February 11, 2014
No matter how good you are at playing basketball, if you're hoping to win a scholarship to play for one of the top college teams, you'll need to make sure that you put in the amount of work needed to get noticed by scouts and coaches. It's important to understand that even really great players can get overlooked, and it’s vital for you to be proactive in putting yourself out there and making sure that you stand out for all of the right reasons. If you're currently working towards getting a basketball scholarship, we've got some tips to help you make sure you grab the attention of college coaches.
Being Proactive
When it comes to getting an athletic scholarship, you really can't simply hope that you get one. Scholarship places are often very competitive, and you’ll need to be prepared to contact coaches, enter competitions, use social media, and more in order to ensure that you don’t end up overlooked. Many coaches will only consider awarding scholarships to players who are intuitive and get in touch to showcase their skills. Signing up to a site such as Athletes-USA.com is a great way of putting your skills out there and getting noticed.
Create a Sports Video
Showcasing your skills on video can be a great way to get coaches to stand up and take notice of you when playing basketball. Since many coaches cannot often make it to the games that you invite them to in order to see you in action, especially if you’re applying to a college a long way from home, sending them a video can be a great alternative way to ensure that they see you in action before considering whether or not you deserve a place. Since many school basketball games will be recorded, you may already have some great footage that you could use.
Improve Your Skills
When looking for new recruits, college coaches aren’t just looking for a good already developed set of skills, they also want to see players who are dedicated to constantly improving and fine tuning their basketball skills and techniques. With many college coaches, it’s the attitude of the player that they are really interested in getting to know more about. With the right attitude towards practice, learning and improvement within your sport, you will become more of an attractive candidate to professional coaches.
Compete Often
Aiming to compete in as many basketball competitions as you can is essential if you're trying to get noticed by a coach or scout for a top college team. Not only does regularly competing help to improve your skills and performance, it's also the best way to put your skills out there. Along with competing, there are plenty of other ways that you could get relevant experience, such as coaching younger players in your spare time.
Getting sports scholarships in basketball is very competitive, so if you're hoping to be awarded a place playing basketball for a top college team, it's important to make sure that you'll be noticed.