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.
