Want to play DI? Make sure you’re completing these off-the-field tasks

Playing a Division I sport requires a lot of work on the field and in the classroom.  Everybody knows about the kind of work you have to put in to get better at your sport, but there are also a few other barriers to get over to play a sport at the DI level.  The NCAA website has excellent tools and information to make sure you’re on the right track to playing DI.  Here are a few of the major things to make sure you’re doing as you go through your high school career:

Grade 9

• Ask your counselor for a list of your high school’s NCAA core courses to make sure you take the right classes.

Grade 10

• Register with the NCAA Eligibility Center at eligibilitycenter.org.

Grade 11

• Check with your counselor to make sure you will graduate on time with the required number of NCAA core courses.
• Take the ACT or SAT and submit your scores to the NCAA using code 9999.
• At the end of the year, ask your counselor to upload your official transcript to the NCAA Eligibility Center.

Grade 12

• Finish your last NCAA core courses.
• Take the ACT or SAT again, if necessary, and submit your scores to the NCAA using code 9999.
• Complete all academic and amateurism questions in your NCAA Eligibility Center account at eligibilitycenter.org.
• After you graduate, ask your counselor to submit your final official transcript with proof of graduation to the NCAA Eligibility Center.

This isn’t a lot of work.  However, if you fail to complete these steps, you will be scrambling and it might be too late.

Injuries and Recruiting tips

Dealing With Injuries

It’s a question every athlete has on her mind, a scenario that ignites fear deep within parents. Hollywood has even created characters to live out this “situation”, perhaps shedding a “real” light on what just might happen. “If I get injured what will happen with college recruiting?” This is a legitimate question and, as a former athlete, something I was well aware of. The most important aspect when answering what will happen is to understand that unpredictable injuries happen all the time. Now that we understand the possibility of this happening we can discuss possible ways to salvage your college recruiting effort.

Don't Limit Your Options

Just because you’re really interested in a school, were offered a scholarship, or gave a verbal commitment doesn’t mean your recruiting process is over. Nothing is guaranteed until you sign an NLI or its equivalent with that particular school. Up until signing, scholarship offers and commitments can be dropped by both sides for any number of reasons.

Spread Your Risk

There’s an old saying “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”; limiting yourself to only a small number of school options creates a larger opportunity for disappointment. Look to create interest from as many schools as possible while making sure you share a real interest in every school you contact. As an example if you are thinking about 5 schools try 25 , 25 try 50, and so on and so forth.

Take Care of Your Body

Many athletes become injured because they are not taking proper care of themselves. Make sure to work out and eat right so your body stays in shape, injury free. If injuries should happen get them checked out. Don’t make the mistake of thinking it’s something small because small injuries become large injuries; you don’t lose scholarship opportunities because of small injuries.

Work Hard in the Classroom

Again with the eggs in one basket, many student-athletes try to place everything they have into being an athlete and forget about being a student. There is far more money in academic scholarships than there ever will be in athletics. If you get good grades and you suffer an injury, you still might qualify for an academic scholarship and could later walk on.

Plan for your Future and Be Prepared for the Unexpected
Being prepared for a scenario such as the one these young men are living only makes you that much more prepared for recruiting and for college. Start living without fear and start planning for your future no matter the hand you are dealt. 

If you have any further questions on injuries and recruiting or any general recruiting question please comment below!

Mental Toughness of the Week

“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” – Muhammad Ali

Why You Should Use the Common Application

First-year and transfer students can use the common application to apply for many colleges. The common application process has existed for close to forty years, yet many high school students are not completely aware of the free service or how it can help manage your college applications.

The Common Application allows students to apply to a number of schools at one time. It works by taking all of your basic information, like grades, courses, and test scores, the kind of stuff every college asks for, and it stores all your information in one place. The common application not only keeps all your information in a safe and secure place once you have created an account, but it also:

• Let’s you search for colleges that use the common application
• Keeps track of your college applications and lets you know if you still need to submit information.
• Let’s you know of college application deadlines and the cost of each college application.
• Has an option for you to upload your letters of reference so they’re stored in one easy to find location.
• Allows you to include your high school counselor on your account so they can see your progress and include any supplemental material such as transcripts, and reference letters.

