In the opinion of those that have been through recruiting awhile ago and are going through it again now with a younger sibling, how much has the recruiting timeline sped up in the last 5-10 years (I went through this with my son 5 years ago)?
How much more will it likely speed up going forward?
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Our 2012 saw most of the action the Summer between his junior and senior high school seasons. There were a small number of programs, primarily top 35, that had verbally committed their classes prior to that Summer.
The biggest difference I see now with our 2016 is the number of early commitments at many D1 programs. Many more coaches are looking at underclassmen (e.g., freshman and sophs) than were looking a few years ago. That's driving more families to go to showcases and tournament teams earlier to get exposure, at least from our vantage point.
If a kid is not physically ready/mature early (my 2012 was not and my 2016 definitely is not) then these programs will be out of his reach. My 2012 plays at a mid to lower level D1, and even his coaches are out recruiting much earlier than they were a few years ago.
But you can't force mother nature. My 2012 is still growing now as a college soph. 5'3" as a high school soph and 6'1" 195 lbs. four years later. My 2016 is in a similar situation. But he has peers who are 6'2" and 200 lbs. Early size will give an early opportunity to be seen. Size and talent now gets recruited now.
In the opinion of those that have been through recruiting awhile ago and are going through it again now with a younger sibling, how much has the recruiting timeline sped up in the last 5-10 years (I went through this with my son 5 years ago)?
How much more will it likely speed up going forward?
We went through it with a 2004 and a 2011. In that time span I'd say everything sped up by about 1-1.5 years.
2004 was highly recruited...nearly all of it beginning in Spring of Junior year of HS and commitment not until September of Senior year in HS. Back then, official visits were taken to help decide.
2011 was recruited by multiple schools...nearly all of it beginning in Summer after sophomore year of HS and commitment in Winter of Junior year of HS. Unofficial visits were made to help decide.
But you can't force mother nature. My 2012 is still growing now as a college soph. 5'3" as a high school soph and 6'1" 195 lbs. four years later. My 2016 is in a similar situation. But he has peers who are 6'2" and 200 lbs. Early size will give an early opportunity to be seen. Size and talent now gets recruited now.
This is a good point and may keep the recruiting timeline about where it is today. It is very difficult to judge projectibility of a player when he hasn't reached maturity and still has a fair amount of growing and filing out to go through.
Another point is size and talent now sometimes equals "what you see is what you get" with no real room for improvement going forward. The best programs are able to recruit players that will continue to improve and fit into there program's style.
But you can't force mother nature. My 2012 is still growing now as a college soph. 5'3" as a high school soph and 6'1" 195 lbs. four years later. My 2016 is in a similar situation. But he has peers who are 6'2" and 200 lbs. Early size will give an early opportunity to be seen. Size and talent now gets recruited now.
This is a good point and may keep the recruiting timeline about where it is today. It is very difficult to judge projectibility of a player when he hasn't reached maturity and still has a fair amount of growing and filing out to go through.
Another point is size and talent now sometimes equals "what you see is what you get" with no real room for improvement going forward. The best programs are able to recruit players that will continue to improve and fit into there program's style.
Great point birdman....my 2014 grew up with a lot of kids that seemed to bloom early and he was always smaller than them. I just had to keep drilling into him that it didn't matter what was happening a the LL fields, it only matters what happens by the end of your SR year. Hard for a kid to swallow when everyone else is throwing a little harder and hitting a little farther. But all of those early bloomers seemed to have hit the wall. I can only imagine how difficult it is for recruiters to try to determine projectability. I would think that now that they seem to be going after younger commits some of that will/may come back and bite them later
