How Do You Ask A College Coach To Come Watch You Play?
One of the best ways for college coaches to sense if you are a good fit for their team is for them to watch you play in person. Watching you play allows them to see how you react to challenges in real-time and how you interact with your teammates. But how do you ask a college coach to come watch you play?
To ask a college coach to come watch you play, you should send them a professional email to introduce yourself and ask if they’re available to view your game. It’s a good idea to link your highlight video in the email to impress the coach and hopefully interest them in coming to watch you play. To make your email stand out from many other emails that potential recruits send to college coaches, keep it clear and concise.
When a college coach comes to a player’s game, that usually means they are seriously recruiting them. College coaches have hectic schedules, so their time is significant to them. If they take the time to travel to one of your home games or even a tournament near their school, the coach is investing their energy to learn more about you.
Communicating With A College Coach
How you communicate with a college coach matters. Coaches are looking for players with professionalism, time management skills and leadership qualities. As a student-athlete, you have an opportunity with every email, phone call, or in-person meeting to make a good impression on a coach. To ask a coach to watch you play, you should include a few things to boost your chances of getting the coach to come.
Develop A Relationship: Ideally, a college coach knows who you are before you ask them to come watch you play. If you’ve talked to the coach before about recruiting, they are more likely to attend one of your games. They will also be more likely to come to watch you play if they already know you and your athletic skill set.
Include Contact Information: If you haven’t talked with a coach before, make sure to introduce yourself. Include everything that might catch their attention like your high school, position, current team schedule, graduation year and any relevant athletic statistics. Don’t forget to give the coach your contact information, including your phone number, so they can reach out with more questions if they have any.
Link Highlight Video: One of the most important things to include when asking a college coach to come watch you play is your highlight video. This video can help convince a coach to come watch you play because they can see some of your top plays and how you play on a team. Adding a link to your highlight video in your email signature is an excellent way to share it with any coach you’re in contact with.
Explain Your Reason: Whether you ask a college coach to come watch you play in an email or over the phone, be sure to mention why you’re interested in the school and the team. Coaches are looking for players who are genuinely interested in their school and not considering them as a backup option. Explaining what attracted you to the school, especially with a personal touch, can help the coach find you as a recruit more seriously.
If you don’t hear from the coach right away after asking them to come watch you play, follow up with a phone call. Don’t be too intimidated to reach out to college coaches; they are familiar with recruits reaching out to them. Being persistent and consistent can be vital to getting a coach to watch you play.
Why Should You Ask A College Coach To Come Watch You Play?
Recruiting is all about meeting coaches and getting their attention. The most strategic way to do this is to build a relationship with a coach and slowly allow them to get to know you. Asking a coach to come watch you play is one reason to reach out, and if they come to watch you play, it’s one of the more serious signs of recruiting interest.
Make A Good Impression: It can leave a good impression on a coach for you to reach out and ask about their availability. Communicating with a college coach, even if it’s not the head coach, can prove your confidence and time management skills, something that college coaches are looking for in recruits. If a coach can come watch you play, performing at your highest level can convince them to start seriously recruiting you.
Build A Relationship: To build a relationship with a coach, you should talk with them consistently. Talking with a coach at a home game or tournament provides a different environment. It allows you to talk more specifically about your performance and where you see yourself playing in college. Asking a coach to come watch you play makes it more likely that you can have these conversations with coaches.
Show Dimension: Unlike your highlight video, playing in person allows coaches to see some dimension to how you compete. They can analyze how you interact with your team, how you react to unexpected challenges on the field/court and how you work with your coach. Knowing all of these aspects of your playing style can help a coach tell if you are a good fit for their team.
If a coach does come to watch you play, follow up with a thank-you note. It’s a serious sign that they’re interested in you, so don’t be afraid to reach out to say thank you and ask more questions about recruiting if you have them.
Other Ways For A Coach To See Your Potential
If you’re already playing at a tournament or showcase, the chances are that coaches are going to be there anyway to scout other players. Being proactive and reaching out to coaches at schools you’re interested in can get you noticed and convince a coach to watch you play as well.
Tournaments And Showcases: At tournaments and showcases, college coaches are looking at a list of players they’re recruiting. Whether or not you’re on that list, be sure to play your best. Do your research beforehand to gauge which tournaments or showcases will gain you the most exposure and reach out to coaches in the area who will likely be there.
Playing Against Other Recruits: If you know that you’ll be playing against a highly ranked recruit in your sport, you can bet that college coaches will be at the game to watch them play. It can be a good idea to reach out to a coach who might already be there to ask them to watch you play. It can help to build name recognition and might even get you noticed by a college coach.
Sports Camps: A sports camp is usually hosted by one school to allow college coaches to get a sense of potential recruits and how they play. While you have to travel to a sports camp, this is still an excellent way for a college coach to see your potential and watch you play.
Manage Your Nerves: At any event where a college coach might be watching you play, pay attention to how you feel. Your nervous energy can throw you off if you let it go unchecked. Noticing your thoughts and body language can help you identify some pre-game nerves. Use a strategy that works well for you to refocus and calm down so that you can play your best.
When coaches go to events like tournaments and showcases, they go there intentionally with a list of student-athletes they want to watch play. Don’t hold out hope that a coach will randomly see you play and want to recruit you immediately. Contact coaches first to gauge their interest and then take advantage of any opportunity you have for the coach to watch.
Things To Keep In Mind
Current Coaches: Your current coaches, either high school or club, can be great resources for you when talking with college coaches. You can ask them to make an introduction for you or help facilitate a meeting. However, don’t expect your high school or club coach to invite a college coach to a game on your behalf unasked. They also have busy schedules and are many different priorities.
Do The Work: Recruiting requires a good amount of effort on your part. It’s essential to reach out consistently to college coaches to get noticed. The most successful recruits slowly work toward getting an offer from their dream school by working hard on and off the field.