The Truth About Camps And Combines

One of the topics I get the most questions on is concerning football camps and the combine circuit. Participating in football combines and camps is an important tool in the recruiting process for the athletes who are looking to enter this process with an advantage over other prospects. The most important reason to participate is EXPOSURE. Some of these camps and combines are great avenues for connecting college coaches with athletes, but not all of these events are going to help in that area.

Competitive camps, combines, and showcases basically bring in masses of potential prospects to put them through a testing phase where they have their height, weight, vertical jump, bench press, 40 yard dash time, and shuttle time recorded. What you need to know is that per the NCAA rules, coaches from Division I and Division III football programs are not allowed to attend activities devoted to testing of agilities, speed, and strength. Recruiting Analysts serve as the coaches' eyes and ears by evaluating the players at these events, providing feedback and write ups.

If you are a parent or athlete considering these events, I encourage you to research the agencies offering the events. There are a lot of organizations out there producing these events that do not truly provide athletes with early exposure to college coaches. Many of these organizations tell you how many schools they send data to but what they don't tell you is that unsolicited data ends up in the trash can in the offices of the college coaches. They are also organizations that claim to be "national" in nature but are not a part of any media network that can provide true national exposure. If you're hitting an event that is not produced by Rivals.com organizations, such as SCVarsity.com, or Scout.com, or 247Sports, there is a very high probability that your exposure will be very limited regardless of the word "national" in the title of the event.

The other thing to consider is price. These events should be affordable to the participants. If you are paying more than thirty or forty dollars for a combine, you are probably paying too much. Some companies charge eighty to one-hundred dollars and then invite you to a follow up "elite" event and try to get another eighty to one-hundred dollars out of you. Beware of those organizations. The big company events that can give you national exposure are going to range from no cost (free) at all to about forty dollars.

If you've got any questions about the evaluation period, camps or combines, feel free to shoot me an email at coachjimbaxter@sc.rr.com