There’s a buzzword thrown around – ‘exposure’ – all too often in youth and prep sports these days. If you’re reading this, I’m sure you’ve heard it or read it. To get recruited, you have to get exposure; exposure leads to recruitment, which leads to scholarships.

The previous sentence is not wholly true and is way too simple. Sure, it’s logical to think that without an opportunity to get noticed you may not otherwise be noticed. But what about you gets you noticed?

A common belief among football families of all backgrounds is their athlete needs to only attend exposure camps and college camps starting at a certain age.  But at those events, what makes you stand out?  And be realistic, less than 2% of all high school football players will receive a scholarship to an FBS University, and in total less than 6% will play college football.  Simply showing up to a camp held on a college campus and being one of hundreds of athletes will not do the job — you’re another number on a field full of them.

So, what gets you noticed? And the answer, proven over and over, is being a more skilled, more proficient, better overall player given your natural athletic talents. Until the exposure window gets serious, the effort should be on GETTING BETTER — become the most skilled, most proficient, best player you can be. The technically sound, most skilled football players are who get noticed when it counts.

Getting better leads to getting noticed.

To paraphrase a recent article, $400-worth of gear, apparel and cleats can’t fix a $4 throwing motion. The “exposure camp” that promises meaningless ratings and recruitment without a commitment to development will not get you better. Free gear distributed to every athlete at the apparel-sponsored event will not get you better.

An investment in improvement and development can begin to fix a $4 throwing motion, and a $4 route-running ability, and a $4 first step.

Not focusing on getting better all but kills your chances at getting noticed. If you want that chance to play at the next level, commit to getting better today.  Then, when it matters, you will be noticed.