You don’t have to worry about filling out the same college applications over and over again because the common application stores all of your academic information and essay statements in one place.

Just under 500 colleges currently use the common application, so you can’t use it for every college just yet, but you should check out which schools use the common application. If more than one of the schools you apply to are on the list, then it is worth using the common application to save you time.

If you have any questions or topics you would like for us to discuss, please comment below!

5 Secrets of the Relentless

This article is by a published fitness contributor Dani Shugart. It is one of my favorite articles to date and I wanted to share it. It focuses mainly on weightlifting and exercise; however, it can be applied in all aspects of life. (Please be aware this has been modified slightly to fit the audience)

By: Dani Shugart

Here's what you need to know...

·        Those who are relentless find comfort in discipline. For them, hard work is cleansing, good for body and mind.

·        The relentless do their research in the weight room and in the kitchen. They test things out for themselves and don't require the opinions of others.

·        Dogma be darned. The relentless will drop what's not working, while the weak-willed have to fit into cliques, label themselves, and adopt cult-like thinking.

·        The relentless know that personal responsibility is the foundation of mental strength. They build grit along with muscle.

·        Everyone is obsessed with something; the relentless athlete has simply chosen that obsession wisely. He or she is productively obsessed.

You Know Who They Are

The relentless. The people who know what they want, make a plan to get it, and always follow through. Those who never seem to lose their passion for training and are always on track. The ones who get results.

If you're wanting to become a little more relentless in your pursuit of [sports], muscle, strength, fat loss, and mental fortitude, the unrelenting have secrets to share.

1. The Relentless Find Solace in Discipline

What separates the relentless from the weak is that the relentless welcome discipline. They find comfort in the familiarity of a physical challenge.

Going through a hard time? That's exactly when the relentless train. Rather than griping about frustrations or waiting for them to pass, they'll channel their energy into something productive. And by doing so, they reap the rewards: A stronger will, a better body, and a job well done.

Stressful careers, social drama, tragic losses, moves, divorces, or just a vague sense of inadequacy – there's not a lot that'll knock a relentless person off his or her game plan. They sweat, they grind, they push themselves, they lose their breath, and they focus. And when it's all over they've cleared away enough mental fog to see the more optimistic side of whatever they're facing.

Working hard when life gets hard makes people more resilient. Complaining, wallowing in self-pity, and blaming others in the face of difficulty gets people addicted to victimhood. And that adopted attitude of weakness can spread like a cancer. It causes learned helplessness and habitual [self-pity].

When life gets hard, work hard. Fight back, kick your own [behind] before anyone else has the chance – you'll steal their power. Can you think of a better remedy when life's circumstances have you feeling powerless?

And once the dust settles with tough issues, the relentless find it even easier to double down. Their inner dialogue tells them that if they were able to muster up discipline during the hard times then they sure as [heck] can't relinquish their power when life gets smoother.

Be Relentless:

Apply your work ethic to your workout. Don't give anyone the opportunity to think of you as lazy, distracted, inefficient, or weak... and don't give yourself that opportunity either. Embrace the work part of your workout. Get immersed in it.

None of this "make exercise so fun you don't know it's exercise" crap. It's work. It's hard, and it pays off every time. Don't think workouts need to be hopscotch, hula-hoop, or Zumba in order to be enjoyable. "Fun" workouts can consist of PRs, muscle pumps, brutal time under tension, bloody shins, breathlessness, and torn calluses.

2. They Test Things Out and Commit

There are people who never take action yet seem to always be looking for the best way to accomplish their goal. They want everything to be tested out (by other people) and then they want to compare those results to other results, and then they want an analysis done by a trusted source who has also tried it.

