“Hustle” Leads Athletes Directly to Scholarship Offers

Coaches Dream of Finding These Hard-working Student-athletes

Which “handle” do you want attached to a description of you as an athlete?  Smart?  Not bad.  Athletic?  That’s good, too.  Team player?  Another good one.  But, when you add the word hustle to those descriptive terms, you have put the icing on the cake for college coaches.  You have also separated yourself from dozens of other prospects. 

Coaches can deal with a prospect’s lack of athleticism in some areas, game knowledge or even selfishness, that is, as long as at the foundation of that kid’s talent is consistent hustle.  To a large number of college coaches, hustle can trump most other desirable traits. 

On the flip side, tell a coach that there’s a great athlete available who possesses everything a coach needs except that the kid is lazy, and that coach will pass nearly every time.  College athletics are hard on athletes.  They require a student-athlete to be so much more than when in high school.  Personal management, academic dedication and hours upon hours of individual and team workouts over the course of the school year are the demands place on any college student-athlete.  If a coach recruits a lazy kid, the time spent with the kid can seem endless as well as fruitless for a coaching staff.   It’s a miserable experience.  But, give those same coaches an athlete who walks in the door every day giving 100%, the kid who guts it out each practice, and who truly wants to get better, then the joy of coaching can be extremely rewarding and everybody’s happy. 

Hustle comes in degrees.  Some kids will hustle when the need arises.  Let’s call that 30% or 30H.  These kids walk and jog more than they run.  Other kids will hustle only when they know somebody is watching them.  We’ll call that 50% or 50H.  In games, they will be the ones to slack off on defense or when the play doesn’t involve them.  These kids will cause a team to get burned badly in some tough situations.  They take more plays off than they do on.  Then there are the most-time kids.  We’ll put them at 70% or 70H.  They hustle just about all the time unless they are losing a game or it’s near the end of practice.  They take the occasional play off during a game or match.  It’s unlikely that they will hurt the team very often, but they will lose focus enough times to keep a team from making a serious run.  Finally, there’s the kid whose motor is incapable of slowing down.  This the 100% or 100H kid.  When he or she hits the floor, field or court, they are on go.  Practice or game, it matters not.  This kid will wear a coach out, too.  Accustomed as coaches are to players whose tendencies are to slough off every now and again, this kid makes coaches earn their salaries.  And, it’s fun. 

The characteristics of hustling athlete are really very simple to pick out.  Their energy is higher than the other players in warm-ups.  Their intensity level reaches the ready level quicker than other kids in the game.  They are mentally capable of high-level involvement in what’s expected of them far longer than other players.  They go full bore from whistle to whistle, serve to point, start to finish.  And, their energy transfers over to the other team members helping to make the team a more efficient-running, dynamic machine. 

College coaches dream of finding these kids.  When one comes across their desk or they discover one at a travel or club event, coaches will knock over waiting grandparents for a chance to speak to the kids’ coaches.  Giving it all is what the coaches see in these kids and the coaches desperately want the opportunity to work with them every day for four years.  It’s not just the team winning thing which matters to the coaches.  It’s a deeply personal thing.  As a prospect, if you want to be in that position, then hustle every day, every workout, every practice, every game, match or meet.  Opportunities of a lifetime will come your way.