To be sure we have all heard the coach or recruiter say things like, “you don’t want to play there”, “it is a poorly run organization” or “they aren’t going to have a good team”.
It is funny that we even hear these thing from team when recruiting against other team in the same league. Is that not strange to you, or has it become so common that you are just used to it.
To me it is a sign that all team in the league are not on the same page. It is a sign that the desire to win in the recruiting is almost as strong as the desire to win the games. It is also a sign to me that some coach fear the other coach and it could be the sign of insecurity. Insecurity is like loosing the games, it become contagious.
When I was a boy, recruiting was much different. Then again there was not the hundreds and hundred of team out there trying to get the same player.
Years ago you hear phrases such as, “that is a good organization, but I think this is where we are different or better”, or “I am glad you are looking at teams within our league because we want to have the best players in our league, but here is why I think you should choose our organization”.
It is those type of phrases that not only make the team look good, but the league look good.
Often too you hear team and league telling player not to go to a certain team because “the league is not that good”. Why do this? Why try to make one league look or sound bad? Is it because you feel the need to make yourself look or feel superior? That too is a sign of insecurity, not something that inspire confidence if you ask me.
I challenge all coaches and recruiter who use this tactic to change to a more positive approach. Change of approach could reflect in better recruiting because it is usually the negative recruiter that is the struggling recruiter as well. Perhaps the change in approach will make the change in quality of player you end up with.
I challenge the player when running into the negative recruiter to ask them if they can say anything positive about the other team he is putting down. I would ask why he would use the negative recruiting approach.
After all, you do not see Chevrolet saying that Ford is bad, they compete for business, but no one say the other is bad just that they think they are better. A product is a product, tell me why yours is the best and let me decide.
Coach