They might tell you their inaction is about efficiency and doing things the right way, but really it's about fear. Fear of failing. Fear of being the only beginner in a room full of experienced people. Maybe even a fear of commitment. So they wait for someone else to tell them whether or not it's worth the effort. The real story? People who make excuses are people who are afraid.

The relentless want to see for themselves. If something doesn't work, they want to find out firsthand. Why? Because what seems like too much of an effort to one person might actually be worth it to another. The relentless know this, so they won't become naysayers against any one method until they've tried it out for themselves.

The relentless get personal satisfaction from the effort. Even if that effort doesn't pan out the way they were hoping. The act of trying stuff reinforces the desire to keep trying stuff until they get the results they want.

They don't want secondhand information because they know friends and studies don't tell the whole story. The relentless might follow what they believe instinctively. And if those instincts happen to be wrong then they walk away from the experience with more knowledge. If their instincts happen to be right, they have a whole new tool in their toolbox.

Their ability to test things out – from nutrition and training to personal development strategies – keeps them from being held back by fear. Sure, they screw up sometimes, but those experiences make them better and more capable of finding what does work best for them. Experiencing missteps make them less afraid.

The relentless are always wondering, "what if..." and then they attempt to find the answers out themselves. From nutrition and eating strategies to body part splits and training techniques, the relentless seek answers, and they wouldn't dare place all of their trust in one diet book or one fitness expert. They're also wary of anyone who pretends to have all the answers.

The relentless welcome trainers and their new ideas, but they don't require approval or permission in order to eat right and train hard. The relentless don't need the whip to be cracked. They're driven, and nothing can derail it.

Be Relentless:

Start somewhere. Try stuff. Read up on it. And don't get hung-up by hearsay because you'll only know how your body responds by trying it out for yourself. Realize that if you've been researching the sumo squat for weeks and haven't sumo squatted yet, you're just flexing your procrastination muscle.

Try stuff you're interested in and commit to it for a fair period of time. Then if what you're doing can be improved, you'll know more about how to improve it. Figuring out what doesn't work for you gets you closer to figuring out what does.

But you have to commit to something in order to reap the benefits of experience. Stop trying to gather up tons of secondhand information. Don't make your health someone else's responsibility. Read, research, test, commit, tweak.

3. They Drop What Stops Working

There are people who test things out, experience success at first, and then continue dieting or working out the same exact way even after they've plateaued for years.

They either don't realize they can continue improving by changing their approach, or they believe that doing it any other way will cause them to regress right back to the body they started with. Many of these folks will practice extraordinary discipline with a fat loss method that no longer helps them lose fat. Others will become inconsistent and burned out on what they still perceive as a "tried and true" strategy.

You can probably name a few staunch low carbers, who lost weight at first then plateaued, and will probably stagnate for the rest of their lives because they're not about to eat a diet that supports hypertrophy or a faster metabolism. You might have of a couple friends who lost weight on their "couch-to-5K" plans, and would rather stick to running even though they've gained back the weight and accumulated a dozen running injuries.

And you've probably seen the same women doing the same dancy group fitness classes and never looking any better. And it's not that they aren't disciplined. They're just uncomfortable testing out another approach. They've rejected the possibility that something else might work better.

Those who are relentless will figure out a better way when they've gotten all they can out of one approach. Stalled progress is unacceptable. They can accept that the diet they once loved stopped loving them back. And they can become a newbie with different training methods when what they've been doing becomes ineffective.

Those who are relentless wouldn't allow themselves to stagnate in order to identify as this type of dieter or that type of workout aficionado. The relentless don't require labels or cliques, just progress.

Those who aren't relentless often need the labels, the T-shirts, and the bumper stickers. For them, telling the world they are a vegan or a marathoner is more important than the results they're getting from such lifestyles. This is unfortunate for those who've stopped seeing results yet don't want to stop identifying themselves as part of a tribe.

Be Relentless:

Starting anything at all is good. But diets and workout programs deliver more benefits when they're used as a stepping stone to continued success.

