LEAD Ambassadors

Finding the inspiration to try new things

August 17, 2022 by C.J. Stewart

August through October is the designated time of year that my hitters commit and discipline themselves to try new things to determine what works and what doesn’t.

There is a long list of reasons people aren’t willing to try new things. Here are three that are top of mind for me:

They don’t know how to try it.
They believe they tried it, and it didn’t work for them.
They believe it won’t work, so it is not worth trying.

Coaching is more than a title. It is a calling to convict and lead people. People can only become the best of themselves when we try new things.

I love this time of year as a coach because I am trying new things to better myself as well.

In this season of my life, I am reading books written by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to receive the inspiration I need to try new things with courage.

Trying new things teaches me the importance of:

Setting stretch goals
Scrutinizing my thinking
Seeking support from others

For more information, visit L.E.A.D. Center for Youth today. Also, check out our Digital Magazine.

C.J. Stewart has built a reputation as one of the leading professional hitting instructors in the country. He is a former professional baseball player in the Chicago Cubs organization and has also served as an associate scout for the Cincinnati Reds. As founder and CEO of Diamond Directors Player Development, C.J. has more than 22 years of player development experience and has built an impressive list of clients, including some of the top young prospects in baseball today. If your desire is to change your game for the better, C.J. Stewart has a proven system of development and a track record of success that can work for you.

Practicing the art of committing to new things

August 10, 2022 by C.J. Stewart

Jaiden Byse takes a much needed break after hundreds of reps where he worked on six different loads.

The ancient Chinese philosopher and writer Lao Tzu once said, “Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.”

The load is the fundamental part of hitting—the part that positions the hitter to track the pitch and, if done well and on time and on tempo, will help him execute the other parts of the swing. The end result is a lot more hits.

As my Diamond Directors’ clients know, there are seven parts to the swing, which include:

Stance/Load
Timing
Tempo
Tracking
Approach
Contact
Extension/Finish

I look forward to fall baseball for my hitters because it is the time of year (August through October) that we commit and discipline ourselves to trying new things. The end goal is to determine what works and what doesn’t.

Based on what works, we use November through December to build habits and strength.

There are seven ways my hitters will load this fall, regardless if they like it or not.

If they don’t like to load using one of these ways, great. This will force them to be athletic, which is what I define as the ability to critically think about and physically execute something that you have never done before.

So, basically, athleticism can be taught.

Hand Drop
Toe Tap
Bat Wrap
High Leg
Cross Grip
Open Stance
Switch Hit

For more information, visit L.E.A.D. Center for Youth today. Also, check out our Digital Magazine.

Finding what works to get the job done

July 27, 2022 by C.J. Stewart

The fall baseball season is right around the corner—the time that my hitters focus on trying new things to determine what works and what doesn’t.

Many people believe athleticism is something you have to be born with. I believe it can be taught. Anyone who participates in a sport is an athlete. Those athletes who have an ability to critically think at a high level about how to execute physically can be considered to be athletic.

It requires athleticism to figure out how to get a hit against a pitcher who throws a pitch of any type you’ve never seen before.

Athleticism allows you to perform at high levels even when you don’t have a brand new bat,
a private hitting coach and you are not playing on the top travel baseball team.

I remember when I was a kid living in Atlanta in the ’80s. I would watch Chicago Cubs games in the daytime in the summer and practice hitting in my grandparents backyard being Gary “The Sarge” Matthews at Wrigley Field by hitting rocks with a stick.

I never asked anyone for a bat and a ball because the sticks and the rocks got the job done for me.

I was drafted twice by the Chicago Cubs and “Sarge” was one of my hitting coaches when I played in the Minors.

For more information, visit L.E.A.D. Center for Youth today. Also, check out our Digital Magazine.

A coach’s life: Heeding the call of those in need

July 20, 2022 by C.J. Stewart

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a two-part series (“Why a Coach is Meant to Move People”) on the difference in opportunities that white and black baseball players are provided. The blogs take a look at my role in helping even the playing field for today’s Black baseball players in the inner city of Atlanta.

In the first part of this series, we discussed how a coach moves people. The way the word was used to describe a means of transportation. But as I have learned—and have tried to teach the players under my guidance—the word coach is so powerful today.

