The 3 things I would do to get recruited to a D1

written by JOSH GESSNER | The Curious Competitor

If you're a Baseball Player in your teens, let me save you 100+ hours.

In 2017, I started training to get recruited.

What followed was 2 years of lonely, frustrating, slow growth.

I made many mistakes and wasted hours.

Here are 3 mistakes I made, and what I would do instead:

The 3 Mistakes:

1) Playing... all the time

2) Doing nothing productive off the field

3) Thinking 'fun' will last

Mistake #1) Playing... all the time

I thought that playing more baseball would make me a better player.

In reality, I wasn't making any progress in what mattered the most in getting noticed.

Pitching velocity.

1.1) Here's the bullpen that supercharged my recruiting process:

As you can see, I didn't have the best command.

But... I was 92-94.

This got me waves of attention.

1.2) If I started over, I would:

• Only play 1 game/week instead of 3-4

• Dedicate the other days to velocity development

• Develop a great lifting foundation

Mistake #2) Doing nothing productive off the field

After I trained, I would:

• Grind Call Of Duty

• Binge Anime

• Dwell on Baseball

Nothing productive.

2.1) I still do these things today.

But what i realized was:

If I dedicated some time off the field to 'Self-Improvement', I could make strides off the field as well.

What is Self-Improvement?

Building your Ideal Self.

2.2) Whether its:

• You're not as confident as you want

• You have social anxiety

• You want to develop cool skills

I was all of these things.

Working toward them, is Self Improvement.

2.3) In hindsight, as I worked on my:

• Confidence

• Anxieties

• Skills

My confidence and performance on the baseball field took a major step forward.

2.4) If I started over, I would:

• Still play COD and binge Anime

• But dedicate 1-2 hrs a day to reading, learning and researching ways to improve myself

Mistake #3) Took 'fun' for granted

During my teen years, baseball was so much fun.

I thought it would last forever, and I took it for granted.

But:

I paid the price after years of suffering through the yips and encountering multiple injuries.

3.1) I've seen many talented baseball players leave the game because they:

‘Lost their passion for the sport’.

This got me thinking.

Is passion a skill that you can train?

Maybe.

3.2) If I started over, I would:

• Find a way to reframe failure as a learning experience

• Know your 'why' for playing baseball, that'll keep you going through anything

• Develop hobbies to take your mind off baseball

These will take time.

I didn't talk about any specifics for getting recruited.

I believe that on field performance will fix 99% of your recruiting problems.

And the 3 things we talked about was my best advice for on field performance.

The 3 things I would do if I started over:

1) Instead of playing all the time, dedicate most of that to training

2) Start your Self-improvement journey

3) Start thinking about ways to keep baseball fun.