Maybe a fat loss strategy got you to a certain point and taught you some things about your body. Great! But don't stop there, stagnate, adapt, and slowly regress year after year thinking that what got you started is the only way for you to be leaner or more muscular. Take what you've learned and expand on what your body can do rather than adapting to the same physical challenges or backsliding with a diet that's no longer serving you.

4. The Relentless Build Grit

Physical strength and mental strength go hand in hand. They reinforce one another. And the relentless know that personal responsibility is the foundation of mental strength. It's grit. And it's what gets them through hardships and makes them tougher as a result of those hardships.

They know that blaming other people for their problems is an easy way to dodge responsibility, stay weak, and impede their own growth. So when the relentless experience adversity they look for ways to become champions over their circumstances rather than victims. The weak-minded do the opposite.

Those who are relentless don't put too much stock in the negative opinions of other people. They're too busy with their own success to give someone else control over their emotions. The relentless don't have time for manipulators. They know that the only way to avoid criticism is to surrender to mediocrity.

Be Relentless:

Welcome adversity and critics because without them you won't build grit. And that's exactly what you need in order to become successful. It's what gives you persistence to do or become whatever you want, inside or outside of the gym.

5. They Choose Their Idée Fixe

Idée fixe is a French term meaning "a preoccupation of the mind." The dedicated have chosen what to be preoccupied with.

This might look like "obsession," which has become a negative thing among those who lack passion or think complacency is acceptable. But those who are relentless don't [care] if they look obsessed to outsiders.

Some people obsess over video games, collecting stamps, hoarding cats, or collecting Star Wars memorabilia. The relentless have chosen to be "obsessed" with building muscle, working hard, and practicing discipline.

Call them shallow. Call them weird. Call them selfish. But you also have to call them successful. And what better thing to invest in than your health?

Be Relentless:

Relentlessness isn't about destructive behavior, being a martyr, a bad father, or a reckless employee in order to become more muscular. It's about taking care of yourself in order to live better and serve others better. It's about becoming more reliable and self-assured. And it's about taking constructive action when times get rough.

Can the relentless pursuit of muscle and health mess people up and make their lives worse? Well, if you go about it like a [jerk], anything can make your life worse. You don't have to sacrifice your relationships, sanity, or faith in order to love working out and eating well. You just have to believe in your potential, take the onus to do something about it, and trust that your hard work will pay off.

It'll require you to reject the temptation to coddle the discipline out of your life or waste time being offended by critics. But the world will end up with a better version of you, and instead of being subdued by potential failures you'll be emboldened by them.

Let's embolden ourselves. Let's be relentless.

A Coach Contacted Me and Now Won’t Respond

One of the most difficult things to do is get college coaches to notice you and begin recruiting you. That’s why when you get your first letters from coaches you get so excited and you should be. But what happens often times is an athlete responds to the coaches, fills out a recruiting questionnaire and then… nothing. Don’t panic, this is a common behavior in recruiting.

The devil is in the details

There are a lot of rules that restrict how and when a coach can contact a recruit. For example, if the athlete is a Junior football player and they received this email September 1st, this is the first date a coach can send a letter or email to a recruit, but they are not allowed to call them yet. So when the athlete responds with their phone number and says “you call me” the coach can’t call.

The athlete should have responded with a complete email that included not just their own contact information but the contact information for their current high school or travel team coach. The college coach can contact the high school coach and organize a time for the recruit to call. If you call a coach and they pick up the phone, they can talk to you. But if you leave a message, they can’t call you back unless it fits within the time coaches can call recruits.

What to do now?

The most important thing is getting back in touch with the coach and letting them know you are still interested. The coach is probably emailing/sending letters out to hundreds of recruits and it is easy for them to lose you in the shuffle. It is your job as the recruit is  to stand out from the other recruits. Here is what coaches are looking for around the time they are sending letters to recruits:

• An ability to better evaluate you – this can come in the form of online video or more detailed competitive results.
• Contact information for you, your high school coach and travel team coach – this helps coaches make their book on you. They are restricted from calling you, but they can do a lot of their initial evaluations by contacting your coaches.
• What your grades are – coaches need to know what your grades and test scores (if you have them) are. If your grades are bad, they can help by making sure you catch up. If you have good grades, they can relax and move you ahead in their recruiting process.

