The following post is an excerpt from the Second Edition of The Tennis Parent’s Bible NOW available through most online retailers! Click Here to Order
College Athletics
If college athletics is your child’s goal, it is in your best interest to begin preparing early. Putting off serious training until your child is in high school is most often too late.
“The ultimate goal for a high school age athlete is to be in the “Buyer’s Market.”
The Buyers’ Market versus the Sellers’ Market:
The buyers’ market means your child has focused on developing their skills and achieving athletic royalty (Top National or ITF ranking) and the top college coaches are not only aware of them, they are heavily recruiting them in a bidding war.
It is important to understand that if you and your child have waited to get serious about their sport until high school age, you will most likely be in the “Seller’s Market.” In essence, as a parent, your job will be to “sell” your child’s possible value to the coach. Your child is now one of the thousands of talented but unproven athletes vying for the leftover scraps of scholarship funds. If you think the task of “selling” your child’s skills is tough, wait until you have to write those dreaded big checks for their education. If you build a champion the coaches will come to you!
“Get ahead of the crowd early by applying a deliberate, customized development plan. Successful college athletic careers are preceded by years and years of successful preparation.”
Preparing for college early will not only bring the college scholarship offers to you, it may even help you open a door that may have otherwise been closed. For example, Ivy League schools do not offer athletic scholarships but your child’s tennis may give them the admittance edge over other students with similar or even higher academic profiles.
For more details regarding the college search process, please visit my dedicated eBook: How to Attract a College Athletic Scholarship. It has everything you didn’t even know…you needed to know! www.maximizingtennispotential.com
