One of my athletes, Brad Kanney, was talking to me the other day about a division one college that had contacted him. Part of the conversation was letting him know the minimum requirements they are looking for in an athlete to consider giving him a scholarship.

For example, if you run the 100M you need to be at least at a 10.9.  A 200M a 22.3 etc.

It reminded me of my recruiting process when I was in high school. The schools that were interested in me for track were D3 or small D1 schools. When I talked with Indiana University’s coach about walking on, he gave me the same type of speech about minimum requirements.

Ultimately, I decided not to run track, but my conversation with Brad and a track and field coaches clinic I attended, recently got me thinking about what if I had.

How would I have gone about improving myself as an athlete to get noticed as a potential track star?

Let’s think about this. If your athletic prime was like mine then think back 20 – 30 years ago. The only specialty instructors I can think of back then were golf and tennis instructors. You had camps for certain sports, but usually those happened in the summer. When those camps ended, it was up to you to do the drills you learned on your own.

Personal trainers were just starting to come around. I remember before my senior year, my mom signing me up for personal training at this place called Nautilus East. This dude was some big beefcake, California surfing dude talking man. He showed me the most basic of workouts on their awesome Nautilus equipment and told me to do that every time.

As I got more proficient at it, he would then pay less and less attention to me so he could hit on the 80’s fashioned women at the gym. Not exactly getting me primed for my senior year sports’ seasons.

If I had certain times I needed to hit in track for a potential scholarship, what would I have done? I was lucky enough to have a good track coach, so I guess I would have gone to him for advice. But would he have spent time with me in the offseason to get me stronger? Plan strategies for the races to run the best race possible?

I don’t know. Maybe.

What about those athletes who didn’t have a good track coach, but had desire?

Are they just left out in the cold? Is it truly the natural athletes that were moving on? People say put in the work to be a better athlete? Okay, how do I do that if no one is guiding me?

Let’s flash forward now to Brad’s day and his current issue. What is his gameplan going to be?

He, and other athletes like him, are in the perfect situation. Now there is help all over the place. You need a strength coach? There are some very qualified individuals waiting to help. You need to improve your speed? Some top notch speed coaches have knowledge that only the Olympic coaches had back in the day.

You need to improve your sport – shooting in basketball, pitching for baseball or softball, fencing, field goal kicking – you name it there is a coach that can provide private instruction to get you better.

What if you live in a town that is very remote? The internet. There are all sorts of resources out there that can help you improve your abilities to play whatever sport you desire.

Brad now has the capability in the off-season to improve his strength, improve his speed, practice his starts, create a plan to optimize his nutrition, understand how to run his race, and basically put himself in a position where athletically he will be at his athletic absolute best to achieve his goals.

Any athlete now can do that? No more guesswork. No more wishing you were a better athlete. The strategies are out there. All you need to do is put in the work.

Granted, he has to have the athletic makeup to have the chance to get those numbers. Meaning, if he has a small percentage of fast twitch muscles, this might not happen. But, if he does, then this is his opportunity to tackle those goals.

Which sport do you want to get better at? If you start early enough, you can get yourself a plan put together with the right coach in no time. Athletes today have NO EXCUSES not to be better at their sport. Anybody who tells me differently, then I question their motivation.

Today’s athletes, don’t complain, you guys/girls are truly very lucky to be playing sports in the time that you are.

Photo courtesy of Oscar Rethwill on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rethwill/