Youth Training Program Boosting Tips

By Ryan Ketchum

Every so often you need to give your Youth Training programs a little boost.  The numbers might be slowly declining, it seems like you cannot generate interest from parents or athletes and you don’t know where to go.   Today I am going to give you three ways to give your youth training programs a boost of new athletes for the coming spring seasons.

1. Attend sport registrations- I was sitting at the doctor’s office the other day and picked up the local paper to pass the time waiting for them to see me and I noticed a huge opportunity that we could have missed out on.  In the Sports section we have an activities section in which local sports leagues post their registrations and other events, in that day’s listings were two youth baseball league registrations.

I could have breezed through this without much thought, but immediately the thought came back to one of our Athletic Revolution marketing strategies.   One of the easiest ways to get more athletes is to be present at events they attend.  The registration is an event that will promise to have every parent and athlete that wants to play in each league in attendance.
These families obviously spend a little money on their kids’ sports and they want them to be the best athletes possible, no matter their age.  Our business can be in front of hundreds of parents with an incredible offer to get them ready for the season.

2. Reactivate all of your previous winter sport athletes- With the winter sports season coming to a close in late February and early March now is the time to start compiling your list of inactive athletes who participate in winter sports.  Create your list and make notes of when their season may end.

Within the notes for each athlete you will want to note if they make the playoffs, the season ends as scheduled or if you know they are injured.    You can send a handwritten note to those that make the playoffs congratulating them and letting them know you can’t wait to see them in the offseason.

If the athlete is injured or missed the playoffs a simple phone call will work wonders.

These simple follow ups and contacts with your previous athletes are a step above and beyond what any of your competition is doing and will show them how much you care.  It is up to you to reach out and invite them back in to your programs.

Don’t make the mistake of assuming your previous athletes will return automatically.  Be proactive and set up some calls!

3. Hold a preseason academy- In Athletic Revolution we call one of our short term programs academies.  One of the best ways to get new athletes in is to start them in a program that involves a short time commitment, helps them get ready for their upcoming season (the one thing that is on their mind at this moment), and can be sport, age, gender and skill specific.

With spring right around the corner now is the time to set up your 4-6 week training programs for baseball, softball, tennis, golf or any other spring sports that you would like to work with.  The great thing about these programs is that you can upsell your current athletes into them for more specific training and you can get new athletes in door for your programs.

To market these programs you should look at your networking list first.  Find any coaches or parents that you have a relationship with and ask for their help in putting you in contact with the coaches, athletes and their parents.   Starting off with a free 1 hour clinic for them is a great way to get them to buy into your new program.

You can also use your leads from the event registrations (hint, hint) to fill these academies.

Once you have the athletes in the academy you will be able to continue to develop a relationship with them and their parents so that you can be their trusted athletic development resource.

The key to making any of these ideas successful is having a great youth training program that gets the results you promise, creating a system for developing your leads, and having the discipline to follow up consistently to develop relationships.

Make sure that anytime your program needs a boost you look for places that have a captive audience, seek out athletes in which you have already formed a relationship, and cater to the current needs of the athletes.