Finding what works—and how and when to use it

Noted author Alfie Kohn once said, “Assessments should compare the performance of students to a set of expectations, never to the performance of other students.”

I just love this quote. It is so timely since so many hitters are having tryouts now to make teams for the 2024 summer Travel Baseball season.

Excellence is one of the core values I live by. For me, excellence simply means to meet expectations. Since meeting expectations is so important to me, I have to ask questions of people who are expecting things from me so that I don’t get caught up doing things I am not supposed to do with people I am not supposed to do with.

Before hitters can train with me, they must start with a thorough two-hour assessment, which begins with me asking the questions that must be asked—or should ask questions (SAQs).

The questions include:

  • What is your purpose for being here today?
  • What is your short-term (one to five years) baseball goal?
  • What is your short-term (one to five years) life goal?
  • How does your family define success?
  • What’s one thing your family needs to stop doing to help you be successful, according to your family definition of success?
  • How will you handle an assessment from me that you do not agree with?

After I get their answers, we move to a visual assessment followed by a physical swing assessment.

When the auditory, visual and physical assessment is complete, I determine my mental and emotional capacity to coach them.

My time is more important than money and being excellent is a vital part of my legacy.

During my 26 years of being a professional baseball hitting coach, I have had several hitters—some as young as 5—expect me to help them become collegiate hitters. And we have accomplished it. I have had hitters as young as 10 expect me to help them become Major Leaguers—and we have done that, too.

Carol Ann Tomlinson once said that “assessment is today’s means of modifying tomorrow’s instruction. Assessments should compare the performance of students to a set of expectations, never to the performance of other students.”

Social media is full of how-to baseball drills. I view and love lots of them. Often, I see viral hitting drills I started doing in the early 2000s.

For me, recognizing the root cause of the problem is important. It is the reason we do a drill. When to do it supersedes how to do it.

It is like taking medicine. You shouldn’t use eye drops to help you with a headache just because your eyes are in your head.

This is important because so many hitters and their parents fall in love with drills because it worked for someone else. What works for Ronald Acuña and Peter Alonso may not work for you because of different learning styles, aptitude, mental, emotional and physical strength.

Before starting hitting drills, answer these questions for yourself:

  • Why am I playing baseball?
  • What problem am I having as a hitter?
  • Is it mental, physical or both?
  • What drill do I need to do to fix my swing?
  • Why am I doing this drill?
  • When do I need to start doing the drill?
  • When do I need to stop doing it?
  • How do I do it?

Make a commitment to yourself this fall to try new things to see what works and what doesn’t. You owe it to yourself. And don’t get caught up in comparing yourself to others because there is no comparison between the sun and the moon. They shine when it is their time.

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.

Finding your path to leadership

“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” — Michael Jordan

I began paying close attention to Michael Jordan in 1982 because he helped North Carolina win the NCAA National Championship. In 1984, he was the “National Player of the Year,” and was later drafted in the first round by the Chicago Bulls.

I was eight years old in 1984. That was also the year I fell in love with watching baseball. It was the Chicago Cubs games during the hot summers in Atlanta at my grandparent’s house.

Like most kids in the ’80s and ’90s, I wanted to be like Mike. I watched and watched, desperately trying to walk like him and shoot like him. I even tried to chew gum like him.

By 1992, I was able to meet Jordan a few times because my travel baseball coach, Derrick Stafford, was a NBA referee. He knew MJ well.

Like me, Coach Stafford, was born and raised in Zone 1 Atlanta, a majority Black community that was defined by loving, working class people.

Eventually, I had my first professional workout with the Chicago Cubs. It was 1990 and I was 14. I had my mentor, the late T.J. Wilson, to thank for the opportunity. So, by the time I was playing for Coach Stafford, I was completely focused on being drafted at 18.

Coach Stafford was a good man. He loved his players. He was extremely knowledgeable about baseball and was well-connected. The problem I had wrestled with in my head as a 16 year old was that we were Black.

As I have discussed in past blogs, loyalty is showing constant support toward a person or organization. Before racism is about people, it is about power. My experience with baseball at the professional level exposed me to the decision-makers, who were all white men.

Being Black and being white is not the same thing culturally. While we come together as the human race, we are coming together as two distinct groups of people.

At 16, I thought that in addition to playing well on the field, I also had to learn how to act white off the field. Nobody, not even Coach Stafford, could teach me how to do that.

Today, as a 47 year old Black man, I have been blessed to be drafted twice by the Chicago Cubs and played in the Cubs organization for two years. I am a successful coach who has had more than 40 former clients who played at the Major League Baseball level.

