I'm really shocked how bad many of the flatground posts by kids are. Rob had clearly clearly stated what he wants in there (class, measurables, stats, level you are looking for...) and many kids still only post a video with a stupid comment.
And worst is even when asked by him to provide many don't or just a 2 word answer almost sounding as if they have no time for that.
I don't get that, why are those guys not putting in a bit more time and respect into such a post?
I think most of them don't really know what they are doing with social media and baseball recruiting. They are 15 to 17 years old and are looking at what their friends are doing, not asking an adult who might have a better idea.
They are also torn between appearing cool to their peers (their social media lingo among themselves is very different) and getting the right information across to college coaches, which they think can look "try hard." This is when it helps to have a travel coach or recruiter do the tweet instead, so the right information in the right format gets to the folks who need it to make decisions.
I think travel coaches today, especially the old-timers, need to get themselves up to speed on the social media aspect of things. This is blowing up fast, and a coach who isn't helping his boys do it right is doing a disservice to them.
Totally agree with both.
Dom is 100% right. It can be admittedly a little frustrating because I want to help these players, but they need to get me more to help them (Need to think like a coach: What would a college coach want to see? No one cares that you're "happy to be with your bros") . I've put examples in the pinned tweets on both Flatground accounts to show what a good tweet should look like. But, I also agree with LuckyCat that younger players mostly post like they do on instagram etc and use it as a brag board vs. marketing themselves.
I hate to not retweet tweets, but I also don't like it to get watered down with a bunch of "spam" for college coaches. I try to give pointers, but there's only so much I can do. It's not a bad idea for travel and high school coaches to give pointers to their players about how to use social media to further their players' playing opportunities...or for parents to take a quick look at how their kid is positioning him or herself in tweets.
I just can't believe you have time for them all. Heck let alone the time for just the ones my kid posts!
Ha--yeah, it's all me. And my PitchingNinja stuff.
Oh, and my real day job. 
@FlatGround posted:Ha--yeah, it's all me. And my PitchingNinja stuff.
Oh, and my real day job.
Pitching Ninja. My son is a big fan of what you're doing to advance the understanding of pitching. If this is you, keep it up! He's really serious about the process of making pitchers better at all levels.
Thanks Prepster--that's great to hear! [And yes, it's me.]
You know him, and vice versa.
For those of you here who don't know him and are the parents of high level pitchers, get to know him and his Twitter account. He's done a wonderful job of accumulating exceptional information.
Yes we LOVE you Rob.
You retweeted my son's roommate this season and it kind of went a little viral.
Please keep doing what you are doing. You truly are advancing the art of pitching in so many ways.
I agree that they are kids and should be given some leeway, can't be perfect but there should be some level of care.
Some of the posts really come across as brag posts putting in stuff like flame emojis and stuff like this and not really data or information.
Coaches should probably help those kids getting this right but kids also need to care a little bit.
I mean if those kids dont respect robs time and put in no effort, how much effort and care will there be in college? Of course there is time to mature and in two years they might be farther along in their development not just baseball but also personally but why not demonstrate some maturity now?
Kids still can be kids but still you can take some time for such a video when you are generating social media content 4 hours a day anyway
I guess the upshot is, parents talk to you kids about how they can best use social media for college recruiting purposes. Scroll through flatground's twitter pages with them and talk about which tweets are effective and which aren't and help them craft a tweet that puts their best foot forward for coaches.
Most kids are probably more competent with social media their parents are, aren't they?
They are wrt what their friends want to see and what will get views.
They're not wrt what adults/coaches want to see and what will get offers.
My son just gave me this hat. Says that they are pretty hard to come by.
@Picked Off posted:My son just gave me this hat. Says that they are pretty hard to come by.
Your son loves you very much! Extremely difficult to get. When they go on sale, you have a less than 3 minute window to purchase or they are gone!
@Picked Off posted:My son just gave me this hat. Says that they are pretty hard to come by.
Nice! My son would love that!
