Don’t you love YouTube? I mean you can learn how to do just about anything by watching a video on YouTube.
I’ve learned how to do small home repairs, car repairs, hacks for my phone, bee keeping tips and tricks, even product reviews. It really is an amazing place to learn from others who share the same passions you do.
But just because you watch a video (or read a couple of books) doesn’t mean you can actually do it.
My daughter who is in 3rd grade just started playing rec softball. She wanted to try something new. She is a brave girl not only for trying something new, but because she happens to be the youngest on her team. Many of her teammates are in 5th grade and have played several times before. But she loves the team and they are a great team. They sing songs, cheer for each other, and seem to truly enjoy learning the game.
Being new to the softball world it’s been interesting to watching how some parents “cheer” for their kids. Some sit, shiver and endure the New York Spring while sharing blankets with the newbies…my kind of fan. Other parents leave you wondering if the fate of all humanity was resting on whether their child got a hit or not. In those moments I find myself looking at the score board just to make sure the league didn’t change their mind and decide to keep score after all…but alas it always says 0 to 0.
One dad recently was “coaching” his daughter from the bleachers. After he finished someone asked him if he ever coached before. He said, “No, but I’ve watched enough YouTube videos that I should practically be a coach.”
I almost spit out my grape Big League Chew. He didn’t just say that did he?
Ever since kindergarten I was on a baseball team. My high school baseball team won the state championship for private schools when I was a senior. I was a captain for my baseball team my junior and senior year and at one point I was fourth in the line up.
But don’t be impressed by those stats. You would be kind to say I was an average player. (Maybe if YouTube had been around I might have actually been average.)
It’s easy to talk a good game, but just because you can talk it doesn’t mean you can make it happen. Just because you were on the championship team doesn’t mean it was successful because of you.
Be careful who you seek advice and wisdom from.
Always ask yourself…Have they done what I hope to do? Is it verifiable? If not maybe they’re just repeating a YouTube video.
What makes it worse is that many times we can let the YouTube experts discourage us with all of their…you aren’t doing it right…you need to do it this way…hold the bat this way…point your toes that way…when at the end of the day they’ve never once stepped into the batter’s box.
We all need coaches, but make sure you are getting that wisdom from the expert who made the video and not from the one who just watched the video.
