Mods, experience and Gurus

[Cannonball]

Recently a thread was closed on this site and I want to apologize for not having taken action earlier when some ungracious posts were made. Currently, I am in season and can only check out the site once or twice a day. While saving you a lot of "the story," I have not had a day off in a few weeks. Yes, we have been voluntarily coming in on Sundays also. When I am home, I have to get the grass cut, help with the family chores, ... In the middle of all of that, I have lost 40 lbs in this past month so eating has not been a priority. LOL

Both Mud and I have lives away from the board. I know that Jake found it troubling to be away and so, imo, that weighed on him since he was so loyal and dedicated to this site that he often gave up huge chunks of time he could have spent with this family. There are times when conflict happens on this site and members push the envelope on what they know is acceptable. I sometimes miss those post to moderate. Mud does as well since he has other obligations as well. I would like to ask our community here to help police yourself. You have to know when you exceed what is proper.

A member started a thread recently that could have been taken multiple ways which would include a sense that said member is seeking to become a guru, said member is said to be seeking some validation of his efforts, and perhaps, said member is just trying to help others out. I tend to believe the last option. As many of you might know, I came onto these various sites with loads of experience and some great success in this great game of baseball. I'll save you the resume. Like many others back in the day, I thought I was an expert. I've come to believe that I never want to be considered an expert. In fact, I hope that I continue to learn. With regards to hitting, I have a system that I truly like, understand and seem to be able to pass on to my players and hitting students. I am certain that many of you here would disagree with a lot of it. As KevinG did, I posted video of my child as she progressed to make my various points but also to hear feed back.

As some of you know, my child went on to have an incredible career. Still, she was mocked and attacked. One guru pointed out that she only had success because she played D-II disregarding that on the Massey Ratings Index, (look that up some time) for college softball, her D-II school was ranked in the top 150/450 NCAA Softball Teams the final two years that she was there. Again, long story short, I learned a lot about gurus. They build themselves up by putting others down. All gurus have the secret. In fact, I don't think any of them do. I liked a lot of what KevinG said wrt adjutibility and allowing a hitter to just swing a bat. I saw the examples he gave of the back arm and agree but, to be honest, I haven't seen anyone advocate simply locking that back arm to the side while swinging but I guess some do. Kevin may or may not be on to something. The jury is out.

What we need them from Kevin, if he desires, is to be a little bit less cryptic. What we need for membership is to hear him out and/or engage in good debate minus the personal attacks.

I'll wrap up this already too long post by saying that I long for the days of good hitting discussions. I have found that whenever I participate, things do downhill as I am often accused of having some type of agenda. Still, I love to read them because I still intend to learn. I'll leave everything else of the experts who seem to know more than the rest of us and certainly more than me and my 30+ years of coaching hitting. Mud, if I have failed to produce a thread sufficient to produce a constructive discussion, please feel free to delete this thread. I won't be offended.

Take care,

Darrell

[mudvnine]

Mud, if I have failed to produce a thread sufficient to produce a constructive discussion, please feel free to delete this thread. I won't be offended.

Not sure how much, if any "discussion" that it might produce, but I believe it's a good informational thread regardless...that I'd just like to add a couple things to for additional information or clarification.

So, as CB pointed out, we have other goings on besides sighting online all day and night monitoring a forum, and thus, things are going to be posted that might be up for a little while before we get an opportunity to see them...

Therefore, it would be very helpful under the "I would like to ask our community here to help police yourself" statement (and as a couple members did recently....so "thank you") if/when you see something that you feel is inappropriate, derogatory, and/or non-baseball or topic related, please click on the "Flag" button in the lower righthand corner of the post/thread, and let us know about it, because....

When you do this, an email gets generated to us that lets us know there is a concern with something(s) related to a new thread or post, but doesn't necessarily tell us what it is until we log in. Then when we do, we have a red notification button that takes us to the reported concern, and a link to the post/thread in question. That way when we do get a chance to breakaway from what we're doing, we can log in at least briefly to take a look at the reported item(s), and take whatever action or inaction we deem necessary.

Now with that all said. If you do flag/report something, please understand that we may or may not make changes to the post(s) in question, as we try to allow as much leeway, and freedom of expression as possible, and sometimes might let a borderline post go for a bit, or just edit some of it. But if/when that post elicits or follows with more derogatory or problematic posts...we'll then just get rid of all of them that are detracting from the thread, and hope it can and will then get back on the appropriate track.

However, also, as was with the case recently with a thread when things started going south, a thread may be closed temporarily for repair, reopened after clean up...but then closed permanently when subsequent posts are let's just say, "not helping the situation", and it doesn't appear that the tone of the thread is getting any better or back on track.

Finally, I would just like to say "Thank you" to all of you...for truly making this Baseball 101, Coaching & Fundamentals forum what it is, and that it is really a remarkable resource for, and from so many. I can't tell you how much I've learned over the years, and how it made me a better coach, and baseball parent than had I not stumbled across it some 10 years ago almost to the day. Yeah, I posted through the "Hitting Wars" days, and give nothing but praise to Jake, and CB for how they handled that very difficult and infamous time, and must say that I'm thankful, surprised, and appreciative that I'm still allowed to post here for the trouble I myself caused them back in the day.

So yes, I've been on both sides of the "moderation" thing, and now know that it's not as easy as it looks, and that we're not going to please everyone. But please know that we try to be as fair and as consistent as possible, but we too are only human, and will make decisions that you won't always agree with...but none of them are ever meant to be personal, nor are we trying to run anyone out of town.