In addition, I am in contact with hundreds of Black boys from varying socioeconomic levels on a yearly basis. My experience and my travels have taught me three reasons why Black boys, once like me, still struggle to be loyal to Black-led organizations. The reasons are:

  1. Tests
  2. Stress
  3. Progress

I believe the person who owns the definition owns the movement. So let me define some words before I continue to make my point.

  • Struggle is the process of trying to reach a goal while making mistakes out of ignorance
  • Stupidity is knowing the right thing to do but not doing it
  • Loyalty is showing constant support toward a person or organization
  • Organization is an entity comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose
    Test is a procedure intended to establish the quality, performance or reliability of something, especially before it is taken into widespread use
  • Stress is pressure or tension exerted onto something
  • Progress is forward or onward movement toward a destination
Taking the test

Trying to be the best requires being tested. There is a difference between practice, play and performance. Practices prepare you to test what you have been working on when you play the game, while performance requires stress to be present.

As it was when I was a teenager, there are still hundreds of thousands of Black boys in America who are not convinced that a Black man can guide them to the Promised Land.

So to deal with the stress of the performance test, White becomes Right.

Stress

Trying to be the best brings stress. My mentor, Skip Nelloms, recently showed me there are two types of stress: eustress and distress.

Eustress is moderate or normal psychological stress and is interpreted as being beneficial. Distress is extreme anxiety, sorrow, or pain and interpreted as being detrimental.

Getting a hit in front of hundreds of baseball scouts can be stressful for sure. For a lot of Black players, the thought of having a white coach vouch for you to white scouts if you strikeout is the best route.

Progress

Trying to be the best requires progress. Less than 8% of Major League Baseball players are African-American. Not only are those numbers low at the MLB level, but we also have low representation in the medical field, Fortune 100 company leadership, homeownership, and the list goes on.

Progress feels good when you are receiving the benefit of doubt, respect and trust.

In my experience, as a teenager as well as today, I do not believe Black people are not afforded these three valuable things outright. These three things are what I call the “it” factor.”

Black people oftentimes have to show and prove we can perform in order to earn “it.” Or, if we have a white coach who says we deserve “it,” we can have “it.”

Baseball is an expensive sport. For young Black boys, it costs financial, emotional and mental currency.

For more than 20 years as a Black man, I have been able to successfully coach Black boys to become Major League Baseball players because I have instilled the following in them:

  • Shared experiences
  • A proven philosophy and methodology for development
  • An understanding of learning and teaching styles
  • A trauma informed approach to coaching
  • An expertise in race relations
  • A proven track record of negotiating MLB Draft signing bonuses
  • A strong network of contacts that includes both Black and white executives at the Major League Baseball level, to Black and white college coaches and Black and white recreation to Travel Baseball coaches

I want Black boys to know it can be as safe and rewarding for you to be led by a Black man as it is by a white man.

Whoever leads you into manhood should be able to answer the following 10 questions for you with conviction, clarity and conciseness within 10 minutes. If they can, they will earn the right to coach you.

  1. Coach, who are you?
  2. What has happened to you as a coach?
  3. Where are you going as a coach?
  4. What do you see in me?
  5. Why are the participation numbers of African-Americans so low for players and coaches at the collegiate to Major League levels?
  6. Is there a Black and white way to play baseball?
  7. Is there a Black and white way to live life?
  8. Where can I go as a player?
  9. Where can I go as a person?
  10. How will you guide and protect me when the going gets tough?

Now is the time to push forward. Now is the time to find your place and the person who can lead you. That person, regardless of color, should be a person who is willing to give you the truth, the opportunities to find the answers and ability to find your way through the successes and failures.

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.

Understanding the art of coaching

Who has been your best coach? For me, a great coach transports people from where they are to where they need to go. Great coaching must happen with competency and the capacity to care.

Competency is having the necessary ability, knowledge or skill to do something successfully.

I am considered a maven because of my ability to get to 30,000 feet when it comes to teaching baseball because of my proven philosophy, methodology and phase of development.

I have a long list of things that I am not competent at that, which includes teaching someone how to:

  • Ride a bike
  • Drive a car
  • Throw a changeup
  • Change a flat tire
  • Read
  • Algebra
  • Cook
  • Fish
  • Lay tile
  • Garden

My specific coaching expertise is hitting and outfield for baseball. I believe that transformed people transform people, and I love coaching because I enjoy watching people be transformed.

So much of effective coaching is about caring about people.

To care about someone is more than a feeling. To care is the provision of what is necessary for the health, welfare, maintenance, and protection of someone or something. Caring requires sacrifice.

