NCAA Athletic Scholarships "Full Ride Realities"

Quick tips on NCAA Athletic Scholarships and Financial Aid....

Financial Aid

“Full Ride” Reality.  Division I schools have the “option” to provide multi-year athletic scholarships, but it is not a given.  Division II schools provide athletic scholarships on a “year to year” basis.  All schools must notify student-athletes by July 1^st on whether the scholarship will be renewed, adjusted, or canceled.  Yes, this is a business. 

Athletic Scholarship.  Athletic scholarships cover the basics including tuition, fees, textbooks, room and board. Football is considered a “head count” sport where the athletic scholarship covers all the expenses noted above.  In other sports, like golf, a single scholarship can be divided up across five athletes into “partial” scholarships – another reason to know your leverage and be willing to negotiate for better scholarships in certain sports.

Other Aid.  Student-athletes are allowed to pursue and accept other additional forms of financial aid.  All financial aid must be reported to the school’s financial aid office.

More sports parenting tips available @ Zero Offseason

 http://www.amazon.com/Zero-Offseason-Divorce-Sports-Insanely-ebook/dp/B00PLY51RW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1419864677&sr=8-1&keywords=zero+offseason

 

NCAA Recruiting Numbers

NUMBERS DON’T LIE

3% of high school athletes earn an athletic scholarship

1% of high school athletes earn a “4-year” D1 scholarship

25% of frosh athletic scholarship recipients are no longer on scholarship entering their sophomore year of college

80% of scholarship/financial aid are non-D1 level opportunities

And finally, of the 300,000 senior high school football players only .08% will eventually make it to the NFL.  Those are…long odds.

Hit the books!

Michael Jordan hit .202

“Michael Jordan hit .202”

We wouldn’t ask a talented violinist to pick up the oboe in the winter and pursue the musical stylings of the tuba in the spring, would we?  Maybe Prince taught himself to play 20 + instruments but that’s why he is…Prince.  Should we expect the same in youth sports?

A big question for new sports parents is “if and when” to allow their student-athlete to specialize in one sport or if it’s best to play multiple sports year-round: football in fall, basketball in the winter and track in the spring.  Looking at two extreme examples - Todd Marinovich, discussed above, started training to become an NFL quarterback at the age of three.  On the other hand, Payton Manning didn’t play tackle football until the ripe old age of 7^th grade.  And things turned out alright for Manning.

Every situation and family is different but below is a general schedule for consideration for the average student-athlete:

Ages 6-10: Initiation to sports
Ages 11-14: Exposure to different sports
Ages 15-18:   Begin sports specialization
Age 19 +:  Sport specialization focus

Two Stories of Youth Sports Burnout

Two classic examples of youth sports burnout:

Former tennis star, Jennifer Capriotti, started training for 6 hours per day…at age four.  Capriotti turned pro at age 13, by age 14 she was a top ten player on tour competing against hyper-competitive players a decade older than her.  At age 17 Capriotti dropped out of tennis.  Biographies on the rise and fall of this tennis prodigy point to Capriotti’s parents’ divorce and the resulting turmoil as a contributing cause of her fall.    

Imagine being one of the best in world in a chosen sport, making unbelievable amounts of money to play a game, all the fame and recognition, endorsements, and you just…walk away.  Burnout stole a big chunk of Capriotti’s career.  She came back to the tour years and achieved more success but she lost several productive, peak years due to burnout and stressors off the court.  Capriotti lacked a solid foundation to build from and fall back on when the off court events showed up.

Next, there was Todd Marinovich, aka “Robo Quarterback.”  At age three Marinovich was working on football strategy with his dad, at age four he was scheduled for routine practice sessions.  All that singular focus paid off initially – he went on to star at QB for USC.  Marinovich’s success made him a first-round pick by the Oakland Raiders and he completed a promising rookie season. 

But burnout caught up with Marinovich.  A well-chronicled series of off-field substance abuse and legal troubles robbed Marinovich of a promising career in the NFL.  Like Capriotti, Marinovich lacked a solid foundation to build from and fall back on when the inevitable off field struggles showed up.

Youth Football and Burnout

Burnout & Breathing Room

Roughly 70% of kids quit sports by age 13.

Kids stop playing sports for various reasons but the main reason cited is “burnout.”  Burnout by…age 13?

Test yourself again and again – first, are both parents on the same page regarding youth sports time, expenses and expectations?  Second, are the parents’ goals aligned with the student-athlete’s abilities and interests?

