by Tyler Brandt, National Recruiting Coordinator
Remember when the big thing in school was the 3 Rs; Reading, Writing & Arithmetic? It’s really cute that they sounded like Rs and it’s true they are really important fundamentals of education. To this day without these building blocks it is difficult to succeed academically. The same is true regarding recruiting – just with different Rs.
In today’s ultra competitive world of collegiate level recruiting, we have improved on the original concept and created the 6 Rs. With the integration of these proven fundamentals into your Annual Recruiting Plan, it is time to blow your next recruiting class out of the water. We all know from being college coaches that we are only as good as our next recruit and that the recruiting trail is a grind. Implementing the 6 Rs into your recruiting plan will immediately and positively impact both the talent you bring in and mitigate the grind for you and your staff.
The 6 Rs in recruiting are, in this order:
Read – React – Respond – Right Fit – Retain – Reload
- Read – As a former college coach I was making the 1st mistake we see in most programs – long winded, statistically driven fact based recruiting letters. Kids do not read to those letters and if they are not reading your letters that takes us directly to the second challenge.
- React – The 2nd issue is they are not having the appropriate emotional reaction to the letter. Without that emotional connection they are always “looking” for the program that does make them “feel” the right way. Using the right language at the right time gets the right internal and external “Reaction.”
- Respond – The goal of any type of recruiting contact or communication is to get the prospective student-athlete (PSA) to “Respond.” When an athlete responds you can begin to build a relationship and we all know that the relationship is the key. Without a response to your communication it is impossible to build a relationship of any kind.
- Right Fit – Finding the “Right Fit” is important for your program and for the PSA. The best way to determine fit is to have enough communication to get to know your PSA and eventually bring them to campus for a visit. During the campus-visit you, your team and the PSA will all have the opportunity to make judgments on fit for the program and the college. If the PSA is actually “Reading” the communications they will be “Reacting” appropriately by “Responding” and following through on the tasks of recruiting and everyone will be able to determine if the PSA and the college are the “Right Fit.”
- Retain – “Retention” is the result of numbers 1, 2, 3 & 4 being dialed-in! By developing an annual recruiting plan that uses the right language science to elicit the first 4 Rs, the 5th by default becomes a foregone conclusion.
- Reload – This is the goal of every program – “Reload” each year. Unfortunately we see most programs rebuilding too often. This is a direct result of not getting the recruits you want and not retaining the athletes you do get. If you run the numbers it is very easy to build a dominant program.
Lets take football as an example:
The goal is to get 11 playmakers on either side of the ball.
- Year 1: you sign 5 playmakers on both sides of the ball.
- Year 2: you sign 5 playmakers on both sides of the ball.
- Year 3: you sign 5 playmakers on both sides of the ball.
- Year 4: you sign 5 playmakers on both sides of the ball.
- Year 5: you sign 5 playmakers on both sides of the ball.
As retention increases you only lose 1 playmaker a year, this leaves you with 20 playmakers. Here’s the kicker, 8 playmakers are upperclassman and 8 are underclassman and 4 are probably redshirts. This puts 16 playmakers on the field, 8 offensively and 8 defensively. What do you think your odds are of improving your winning percentage if you landed the playmakers you wanted, those players stayed in your program long term and you had 8 on the playing field at the same time on both sides of the ball?
It’s not rocket science – it’s Language Science. Put the 6 Rs to work for you today!!!