Practice. Play. Perform.

Practice. Play. Perform. These three P’s are separate, yet support each other.

Practice
Practice involves the systematic and sequential way of doing something that’s simple, so that you can achieve success when you play.

Play
Playing is when you test the habits in games that you’re working on in practice.

Performance
Performance is the execution of skills when the stakes are high, such as championship games, and in front of college or professional scouts. Skills are developed under stress for tests that invite stress.

More about practice
It takes 3,000 reps to build a habit and there are seven parts to the swing. That’s 21,000 reps.

1. Stance/Load
2. Timing
3. Tempo
4. Tracking
5. Approach
6. Contact
7. Extension/Finish

More about playing
Baseball is an individual sport played in a team concept. You play games to win as a team. You must also use games to determine what works and what doesn’t, so that you can know what to do in your next practice.

I believe that a hitter needs at least 250 in game at-bats per year in order to remain competitive. Success during these at-bats should be based on them being productive, which leads to the outcome that we all want – lots of hits.

A productive at-bat is based on four things happening:

1. Draw a walk
2. Executive an offensive strategy, such as advancing the runner to any base with less than two outs
3. See at least six pitches, regardless of the outcome
4. Hitting the ball hard, regardless of the outcome

Achieving a productive at-bat 50 percent of the time can allow you to get a hit 30 percent to 40 percent of the time, and more or less depending on the league you play in.

More about performance
It takes 10,000 of deliberate practice to develop a skill. Think about Martin Luther King., Jr., giving speeches. Michael Jackson entertaining sold out crowds or Derek Jeter getting the game winning hit in the World Series on several occasions.

All three of these icons have performed over 10,000 hours.

As a professional instructor, I’ve trained hitters for over 30,000 hours. Can you see where your priorities are?

For more information, visit www.diamonddirectors.com today. Also, check out our Digital Magazine, Changing the Game.

____________________________________________________________________________

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.