A study by i-9 Sports surveyed 400 working sports-moms on the impact of youth sports on the family.  The results?  Not so good. 

* 25% of sports-moms reported conflict with spouses over sports expenses and deciding which sports the child could play;

* 66% of sports-moms reported that youth sports interfered with work and promotions; and

* 76% of sports-moms reported that they were glad when season ended!

Kids are sponges.  They will pick up on parental conflict no matter how well the parents shield this from their child.  And if mom and dad are arguing back and forth on sports expectations that will obviously have a negative impact on how the youth athlete views playing sports.  Parental conflict is a contributing cause of burnout. This is why it is so important for sports parents to get on the same page before even thinking about hiring a personal coach, sports psychologist or nutritionist for the student-athlete.  Parental support is the foundation for anything else that follows.

Wide Receiver Offseason Progression - The YoYo Effect

Progress Ain’t Linear

Patience is king.

So you’ve worked with your athlete to understand the benefits of focused purposeful practice, and you’ve built the mental silos for practice mode and game mode mindset.  And now?  It’s time to be patient.  And flexible. And resilient.

As we talked about earlier, youth athletes mature and develop at different paces.  The star one year becomes the role player the next, the role player the star, and back and forth it goes from player to player, season to season and sport to sport. 

Know and accept that progress on any goal will not be linear.  Typically, when first starting out on any new skill set, there may be rapid growth and improvement.  This can sometimes create a false sense of confidence and a set up for a letdown later on. 

Once the athlete gains a certain level of ability, the progress slows down.  It has to.  At the beginning, there is so much room for improvement that any progress is noticeable from day to day.  However, when the athlete gets better the room for improvement shrinks.  This can be frustrating.  The athlete, parent, and coach are left thinking, “What happened?  Why are we losing steam on our rate of progression?”  But it is much easier and noticeable to move from a 10% free throw shooter to 50% (1/10 à 5/10) than it is to move from 80% to 90% (8/10 à 9/10). Be patient.

WR Drills - Offseason Training, continued

Wide Receiver Drills:  Once your student-athlete knows what to focus on (and why), build game-like pressure and competition into the mix.  Purposeful practice is about learning what to do, then why to do it that way, and finally how to do it in a game situation under pressure.  

Making offseason drills competitive is as simple as an extra house chore for the day, or, and this one might hurt a little – how about no cell phone for the rest of the day if goals are not met!  Find out what works, make sure it is age appropriate, and not so punishing or rewarding as to distort the reason for practicing under pressure.

You just want to make sure that something is on the line.  Practicing under pressure, and under game-like conditions, is about building a confident, relaxed mindset.

WR Drills: Game Situation

Game Situation: Every drill you practice in the offseason must directly apply to a game situation.  If the team runs a west-coast offense with three-step drops and quick passes, it doesn’t make sense to focus on running deep post routes and verticals all offseason.  Every drill should serve a purpose.  Explain the “why” behind every drill and how the skill learned applies in a game situation. 

There is an infinite number of offseason drills and a lot of coaches and sport-parents get sucked into a bad habit of running drills that have zero application to the team’s actual scheme.  The majority of those drills may not apply to what you should focus on.  Keep it simple.  You only need a few drills – avoid the “shiny object” syndrome.  Lots of drills look neat.  But if it doesn’t apply don’t use it. And again, this goes back to good communication with the coach.  Find out what to focus on in the offseason. 

Purposeful Practice for WR's: Isolate Skills

Isolate Skills:  drill down, isolate, and focus on a specific skill to develop during purposeful practice. 

The attitude should not be, “well, let’s go play around and work on seven to nine different, unrelated skills until it gets dark or until dinner, whatever comes first.”  The attitude should be, “we will spend exactly 35 minutes on wide receiver ‘stance and start’ technique.  We will not work on release techniques against press-man coverage today.  Next week we will build on stance and start by isolating and focusing on release options vs. press coverage.” 

Mashing up skills and hoping some of it sticks is not purposeful practice.  Mashing up skills lacks proper sequencing, hurts retention, and leads to sloppy practice technique.  And sloppy practice technique carries over into game performance.

Youth Football: Practice Mode vs. Game Mode Mindset

Practice Mode vs. Game Mode

The athlete needs time to work on technique, to sweat the details on footwork, route breaks, and focused skill development (that is practice mode).  The athlete also needs to be able to shut down all the heavy thinking required in practice mode during the game. 

A different mindset is required for practice mode vs. the game mode.  Practice, “purposeful practice”, is the time to breakdown all the required skills for whatever position your athlete plays.  And this is why, when engaged in practice, it is purposeful, focused and isolated on specific skill sets. 

