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From Cindy Bristow:
There aren?t enough college softball roster spots for everyone who wants to play college softball. But, having the 4 A?s will help make your chances greater!
It might seem too simple to be able to narrow down playing college softball to 4 things, but as a former college softball coach, these 4 things are the difference between a player you REALLY want and a player you aren?t even interested in. And if you?re trying to play college softball then you definitely want to be somebody that coaches REALLY want.
So, how do you become that player? Let?s look at the 4 A?s it will take for you to play college softball:
There aren?t enough college softball roster spots for everyone who wants to play college softball. But, having the 4 A?s will help make your chances greater!
It might seem too simple to be able to narrow down playing college softball to 4 things, but as a former college softball coach, these 4 things are the difference between a player you REALLY want and a player you aren?t even interested in. And if you?re trying to play college softball then you definitely want to be somebody that coaches REALLY want.
So, how do you become that player? Let?s look at the 4 A?s it will take for you to play college softball:
- Academics ? ahead of anything else, you?re going to COLLEGE to play softball, so you?ve got to be academically eligible to attend that particular college. Sure, in some cases coaches can get requirements eased a bit, but it?s a myth to think if you?re a good enough softball player that you can have bad grades. No way! In fact, there?s a very famous US Olympic softball player that, while an awesome player, couldn?t qualify for college so she couldn?t play college softball. If you?re setting your sights on playing college softball then you need to make sure you keep your grades up, do your homework, pay attention in class and make sure you meet the NCAA Academic Requirements.
- Ability ? This is the one A that everyone focuses on. This is the easy one! Everybody has talent. Or at least they think they do. Sure, you might be good on your current team or teams. In fact, you might be the best, but that doesn?t mean you?re good enough to play college softball. Remember that as a freshman in college you?ll be playing against seniors that are 22 years old. They?ll be bigger and stronger and faster and better than you! And those are the players the college coaches have in their minds when they?re out looking for recruits. I?m not saying that you aren?t good now, or won?t be good enough to play college softball. But I am saying that just because you?re good right now isn?t a guarantee that you?ll be good enough for college. Softball on the college level is faster than any other level. That means you?ve got to think faster, move faster, throw faster, and pitch faster. Faster also means stronger and college softball teams weight-train more than you?ve ever weight-trained in your life.If this sounds overwhelming and you?re not sure if you have what it takes to play college softball then our College Softball Bootcamp is for you! We?ve created this camp specifically for players wanting to play college softball. This camp will show you exactly what college softball players go through in conditioning, in position play, in academics, in time-management as well as guiding you through the academic requirements and recruiting questions. Check it out and sign up while we still have space!
- Attitude ? this is probably the biggest thing of all! You might have good grades and great talent, but if you have a horrible attitude then your opportunities just shrunk. I know coaches that will cross a recruit off their list if they see them being rude to their parents. The reason is they feel if you?re rude to your parents you?ll probably be rude to your coach. College coaches aren?t looking for problems, they?re out trying to recruit solutions and your attitude is one of the best ways to show coaches that YOU?RE the solution! And I?m not talking about saying hi after a good game. I?m talking about your attitude when you?re in the middle of a Huge game and you?re playing your worst. That?s when coaches pay special attention to your attitude because they know you?ll have bad games in college and they want to see if you?re a quitter, a blamer or a competitor!
- Addition ? to play college softball you?ve got to ADD something to the team. How will you make that team and that program better? Sure, your parents might know how wonderful you are but a college coach is a little more objective than your parents and they have such little exposure to you. How will a college coach know things about you like; you?re a great team player, that you make players around you better, that you?re a competitor, that you out-work everybody else, that you are extremely coachable, that you are polite and well-mannered, that you accept responsibility for your actions instead of blaming others? All of these things are very important qualities that coaches look for, and yet how will they see these things if they come watch you play? Think about that. Do they see you pointing fingers and hanging your head when you make a mistake? Do they see you boss your parents around to go get you a drink? Do they see you blaming your teammates for not hitting the ball? Just remember that LOTS of players have good grades and great skills, so you?ve got to make sure that you ADD something to that program that they don?t currently have, that they?re losing through graduation, or that they can?t live without!
