses (except athletic games). We encourage ForeCollegeGolf clients/players to make as many unofficial visits as they can and to take those visits at any time during the recruiting process.

• Recruited: If a college coach calls a player/recruit more than once, contacts them off campus, pays their expenses to visit the campus, or in Divisions I and II, issues a National Letter of Intent or a written offer of financial aid, then the player/recruit is considered to be recruited.

• Verbal commitment: A verbal commitment takes place when a player verbally agrees to play for a college/university before he/she is eligible to sign a National Letter of Intent. The commitment is not binding on the player or the college/university and can be made at any time during the recruiting process.

• Walk-on: A recruit who does not receive a scholarship, but who is placed on the team roster as a full-time student-athlete just like the scholarship athletes.

Dates to Remember:

• Starting June 15th AFTER sophomore year: Coaches can begin to initiate contact with PSA’s. ***Players can initiate communication with Coaches at any time.

• Prior to June 15th: Coaches can’t initiate contact with PSA’s but they can send/email/mail/message PSA’s about athletic information at the school or send them a questionnaire.

• Starting August 1st BEFORE Junior Year: PSA’s can begin to take Official Visits to Campus.

• Anytime: College coaches can send recruits general materials, such as questionnaires, camp information, non-athletic information about the school, and materials published by the NCAA. 

The NCAA rules/regulations place restrictions on Coaches, as a prospective student-athlete you need to be aware of them but NCAA recruiting rules are primarily to hold Coaches accountable for their recruiting actions! So keep in mind, PSA’s are free to communicate with college coaches/players/athletic department heads anytime they wish! Calls, emails, texts, Facebook posts… anything and everything is permitted for players,

Remember, although coaches may not be responding or actively recruiting you, it doesn’t mean you aren’t on their radar or they aren’t noticing you. 

“Stay patiently proactive!”                 

Mike Smith is the Founder & CEO of ForeCollegeGolf and specializes in assisting junior golfers & their families through the college recruiting process. Email him @ mike.smith@forecollegegolf.com

“We’re talkin’ about PRACTICE…”

Not a game …. “We’re talkin’ bout practice” were the iconic words from Allen Iverson during his post-game interview in 2002. Allen was adamant about inferring the difference between practice and competition, and he was right! In football, players practice on the football field. In baseball, players practice on the baseball field. In tennis, players practice on the tennis court. Golf is the only sport where our playing environment is profoundly different and more challenging than our practice environment.

In golf, the average practice environment has little, if any variables. Whereas the course provides many obstacles and extreme challenges. Fundamentally, golf courses take on a different degree of challenge due to course set-up, the nature of each hole, the shots needed to navigate those holes, and then there are the environmental variables such as grass, rough, sand, wind, bushes, trees, houses, water hazards, out of bounds, … you get the point. There is an unlimited number of environmental variables that make the golf course more difficult than the practice range.

 What we can’t do is build a “practice course” but we can find subtle ways to emulate the course environment. By incorporating a few diverse, unusual, yet effective training regimens, we can be on our way to playing better golf.

First, let’s talk about the ideal practice environment. Note to reader, everyone will have a different ideal practice environment. Factors like skill level, competitive tournament schedule, strengths and weaknesses, and practice environments are just a few things that will shape and alter your practice.

So let’s break it down. Practice can be categorized in many different ways. However, for the purposes of this article, let’s explain the three main ways golfers practice.

• Technical – Acquiring the proper technique by changing your motor pattern(s)

• Skill Development – Measuring how well you retain your technical changes in practice with drills/games

• Performance 101 & Competition – Practicing with pressure and simulating a competitive environment

We also encourage our players to set long-term and short-term practice “plans” or schedules in advance….

·      Long(er) Term Schedule: 6-weeks in advance, plan out which phase of practice you plan to be in during that given week. (Technical, Skill or Performance)

·      Short Term Schedule: a weekly running practice calendar

The best players in golf are also the best at reflecting and assessing their past practices or competitions. I commonly see this displayed by the best players in our sport.

Here are some additional questions you can ask yourself for practice…

The 3 C’s

·      Context

o   Why? Why am I practicing today? (Technique, skills, performance, prep?)

·      Content

o   What am I training today?

o   What kind of drills am I doing today?

o   What are you doing today to prepare you for your next tournament?

§  For example, “I’m playing a tournament with small greens so I’ll be working on hitting lots of chips and short putts as well as to smaller targets while holding myself accountable to PGA Tour wedge proximities.”

