Hi! I’m a freshman in high school. I throw discus and shot, and I want to throw D3 in college. I was thinking about emailing coaches and asking where they would want a thrower to be at, sharing some information about me, and expressing my interest. Is emailing a coach as a freshman too early?
Too early. Do a google search or Div 3 track recruiting standards or look at the roster of a school and search the info o the distance/times they are performing at.
In your Junior year is a good time to start reaching out, after you have some HS performances to show ,and a transcript too. Good luck.
I agree with RightCoaster, but would argue for Sophomore year — assuming your PBs merit attention.
IMO, waiting for Junior year means you have to contend with the bulk of people who are also just getting started that year. At least in my daughter’s sport (fencing), I think starting the process Sophomore year (including a few unofficial visits) was good timing…and in daughter’s case, made a difference in degree of attention/responsiveness from coaches she received her Junior year.
It’s not too early to start building a list of target colleges that have your intended major and are geographically desirable. Check out their team’s athletic website and check their stats. Talk with your high school coach and upperclassmen at your high school to get their perspectives, too.
Nor is it too early to get the video angle going. If your parent has a tripod and HD camera, have them tape your events. The coaches told us they appreciated was seeing progress, and the only way you can show progress is by starting your taping process early.
I do think your desire to start making contact with coaches is to be commended. If you were to start now, you would need to know that some coaches may not get back to you because you are a freshman and their recruiting priorities are elsewhere. Perhaps you could arrange to meet with a coach nearby in the off-season to get input. It could only hurt if you take it personally if they don’t respond.
Beyond that, work on a good lifting program. Make sure you have good coaching for your sport. Keep your grades up and consider working on test prep. In my view, it is never too early for test prep.
D3 track can’t contact you until January 1 of your junior year. It would be good to have contacted them prior to that so they know your interest. So that can be anytime after your sophomore spring season. Get a milesplit account and look up the top throwers from the college team of interest to see what their marks from sophomore year in high school were to get an idea where you might fit in. Most coaches will take the time to meet with you prior to your junior year of you initiate contact. Good throwers are hard to get. But they also know a lot can change between the end if your sophomore year and the start of your senior year in terms of progression and the athlete’s interest. Good luck.
Thank you all for the advice and insight!
I’m planning on participating in a few open meets at college before and during my indoor season, because indoor only has a few meets. Should I have my mom tape my throws so I can just have them on hand if necessary?
Also, where would I find a good lifting program for throwers? I can’t really find any online, but I might be looking in the wrong place.
Thank you all once again!!
Also- should I create an NCSA account? I have a few friends my age who already have one, so should I start my own? Would it help?
Video doesn’t matter much in track and field. The tape and stopwatch don’t lie. The only time video is useful is if you demonstrated a race strategy that produced a come from behind win or held off a challenger. College track coaches know the first year is to fix the problems.
If you do decide to contact a coach by email, remember that in many sports the coaches can’t reply until a certain date (Sept 1, Jan 1 of junior year). In some sports they can respond to the high school coach, or they can talk to you on the phone if you happen to catch them. If you are planning a trip to the campus, it is fine to talk to them
@jmk518, I would have agreed with you on the tape in timed events, but I have since learned that coaches are interested in even in timed sports like swimming. Having tape also gives you an excuse to contact coaches and ask them what they think. New tape, another contact. So, as a marketing tool, it does have value even if times are more important. At a minimum, it will keep your parents occupied during meets.
My S is a runner. He is in touch with several coaches and not a single one has asked for a video. In track the coaches rely on Milesplit. If a coach really wants to watch a race Milesplit has the big ones. But you can bet they are checking and confirming results there. For example, S had written to a coach about a recent race and coach responded that he had already seen the results on Milesplit. I don’t know if it’s the same for throwing but I would look into this before you get into the time and expense of creating a video.
quality home video is not hard to create these days but it takes practice. Cell phone/ipad quality is pretty good. Yes, start to make video. But do it largely to become comfortable making and editing it. It is pretty easy to share an mp4 file. Have one video focused exclusively on you in the circle and do not move that camera. have a second camera from further away so that it can both show you and show where the shot/discus lands. It will take practice finding the correct angles and the best vantage points may be different between the two implements. Tripods would make the video more stable, but not many people seem to use those anymore. Start making contact with coaches after you get good distances this spring. So as not to become a distraction during the school year, focus on making coaching contacts the summer after your freshman year. You will then have grades and recent marks to share. If you are applying to top D3 schools, they will want to know that you are making good grades. My track athlete started visiting colleges summer after freshman year with an older sibling. Take the admissions tour and info session and make an appointment to say hello to the coach.
My daughter was a recruited long/triple jumper and almost every coach asked for video. I can see how it would be more important in the field events where coaches are looking at technique, placement on the board, etc. But, even in running events, coaches can look for running technique, body posture, etc. We just had video we had recorded ourselves that showed action from different angles and this was acceptable for coaches.
Take and share video. Post on YouTube and share the link in an email (easy and free to do). You do not need to create a recruiting account to do this. My son is a vaulter, ALL coaches wanted to see video to know if PRs were skill based and could be improved or just a result of a lucky “everything aligned” kind of day. My iPhone videos worked just fine, and my son even had one coach say that he liked the unedited comments from the crowd and happy parents that you can hear yelling in the background. Your videos will be short, so poor quality is not that annoying.
Coaches will want to see your technique and will be able to see if they can help you or in the case of college, if they think a little work will make you competitive in a multitude of throwing events vs. one. e.g. they may see you have potential for the hammer/weight throw based on your style. In college most throwers do all throwing events even though they may be naturally better in one vs. another.
There are also specialty summer throws camps that many coaches hold, see if you can find and attend one, Iron Wood is a big one, if not the biggest. You can reach out to the camp instructors and say you are interested and ask if they can send you a lifting plan. If you don’t combine recruiting info with this request, I believe they are allowed to answer you. Many of the coaches are also still competing themselves and do not coach collegiately, so they have no restriction taking to a high school athlete. Send an email to the camp info email account and see what happens.
To the OP’s question about NCSA…my kid is not in T&F (nor any of the sports NCSA lists on their site), but IMO, I don’t think any of those recruiting services are really needed if you really have the athletic skills/ability and time to put into correspondence/follow-up. I mean, I’m sure many kids that have used the site have gotten recruited over the years…but my question is “Would these kids have been recruited regardless?” Maybe a lot is dependent on the sport…
If you’re just looking to host video, YouTube or Vimeo should be fine. We used Dartfish.tv because we use the Dartfish app…but there are a number of options for video apps out there.
Here’s a thread on the topic (I only read the first few posts, but I think it might be of interest to you):
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/athletic-recruits/1797485-is-it-worthwhile-to-join-an-athletic-recruiting-website.html
I think my XC/Track DD found the free NCSA account helpful early on as it provided her with some insight as to which coaches were viewing her profile (I found a way to back solve and figure out) and it did result in some useful coach outreaches separate from her efforts - that said, it was mostly a self directed process for her.