Some of life’s most important lessons can be learned on the baseball field, as GA Tech outfielder Brandon Thomas found out when he wanted to become a switch hitter.
At age 16, Brandon had already been working with CJ Stewart at Diamond Directors for three years. He’d honed his natural athletic ability and gained a level of baseball skill to be proud of. One day, he approached CJ and told him that he wanted to add switch hitting to his list of accomplishments.
CJ warned Brandon that it wouldn’t be easy, that becoming a reliable switch hitter would be full of ups and downs, but Brandon was set on making it happen. Before training him as a switch hitter, CJ required Brandon to agree to commit 100% to making it a reality, and Brandon did.
As CJ had predicted, Brandon quickly realized that “ups and downs” was putting it mildly! When he tried switch hitting in a few games with poor results, he decided that he’d been wrong, and should stick to what he was already good at. He wanted to stop the switch hitter training. CJ reminded Brandon that he’d already committed to becoming a switch hitter, and given his word to put in 100%. If Brandon gave up now, CJ wouldn’t continue training him at all.
Brandon wasn’t happy, but realized that what CJ said was true. Quitting was not the way to go. Instead, they focused their training on making switch hitting second nature for Brandon, through lots of frisbee and footwork drills, which help coordinate the upper and lower body. Today, Brandon is a successful switch hitter playing college baseball at GA Tech, and there’s no doubt that the lesson he learned at age 16 with CJ Stewart is one that’s stuck with him.
BIO:
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 area scout for the Cincinnati Reds. As founder and CEO of Diamond Directors Player Development, CJ has more than 12 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 track record of success that can work for you.
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