·      Conclusion –

o   If I could do that practice session over again, what would I do differently?

o   What did I do well today in that practice session?

At ForeCollegeGolf, we encourage our players to use all three types of practice by creating a practice schedule with technical, skill, and performance practice distinctions. We hold our players accountable to not only keeping a regular practice schedule but also, make sure they are assessing and reflecting on their past practices and performances. Gaining feedback in order to learn, grow, and ultimately perform better is paramount to a player’s game!

 Mike Smith is the Founder & CEO of ForeCollegeGolf and specializes in assisting junior golfers & their families through the college recruiting process. Email him @ mike.smith@forecollegegolf.com

Characteristics of Great College Coaches

For most players, your college coach is someone who will make a significant impact on your athletic experience and someone who you will spend a significant amount of time with.

How much time? Well, about 4 hours/day, 6days/week, which adds up to 200+ hours each semester!

However, prospects should NOT base their entire college decision on who their coach is because many head coaching contracts in college golf range from 3-6 years, but your head coach can still be a big piece of your final decision!

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to speak with college coaches at every level in college golf. From my conversations and interactions, one thing is obvious – the best college coaches share many of the same characteristics.

Great College Golf Coaches …

· Are noble mentors, leaders, and motivators

· Aren’t caught “off guard” or flustered easily

· Know when/how to motivate their players & are trusted by their team.

· Have faith and passion in their players

· Have faith and passion in their plan

· Demand perfection (or near perfection) in their players, on & off the course.

· Understand that winning is the only thing that they will be judged on

· Create realistic goals & expectations for themselves, their coaching staff, and their players

· Successfully balance team activities, travel, recruiting, fundraising, and much more

· Learn from past experiences and take on traits of the best coaches they’ve worked for

· Expect to host tough and demanding team practices.

· Have strong relationships with other coaches across the country at every level

· Enjoy the process of Coaching, even the early mornings and long 36-hole days in college golf.

· Are open, honest, and completely transparent with their players

· Operate their program with clear-cut and precise team rules

· Verbalize everything that is expected of them, their coaching staff, and their players, regularly

· Expect their players to hold each other accountable

· Take time to listen and understand each of their players

· Put the “big-picture” in perspective, always

Please consider these characteristics when speaking or meeting with college coaches and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Remember, the best coach for someone else, might not be the best Coach for YOU and just because the school is a great fit for you, doesn’t mean the Coach is, and vice versa. The best coach for YOU is someone who shows endearing confidence in you, is persistent with their communication, and someone who genuinely cares for you, your future, and is open and honest about how they can actively help guide you there.

Best of luck on your journey toward college golf,

Michael J. Smith

Founder, ForeCollegeGolf

ForeCollegeGolf is a college placement and recruiting business where Mike aims to apply his background in competitive golf and recruiting education to help educate players, their families and coaches about the college recruiting process.

If you have any questions about the article above, any feedback, an article idea you would like to provide; you can contact us at mike.smith@forecollegegolf.com or www.ForeCollegeGolf.com.

Tournament Scheduling in Junior Golf

Tournament Scheduling in Junior Golf

 ForeCollegeGolf 14min Video - WATCH HERE

For many players and families, tournament scheduling can be one of the most daunting, confusing, and overwhelming tasks to navigate. Junior golf is unique compared to college or pro golf because players have the autonomy to schedule their own events, travel individually (without a team or a caddy), and experience new challenges and learning opportunities around every corner.

With this article, our aim is to guide families, like yours, toward making the right considerations and ultimately the right decisions, on how to approach setting up your tournament schedule.

At ForeCollegeGolf, we ask our players to understand that tournament scheduling is much more than just signing up for events, tournament scheduling is inherently cyclical.

At FCG, we believe the stages of tournament scheduling are:

·      Plan - look ahead & take ownership

·      Prepare - ready your skillset for tournaments

·      Execute – perform & be excellent

·      Evaluate - reflect on past performance

Now, let's break down each stage.

Planning Stage

·      Start early! I see too many juniors who sign up late or hesitate leading up to an event because of the weather, course setup, playing partners or just their overall readiness. If you commit to an event, commit early, and commit 100%.

o   Most AJGA and other larger national events require you to sign up 4-6 weeks in advance, some invitationals even earlier. As a general rule, players should update their upcoming tournament schedules every 3mo (quarterly) and plan ahead and apply to tournaments.

