Thread: Sometimes the toughest thing is keeping your mouth shut

About a week ago, I was hanging out at North Shore Baseball Academy with some time on my hands. My 6:30 lesson had cancelled at the last minute due to illness, so I was just sort of strolling around trying to keep myself occupied for the next half hour.

In one cage was a high school age boy hitting off a pitching machine. I started chatting with his father, just some general stuff. But as we were talking I was also watching the boy. He was popping up a lot, although every now and then he'd hit a good one. I could see why -- he was dropping his back shoulder before rotating -- and that created a dilemma for me. I so much wanted to offer to help him out, but I wasn't sure that my recommendations would be all that welcome. After all, who was I to tell them anything?

Ultimately I decided not to say anything. It was probably the toughest thing I had to do all night.

Once you really get into coaching it's hard to turn it back off. I can't even watch a movie where they're playing softball without analyzing the technique. (I can tell you with utmost certainty that softball is not Hillary Duff's game.)

So how about you? Have you ever been walking around a field or indoor facility, seen some bad technique or bad instruction, and wanted to say something? Did you, or did you keep your mouth shut too?



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Definitely bit my tongue when watching kids I barely knew struggle at simple tasks. There is an art to knowing how to entice a request for help, but short of someone asking for advice, most unsolicited advice is taken poorly and sometimes very poorly which is how you learn to pipe down.

As a caveat the next hardest thing to do is not post something on a message board just because something you read elicits a response. In many cases it's not worth the emotional investment to get involved in a cyber debate that can only have losers, not winners. In many cases I've found it's helpful to write out a response, save it, then come back later and decide if it's really worth posting and then re-edit and or delete the post.

There have been many times that I have wanted to say something, both on the diamond and on the forums.

On the diamond, I will bite my tongue. I don't think there is ever a time where unsolicited advise is appreciated (unless the safety of a minor is involved).

On a forum is a different thing. If I feel very strongly about an issue, I will post my opinion weather or not it is black to everyone elses white, it is what makes community forums so enlightening (and fun), and who knows, maybe my opinion will help someone see in a different light (I know others' opinions have helped me see past my own bias)