In our recent podcast with Tex McQuilkin of Power Athlete HQ, we had an in-depth discussion on how remote training is the "future" of training. Furthermore, Tex shared his view on how training will become an even bigger part of a young athletes recruiting arsenal. 

This is obviously due to the fact that many opportunities for an athlete to showcase athletic abilities in competition and exhibitions (think summer combines hosted on college campuses) will be severely limited compared to the past.

Filming Lifts, Movements and Exercises

College recruiters will need to expand their capability to evaluate athletes from a distance. With access to less game film, showcases and camps, these recruiters are going to use any visual asset they can gain access to in order to assess how an athlete is progressing and whether the athlete is ready to potentially compete at the next level.

Filming athlete lifts, movements and drills is an athlete's opportunity to create new content for recruiters. While it's not game film, a college program may know that proficiency in certain movements will transfer well onto the field or court. Showcasing a "final product" of working through a well-designed, well-progressed strength and conditioning program can better help an athlete signal to a college coach that they are well-adapted to a collegiate-style S&C program and will ensure they have physical characteristics to assist the coach develop them into a skilled college athlete.

Intangibles

As Tex mentions in the podcast, intangibles are an important aspect to identifying high-potential athletes who will impact an athletic program. College coaches want to know if an athlete has personality traits that predict an athlete's ability to succeed: coachability, work ethic, and consistency to name a few.

Documenting an athlete's journey in the weight room can validate a lot of intangibles. A HS football player going from weighing 170 as a freshman and squatting 225 to weighing 200 and squatting 350 as a senior is a surefire indication that the athlete "bought into" their high school's S&C program. A simple report visualizing that trend is all you need.

Additionally, visually documenting an athlete's improvement in movement and strength in range of motion can better yet depict the athlete's commitment to all aspect of a performance program. A quick highlight film of an athlete's first squat as a freshman vs. their squat as a senior, with improvements in depth, posture, speed and stability will without a doubt document progress an athlete can only make by consistently showing up and giving great effort in the weight room.

Conclusion

Showing progress via the weight room is a process. In order to give athletes the best chance at improving their recruitability through the weight room, it's best to start filming them and tracking their numbers now, today. The information can be summarized into a concise PDF report or highlight videos (Eg: before and after) that will accurately represent their progress over the years. Encourage athletes to assist you by filming themselves consistently and use the footage to periodically give them feedback on their improvement

Already doing this? Shoot us a message or comment below on how you help athletes create a profile of their progress in the weight room for recruiting purposes.