·      Find your Balance – every schedule should include “Hard, Medium, and Easy” events to supplement the player and their development. Most juniors should aim to play a balanced schedule of 10-15 ranked events per year, not including qualifiers or HS golf. This is dependent on location, weather, and player preference, past history, where they want to be recruited. It’s very typical for a Freshman or Sophomore to play more often but play more locally, whereas, upperclassmen in their Junior or Senior years typically play less often but travel farther and play more national events or events near where they want to be recruited.  

o   Hard events – your “Majors”, these are events where there are many players at or above your skill level. If you win people will say, “Who is that guy?”

o   Medium events – your “Challenges”, these are events where there are a mix of players above/below your skill level. If you win, people will say, “I'm not surprised he won, he's been here before”

o   Easy events – your “Confidence builders”, these are events where you may be the best player in the field. If you win people will say, “He should have won, I’m not surprised”.

o   Note: Players should prioritize a balanced schedule to allow for periodic developmental growth. At the elite level, there may be instances where events overlap, and players will need to “double book” their schedules because some events, like elite invitationals, do not guarantee entry.

·      “Climb the developmental ladder” – “don’t skip rungs of the ladder”. Meaning, if you haven’t had a Top5 at the local level yet, don’t set a goal to Top5 at your next regional event, OR if you’ve recently won a regional event, don’t set an expectation to win your next national event, be honest with yourself & set expectations accordingly. Continuous growth and development is king.

·      Play where you want to be recruited – For example, if you want to play college golf in the Southeast, play tournaments in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.  

·      Cold-Weather Exception – If you’re in a cold-weather climate, give yourself 1 month after your home course reopens before you play in tournament competition. Also, don’t play tournaments in December or January; the weather is statistically poor, and NCAA D1 College Coaches can’t recruit off-campus during December**. Use this time to build and develop your swing, get a club fitting, or make major changes. (*2018 NCAA bylaw revision)

Preparation Stage –

·      Keep your schedule visible! – as the saying goes, “ink it, don’t just think it”, or in other words, put your schedule somewhere you can see it on a regular basis like your bedroom mirror or the refrigerator in your kitchen.

·      Prepare like a PRO - Remember, your schedule should determine how you practice and how you practice determines how you ultimately perform!

o   When periodizing practice, make sure to differentiate between technical, skill and performance practice days and be cognizant of when you need to work on certain aspects of your game.

·      Course Prep - utilize tools like Google Maps/Earth, Blue Golf or other apps to map out courses, targets, club selections, and strategy beforehand.

·      Play AT LEAST one practice round - and no, it’s not a cardinal sin to keep score in practice rounds, but keep an honest perspective, nothing counts until your 1st Tee shot.

·      Keep a “Growth-Mindset” – continue growing and adding to your developmental skillset each and every day. If you continue adding layers to your armor, it’s only going to get stronger and stronger over time to the point where it becomes impenetrable.

Execution Stage – “Go, Be Excellent!”

·      Be YOU- Play to your Strengths, know your game plan, and stay true to your identity. Be confident & take pride in who you are & all the hard work you’ve put in.

·      “Play” freely – do your best to minimize expectations, outside distractions, and negative emotions.

·      Be decisive & stay aggressive - The best players in the world have conviction in their decisions & make aggressive swings to small, conservative targets.

Evaluation Stage -

·      Evaluate your past performance(s) –vocalize and take ownership of the good and the bad. I always ask my players 3 questions…

o   What did you do well?

o   What could you have done better?

o   What will you do differently next time?

·      Track your Stats – many players make the mistake of keeping bad stats (fwrys, GIR, putts) or not keeping stats at all. Utilize a “strokes-gained” stats app, like UpGame or ShotbyShot, or DECADE, to input your stats after each round. If you stay disciplined, once you have a 20-30 round sample size this data can be used to analyze your strengths and weaknesses, which can be helpful to plan practice and strategize on-course.

·      Ask necessary Q’s

o   How will I schedule differently going forward?

o   Was the level of events appropriate compared to my skill level?

o   Did I play too often or not enough?

o   Did I give myself enough time for rest/recovery?

o   Were there any events that I couldn’t handle or where I was overly stressed?

o   Did I see any recognizable patterns in my game? Did these match my stats?

o   Going forward, is my focus to play for experience or exposure?

Now that you’ve gone through the tournament scheduling cycle, you should be able to assess and modify your approach from event to event.

Best of luck in your upcoming events!

Michael J. Smith - President, ForeCollegeGolf