Practice mode is when the coach and athlete spend time thinking through what is being done while simultaneously doing that task.  It involves walk-thrus, rewinds, and some tedious, minor adjustments to motor functions while thinking through the “what, why and how” of those adjustments. 

“Game Mode,” on the other hand, relies entirely on instinct and confidence.  When in game mode, the last thing the athlete should do is get back up in his/her head and start questioning their abilities. 

And this why all that prep work, (physical and mental), ahead of time is so critical.  Game mode requires a short-term memory (the delete button) so the athlete can stay focused on the most important play of the game – the next play. 

Understanding the developing the “mental silos” of Practice Mode and Game mode is not a magic formula.  It doesn’t prevent slumps, exhaustion, physical mistakes and shortcomings, or remove costly mental lapses. 

Practice/Game Mode is simply a tool for the athlete to create separation between the mindset required for effective practices vs. effective games.  It helps the athlete avoid physical and mental whipsaw adjustments – the athlete understands that today I am in practice mode mindset so I’m allowed to question the (what, how and why) of my golf swing.  And tomorrow I will be in game mode mindset so I’ll be allowed to let go and confidently rely on today’s practice preparation and adjustments.

And keep in mind that minor adjustments will always be required during a game (the opposition gets a vote, after all!)  The point is the 7^th inning of a state baseball championship is probably not the time for a struggling fastball pitcher to lose confidence, retool and transition into a knuckleballer.

Coach John Wooden on Winning and Success - TED Talks

UCLA's legendary Coach John Wooden on the difference between winning and succeeding.  From TED Talks.

https://www.ted.com/talks/john_wooden_on_the_difference_between_winning_and_success

NCAA Scholarship & Recruiting Webinar

Good, free NCAA Scholarship & Recruiting webinar for both sports parents and high school coaches.

www.freerecruitingwebinar.org

Some Well Known Bench Players

It's tough ridding the bench as a student-athlete.  But as a youth football coach it is amazing the changes every season with developing players - the star one year is a role player the next, the role player becomes the star.  And back and forth it goes.  When in a supporting, bench role, remind the player that sometimes the experts, well they just get it wrong.

Some examples:

The Portland Trailblazers passed on Michael Jordan
Tom Brady was a 6th round draft pick
Apple fired Steve Jobs
Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper for being...."unimaginative!"
Anaheim first rejected Disneyland as a stupid idea
and on it goes.

Find ways to use examples of how getting "passed over" is just part of the youth sports journey. 

Student-Athletes and Child Support in "Move Away" Cases

Raising student-athletes in CA is expensive.  Very expensive.  So let's say you are the custodial parent and wish to move out of state to a less pricy part of the country.  Keep in mind that there may be a "move away" adjustment to child support in this kind of situation.

Child Support is designed to reflect CA's high cost of living compared to other states.  If the custodial parent moves out of state to a location with a lower cost of living, the non-custodial parent may bring an action to reduce the monthly child support payment (lower cost of living = less need for child support).  The moving party must bring evidence showing the lower cost of living in comparison to where the custodial parent previously lived with the student-athlete.

Also, when the custodial parent moves far away, requiring an increase in travel cost to the non-custodial parent for visitations with the student-athlete, this additional travel cost may also be a basis to reduce monthly child support payments...

NCAA Athletic Scholarships & Recruiting Services

Pretty good article from a while back re: "pay for play" recruiting services.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2011/jan/31/trying-win-scholarship-game/

Wide Receiver Offseason Drills

Teaching Progression:  heart surgeons don’t bang around the chest cavity on the first day of med school, and fighter pilots don’t land $40M jets on aircraft carriers following boot-camp. 

Skill development requires sequenced steps of progression.  Start at the end and press rewind.  Map out the skills required (and the “why”) to achieve the goal and work backward.  For a WR to get separation from a DB he needs a clean break at the top of the route; to get a clean break at the top of the route a WR needs to be under control with proper balance, speed and leverage against the DB…and continue working backwards to stance and start.

Again, start at the end and press rewind.  Explain the desired end result.  Then explain the steps required working backwards from Z to A.  Then get to work, moving from A to Z, in sequence and developing those skills in isolation.  Once all the skills are learned, put them all together:

Stance and Start à

Release vs. Press Coverage à

Route Stem à

Route Break à

Hand Placement à

Ball Control à

Yards After Catch à

and……Touchdown Dance. 

Well, maybe Act like you been there…not like you just arrived!