As teams add the final pieces to their 2022 MLB draft, another round of African-American baseball players have stepped into the competitive world of professional baseball. Over the years, I have watched as these young players fought to make their place in the game, knowing that even as many were blessed enough to get the opportunity, the numbers were declining.

The reality of this situation hit me hard in 2007 when a white parent of a middle-school age client told me there was a decline of Blacks in baseball. He asked why I was not doing anything about it.

I was planting seeds in a suburban garden that wasn’t my own. The garden I needed to cultivate was in the inner city of Atlanta.

How could I call myself a good coach simply because I had a winning team of middle- to upper- middle class, highly motivated, well-resourced players—both Black and white on my squad?

Success is what you get. Significance is based on what you give. Remember: You cannot give what you do not have.

I was faking it to make it as a respected and legitimate coach.

Regulated and well-resourced middle and upper middle class Black boys are able to navigate the sport of baseball far better than those who are dysregulated, i.e., the ones living at or below the poverty level. These are the young—and talented—players who do not have access to the coaching, resources and facilities that can foster their growth.

That’s why so many of the players living in the inner cities are siphoned away to help other communities win to the detriment of their own.

I know that feeling. I lived in Bankhead, a northwest suburb of Atlanta. I made frequent trips to play for Cobb County teams when I was a teenager.

Success is what you get. Significance is based on what you give. Remember: You cannot give what you do not have.

My personal mission in life is to be significant by serving millions and bringing them into a relationship with Christ, starting with my wife, Kelli, and our daughters, Mackenzi and Mackenna.

My spiritual gifts are prophecy and discernment, and my earthly talent is coaching.

I was convicted by God through that white parent in 2007 to accept an assignment to create a brave space for African-American boys living in the inner city Atlanta. My calling was to use the sport of baseball to help them overcome the three curve balls that threaten their success: crime, poverty and racism.

Fifteen years later, my wife and I are still here coaching Black boys from Atlanta Public Schools—young boys who are underperforming in the areas of grades, attendance and behavior in their plight to become Major League Citizens.

It is the calling I accepted and the one I will continue to heed.

For more information, visit L.E.A.D. Center for Youth today. Also, check out our Digital Magazine.

Why a coach is meant to move people

July 14, 2022 by C.J. Stewart

Photo by iSmooth

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a two-part series on the difference in opportunities that white and black baseball players are provided. The blogs take a look at my role in helping even the playing field for today’s Black baseball players in the inner city of Atlanta.

A coach moves people. As we have discussed in this blog in the past, before the word “coach” was used in sports, it was strictly used as a means of transportation. There was a horse and a coachman to stir the reins. The coach was where the passengers rested until they reached their destination.

I get so aggravated when there are discussions about the decline of African-Americans playing baseball. My aggravation typically happens when there are photos and videos of those African-American players blessed enough to achieve the success needed to make it to the Major Leagues.

My aggravation is not for those players. I am proud of them and proud of the work they put into making their dreams come true. It is just that not all African-American boys have those same opportunities.

Being Black is not monolithic. Not all African-Americans are having the same life experiences. There are levels to it.

In the area where I was born, Atlanta, if you are born into poverty, you have a 4% chance of making it out of the circumstances you live in. The Atlanta Public Schools serves more than 51,000 students, 80%-plus of whom live at or below the poverty level.

Atlanta has also been deemed “unaffordable” according to the Federal Reserve Bank.

I was born and raised in the inner-city of Atlanta. I used baseball to help escape poverty. I competed as a scholarship student-athlete at Georgia State University and professionally in the Chicago Cubs organization.

When my professional baseball playing career was over, I began coaching in the East Cobb community, a wealthier suburb outside of Atlanta. The money was good and the talent was rich there.

But I failed to coach kids in the inner-city of Atlanta. I believed the rhetoric that Black boys didn’t play baseball.

Reality hit me hard in 2007 when a white parent of a middle-school age client told me there was a decline of Blacks in baseball. He asked why I was not doing anything about it. I was planting seeds in a suburban garden that wasn’t my own. The garden I needed to cultivate was in the inner city of Atlanta.

This convicting moment launched my calling to purpose.

For more information, visit L.E.A.D. Center for Youth today. Also, check out our Digital Magazine.

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