Thanks again for your patience, understanding, and participation here at BBF,
Dave (aka. mud)

[Doctor Joe]

For the record, want to make clear that I was not trying to be derogatory to Kevin G in the recent infamous thread when I posted a pic of Ty Webb and said (based on some of his posts) that for some students, a hitting lesson from him might seem like getting a golf lesson from Ty Webb. You know - "Be the ball, Danny., etc." Deep, Zen-like stuff. It's a teaching style that surely is not for everyone. Some get it. Some don't. It was meant as an attempted humorous, baseball-style friendly needle. My apologies to Kevin G, moderators, or anyone else who may have taken offense.

[Nib]

Based on previous experience, not referring to specifically to Kevin G, what people post on open forums and what they teach in the cage can be fairly different.

I'm not impressed with the state of hitting instruction in my area, and it seems to me we are still in an embryonic stage in hitting pedagogy. Progress is needed and welcome.

[Viking0]

The thing that bothers me is that I like discussion on topics, whether I agree with them or not. And, when people go after others personally, it takes away from that. It took CB to state in this thread one of the unique aspects of the hitting style pushed by Kevin G's pictures. That in itself, really got me thinking, as somebody who doesn't know what he is doing, but tries anyways. Oh well.

[pthawaii]

I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, I have a simple way of looking at it. if there are posts asking for input and help, there are some people that post and give advice. Those are the people trying to help. There are certain people who write about how great they are, the great success they have had in teaching players, teams, and hitters, and at the same time, have never given any helpful advice in any of the thousands of threads asking for help, those are not people trying to help. They may post an article and discuss what they think is important, good to do, bad to do, and if they put it in terms that most can understand, again, at least they are trying to help. I personally find posting videos of high level hitters , like Miggy cranking a bomb and saying "do this" is not that helpful without also sharing what you are seeing as it pertains to the thread and specific point being made. Lastly, and this is my upbringing so I get it might not be everyone's opinion, I tend to be turned off by people that self promote and talk highly about their accomplishments. Show me you care by helping me and others out first and let we will sing your praises. But come in and talk about how brilliant you are, and how all your teachings have helped so many people, but dont help us when we are asking every day in threads over and over again, meh, waste of time. My 2 cents and I'm sure not PC, but my honest thoughts nonetheless.

[Cannonball]

I might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, I have a simple way of looking at it. if there are posts asking for input and help, there are some people that post and give advice. Those are the people trying to help. There are certain people who write about how great they are, the great success they have had in teaching players, teams, and hitters, and at the same time, have never given any helpful advice in any of the thousands of threads asking for help, those are not people trying to help. They may post an article and discuss what they think is important, good to do, bad to do, and if they put it in terms that most can understand, again, at least they are trying to help. I personally find posting videos of high level hitters , like Miggy cranking a bomb and saying "do this" is not that helpful without also sharing what you are seeing as it pertains to the thread and specific point being made. Lastly, and this is my upbringing so I get it might not be everyone's opinion, I tend to be turned off by people that self promote and talk highly about their accomplishments. Show me you care by helping me and others out first and let we will sing your praises. But come in and talk about how brilliant you are, and how all your teachings have helped so many people, but dont help us when we are asking every day in threads over and over again, meh, waste of time. My 2 cents and I'm sure not PC, but my honest thoughts nonetheless.

If posts were home runs, this is a grand slam.

[The Uncoach]

So, I took the afternoon off from work yesterday to go see a college hitter of mine. A freshman who came to see me over the Winter and on a few off days/after game days. We stay in contact regularly, as I've also helped him navigate the mental side of things. I really like this kid, not just as an athlete, but he's a hard worker and of high character. I had one college coach there who knew I had worked with this player saying he wanted to work it in his budget for me to get with his hitters. This coach had seen the changes in the player's swing and was extremely complimentary to me. He's at a different college than this player, but he had recruited him. Head Coach comes up to me, knowing I work with this player, and tells me he is his best player. Now let that sink in. Of course I believe I'm good at what I do, but it takes the player to not only figure it out in the cage, but take it up to the plate. No instructor can swing a bat for a player. So I celebrate with all my guys and gals and love being able to help them get better, but in the end, their success is them, not me.

Some times I am more than happy to help people out here. Some times, I'm a bit too busy, because I run a company of some significance along with doing instruction and coaching. I love seeing drills, talking cues and visualizations and what has worked for others, because I can usually see how most any of them could help with a certain flaw. While I have a lot of tools in the tool box, there's always room for more, because every player communicates differently.

And just a note. I don't post in the certain poster's threads (the subject matter of this OP) any more, so the trouble wasn't me this time.

[FP26]

Of course I believe I'm good at what I do, but it takes the player to not only figure it out in the cage, but take it up to the plate. No instructor can swing a bat for a player. So I celebrate with all my guys and gals and love being able to help them get better, but in the end, their success is them, not me.

This is what it is all about. I have a feeling many of us work with players that either play or have played at the college level. Those that want to take credit for the player's success are the people I try to avoid.

[JettSixty]

Of course I believe I'm good at what I do, but it takes the player to not only figure it out in the cage, but take it up to the plate. No instructor can swing a bat for a player. So I celebrate with all my guys and gals and love being able to help them get better, but in the end, their success is them, not me.

I’ve always joked players who had some successin the game succeeded despite my instruction. Do no harm. Like Uncoach says tou can help. But they have to do it. And give them credit doing it.

[omg]

Recently a thread was closed .....
Darrell

Perhaps a permanent thread, like "Ask the Umpire", should be started as "Ask Kevin G". I promise not to post on it. This way, folks would have direct access to his knowledge, we who don't post would also be able to learn, and it might provide some focus and clarity.

[Cannonball]

I noticed that you edited out statements like, "What we need them from Kevin, if he desires, is to be a little bit less cryptic. What we need for membership is to hear him out and/or engage in good debate minus the personal attacks." All in all, this thread was an appeal to reason.