Don’t stop when you begin getting letters

It’s easy to get complacent when a coach sends you letters and think that more will come or a coach will take over from here. You want to have multiple coaches emailing and calling you and that can only happen if you continue to work at recruiting and doing the outreach that got you your first letters.

It is really difficult to give a one size fits all answer to how to communicate with coaches, every situation is a little different; but, if you have any questions please feel free to comment below and we will answer them directly. Thank you!

NCAA Academic Qualifications

If you are looking for an athletic scholarship to pay for college you have to maintain your academic eligibility. The process of becoming academically eligible starts as early as freshman year of high school.

While you won’t need to register for the NCAA Eligibility Center until your junior year, the classes that a high school prospect takes in their first two years can have a major impact on their eligibility. Many high school athletes also rely too heavily on their academic counselors. It is very important for athletes and their families to do their own research to ensure that they stay academically eligible throughout high school. Here is a complete list of the core course requirements for the NCAA.

Your high school academic counselors can help you get the classes you need in order to graduate, but they are often not familiar with the requirements for NCAA eligibility. While many of the counselors know some things about the NCAA, they don’t know enough to ensure your eligibility. That’s why it is so important for athletes to do their own research and make sure they are keeping up with any changes in rules that might apply to them.

In order to be academically eligible to compete in the NCAA, there is a specific list of classes and subjects that athletes need to fulfill. Athletes should start completing these requirements beginning their freshman year to ensure that they all get finished by the time they graduate. Here is the division I and division II class requirements to earn eligibility:

Division I

If You Want to Participate in Athletics or Receive an Athletics Scholarship During Your First Year, You Must:

• Graduate from high school;

• Complete these 16 core courses:

– 4 years of English

– 3 years of math (algebra 1 or higher)

– 2 years of natural or physical science (including 1 year of lab science if offered by your high school)

– 1 extra year of English, math, or natural or physical science

– 2 years of social science

– 4 years of extra core courses (from any category above, or foreign language, comparative religion or philosophy)

• Earn a minimum required grade point average in your core courses

• Earn a combined SAT or ACT sum score that matches your core-course grade-point average and test score sliding scale (for example, a 2.400 core-course grade-point average needs an 860 SAT).

Division II

If You enroll in a division II college and want to participate in athletics or receive an athletics scholarship during your first year, you must:

• Graduate from high school;

• Complete these 14 core courses:

– 3 years of English

– 2 years of math (algebra 1 or higher)

– 2 years of natural or physical science (including 1 year of lab science if offered by your high school)

– 2 additional years of English, math, or natural or physical science

– 2 years of social science

– 3 years of extra core courses (from any category above, or foreign language, comparative religion or philosophy);

• Earn a 2.000 grade point average or better in your core courses

• Earn a combined SAT score of 820 or an ACT sum score of 68. For individuals enrolling at a college or university in Puerto Rico, earn a combined Prueba de Aptitud Academica score of 730.

Students Enrolling on or After August 1

If you enroll full time in a division II college on or after August 1, and want to participate in athletics or receive an athletics scholarship during your first year, you must:

• Graduate from high school

• Complete these 16 core courses:

– 3 years of English

– 2 years of math (algebra 1 or higher)

– 2 years of natural or physical science (including 1 year of lab science if offered by your high school)

– 3 additional years of English, math, or natural or physical science

– 2 years of social science

– 4 years of additional core courses (from any category above, or foreign language, comparative religion, or philosophy)

• Earn a 2.000 grade-point average or better in your core courses

• Earn a combined SAT score of 820 or an ACT sum score of 68. For individuals enrolling at a college or university in Puerto Rico, earn a combined Prueba de Aptitud Academica score of 730.

These are updated year to year on the NCAA website so makes sure to take a trip over there. If you have any further questions please comment below!