I have a long list of people and things that I care about. Subsequently, there also is a long list of people and things that I cannot care about because nobody has the capacity to care about everybody nor everything.

I have a strong and sturdy Rawlings ball bag that holds 72 baseballs. I can squeeze in an extra five without causing the zipper to break.

The capacity of the bag is 72 balls so I only carry 72. If I have 100 baseballs I need to use, I have to get two bags.

As you enter the months of August and September for your baseball development, be sure to have a great coach on your side that has the capacity to care.

Here are questions that I want my players to ask me before they trust me to coach them.

  • Coach C.J., what’s your definition of a great coach in less than 20 words?
  • What do you believe is my full potential as a baseball player?
  • What’s your coaching philosophy in less than 20 words?
  • Why do you care about me?
  • How will I know when you stop caring about me?
  • What are the top ten things that you do not care about?

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.

Embracing the power of aptitude

Aptitude is that ability to learn and apply. A lot of colleges and universities still use the Scholastics Aptitude Test (S.A.T.) to determine which students will be successful. The goal is for students to graduate, be gainfully employed and donate money back to their alma mater.

Do you think college coaches look at S.A.T. scores when they are recruiting players? Of course they do because they want to make sure players can learn and quickly put what they learn into action.

Kevin O’Sullivan, a good friend of mine, is the head baseball coach at the University of Florida. The Florida Gators were my pick for the 2023 College World Series. Rest assured Sully is making sure he recruits players with high aptitude. Congrats to the LSU Tigers for being the 2023 CWS Champions.

Talent is what you do well, while habits are things you do well repeatedly without thought. Skills are things you do well repeatedly without thought while under stress.

How do you convert talent to habits and habits to skills? One of the ways that you do it is with aptitude. I believe aptitude can be amplified with reflection. A great way to reflect is by journaling daily.

I’ve been keeping a daily journal in my phone for the last eight years. I simply journal at least one new thing I learn daily.

For you, what you learn can be typed into your phone. You can even record a video of yourself.

The goal is to increase your ability to learn and apply.

Here are questions you can ask yourself and answer daily. Do it for 30 days.

  • How do I feel today?
  • Mentally?
  • Emotionally?
  • Physically?
  • What’s one thing that I need to do today to become a better:
  • Person?
  • Baseball player?
  • With the day coming to an end, how do I feel?
  • Mentally?
  • Emotionally?
  • Physically?
  • Did I get better today?
  • Personally?
  • Why? Why not?
  • Baseball?
  • Why? Why not?

We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them.

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.

Why Practice + Training = Success

What if we have to get artificial intelligence (AI) robots to play baseball because boys won’t work? Hope, luck and chance are the best strategies for boys who won’t work.

When I was playing baseball in Little League all the way up to Travel Ball as a teenager, I was among the most talented.

Talent is what you do well and habits are things you do well repeatedly without thought. Skills are things that you do well repeatedly without thought while under stress.

Talented players compete in Travel Ball. Players with good habits showcase it at the collegiate level and skills pay the bills for professional players.

The main reason I didn’t have the long MLB career I dreamed of was because I didn’t humble myself enough to understand that talent is the floor and not the ceiling. Too many boys today are failing to develop to become the best versions of themselves on the baseball field because they are repeatedly told that they have so much talent.

My mentor Skip Nelloms recently told me that there are two types of stress:

  • Eustress is moderate or normal psychological stress interpreted as being beneficial.
  • Distress is extreme anxiety and bad for the body.

I’ve been a part of the development of more than 40 MLB players for 20-plus years because eustress is a part of my training. Those clients include Jason Heyward, Dexter Fowler and Peter Alonso.

When it is time for us to practice we practice, but when it is time to train we train.

There is a difference between practicing and training. Practice is when you build habits and training is when you convert habits to skills. I will go deeper for you in future blogs because there is a season for everything and a method to my business.

The new MLB rule changes are in response to fans demanding more action. In the year 2040, if men cannot play baseball with a high level of skill, fans will want MLB to replace them with AI.

Your thoughts?

Meet the MBP website

I am really excited about the launch of the new MBP website.

Prospects will be rated off of Swaggy Chains:

5  Pro Prospect Grade

4  Mid Major – Power 5 Grade

3  D2 – Mid Major Grade

2  D3 – NAIA Grade

Developing as a prospect

This new rating system by MBP is going to let players know where they stand and it is going to be elite hitting practitioners like me that will bear the responsibility to partner with boys to help them to become skilled hitters so that they don’t have to be replaced with AI.

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.