A lot of kids today want to get involved in sports for a number of reasons. Some want to just because they enjoy sports for the sake of participating in them, but then there are those who have ulterior motives. It is no secret that for a kid who wants to go to college, the best ticket is usually to specialize in a sport. That's all well and good, but knowing what to specialize in is quite another story. Not everybody is cut out for every sport. So what do you do if you want to have a decent shot at going to college on a sports scholarship? While the following tips aren't set in stone, they will give the future athletic star a pretty good start on his journey.

Most sports require one or more skills related to body strength of body type. The more complex the sport, the more skills are needed. So the first thing a student needs to do is figure out where his strengths are and then go on from there. The student should try to objectively rate each of his skills such as running, throwing, dexterity, eye-hand coordination and even eye sight. The student should also make not of any outstanding physical characteristics such as weight and height. By taking everything into consideration you'll have the best chance of picking the sport that is just right for you.

Okay, so you've gotten your strengths down and now you're trying to match them up to a sport. The first thing you'll want to do is list all the major ones and then move on from there. Most likely you will start off with baseball, basketball, football, soccer and hockey. You may want to also add in tennis, volleyball, golf and track and field. From this short list you can get a feel for what you'd be best qualified.

For example. Let's say you're 5 feet 4 inches tall. It's a pretty good bet that basketball is out of the question, especially with most players today being well over 6 feet tall. Football is probably out too as you're not likely to be very big in the weight department either. Because your physical makeup probably excludes you from certain sports right off the bat, you might want to look at your skills. Are you very fast? If so, you might want to try to get into college on a track scholarship. Maybe you're both fast and have great hand-eye coordination and pretty decent arm strength. You may want to take up tennis. Plenty of people play tennis well who aren't Amazon giants. Believe it or not there are several baseball players who aren't that tall. If you're fast, have good hand-eye and decent upper body strength you may want to consider the game of baseball. If you have strong arms and legs you may want to consider swimming.

Of course the most important thing in choosing a sport is to choose something that you're also interested in. It doesn't matter if you're 7 feet tall. If you have no desire to play basketball you probably either won't be very good at it or will eventually quit out of boredom. On the other hand, if you love the game of football but you're a 120 pound weakling, there's a good chance you won't survive your first practice.

So follow your heart, but use your head too.