Ben Bizier

A Baseball Gentleman

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

In a world where the portal is the way to walk, there is the must-be told story of Carter Cunningham

Already a Major League level human, Carter starred for me as a freshman & signed w/ ECU w/ 3 years of eligibility

It went south

Carter got benched, money taken at seasons end

He bet on himself and it didn’t work out. He was left with two choices. Jump in the portal like everyone does in this situation… or fix what went wrong

Carter, one of the most thoughtful young men I’ve ever encountered made the most intelligent decision he could have and so few rarely do after such a failure. He doubled down and bet on himself AGAIN

He committed to having fun playing ball, went to Charlottesville and played in the Valley League and had what he described as the funnest time he ever had playing baseball

He went back to ECU with no scholarship

2024 American Athletic Conference Player of the Year, drafted by the Blue Jays in the 10th round. I got a chance to watch him live 2 months back here in Ft Myers in a big league spring training game. I beam with pride

Carter took the L but not the defeat

He refused defeat

Some situations the player has to leave… in many they don’t!

Players can you accept that you might not be good enough now but you might be in 6 months if you take the constructive criticism properly and get tf after it?!?!?!

Carter Cunningham: a guy who will make mistakes and will lose at times, but will always remain undefeated

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

Young bucks about to walk into exit meetings wondering why you didn’t get the burn you wanted

Text coach beforehand:

“Good day (Name), look forward to talking. Here are the questions I plan to ask during our meeting (list questions)”

Do you want confrontation or information?

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

Really interesting take. Only works if trust in the coach is at 100%

I legitimately had someone tell me one time they believe in 95% of my stuff. I replied… ‘So then you don’t believe in me!’

[Trevor Bauer (トレバー・バウアー) @BauerOutage]

I'm convinced the best athletic development setup is a coach who knows everything and an athlete who knows nothing.

The athlete's job is to compete. Conscious thought is the enemy of competition mindset — it's the opposite of flow state.

But elite skills don't build themselves. That requires conscious thought. That's the coach's job, not the athlete's.

The coach handles all of it — training programs, daily adjustments based on how the athlete feels, workload, age, height, weight, movement patterns, time of year.

The athlete shows up to compete and try to win. The coach puts him in positions where competing will develop the right skills. Rinse and repeat.

But this only works if the athlete trusts the coach 100% and the coach actually knows what he's talking about. Rare combo.

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

@throwupthe_X OE’s!

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

One of my fondest memories of coaching college baseball was 2015 at Region 8 tourney

Me & my 3 assistants took the players laundry after game 2 & drove to a local laundromat

Walked next door to convenience store & bought 40 oz beers, sat & drank’em while washing player uniforms

[Warchant.com @Warchant]

'UTTERLY MISMANAGED'

Coastal Carolina head coach Kevin Schnall lets loose on how he felt the Tallahassee Regional was handled Saturday afternoon & night.

@CoastalBaseball @FSUBaseball

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

@nickstrong @smotherhook 😂

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

@G2GCatching Well yes because we were JUCO… but if we were D1 we would have waited for our trainers to do it

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

@G2GCatching 😂

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

Yea I get that but this particular example was used to illustrate scores of similar situations, there are many many I could use

I’m glad you’re in baseball giving to the game and teaching… that’s awesome I know how challenging it is regardless of level and age

Honestly from my experience, and this is in South Florida and Southwest Florida over the last 17 years… I’ve had under my purview far more players who could have learned more and presented more advanced life skills from a ‘well meaning’ coach than someone who was a proclaimed PD guy missing the boat on interpersonal development.

I know they’re not mutually exclusive, guys that can do both are rare but exist

In another realm and back to one of our previous intersections, I define true player development as all encompassing. Coaching a baseball team is NOT true PD. It goes well beyond that into every component of life, nutrition, S&C, Game IQ, mental toughness intro and growth, defensive discipline, offensive approach, and then yes technique within those

So to me, anyone who says they are PD and hasn’t included those modules into their programs AND brought otherwise non college and professional players to those respective stages… they’re just tagging along and pretending to be a real PD guy

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

My little league coach’s name was Daryl Benner. He was one of the most influential people I had in my youth

He was a dope smoking carpenter who loved baseball and had a hilarious sense of humor. He taught me about life

He never claimed to be player development

Cuz he wasn’t

And that’s OK. Few are. It’s OK to be a coach and not measure your baseball resume against other people on the field or in your area. I still don’t understand why our industry, especially that ‘little league’ range, keep leading with this

Be who you are and be prideful of what your life experience can lend to the youth you find the opportunity to have charge of

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

Florida JC is real velocity… Kendry Noriega, a player for me held the bat with 2 inches between each hand when he showed up. Became one of the best players in the country

That’s the stage I’m standing on in terms of references

I’m not sure your PD background but would love to have positive discourse

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

‘Go where you’re wanted’

Or

‘Go where you know you’ll get opportunity’

This is atrocious guidance for players who aim to achieve their career ceiling

Imagine if we took this same advice in other aspects of our lives

At one point my friend choices in life was druggies, drinkers and ne’er do gooders. They always wanted to hang with me, they gave me opportunities to feel validated and be heard. They wanted me! Thank God in these situations I held firm and only made those acquaintances brief and temporary

At one point my best job prospect was selling office supplies. They called me often and told me how great their benefits packages were. They really needed me on their front lines, good salary and good bonus structure. Thank God I was gifted with the perseverance to not just settle for a situation I knew would not make me happy

At one point as a young single man I found a woman vying for my undivided attention. She was even very attractive on the outside and spoke so eloquently. Thank God after some careful research and time taken on the matter I discovered how undesirable a relationship with her would have been

We need to be training our young men to get educated on HOW TO GET EDUCATED on their school choice process

And it doesn’t happen on the fields at tournaments or during your HS season… it happens through relationships that have substance

Players should CHOOSE where they think they have the current best chance at achieving their career ceiling and try to find an avenue to get there (unless of course they’re just playing for fun, in that case get your slow pitch softball career going)

I’m happy to engage with folks in the comments section on sound avenues

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

Na dude no one is deflecting. My OP was about a good person who didn’t fake like he was a PD cat and how he impacted my life

You brought up bad coaching out of nowhere

You’re wrong with some of your points. A kid swinging a bat incorrectly is better than a kid not swinging a bat. Even a primitive swing that doesn’t change for 10 years can change in year 11

Bad habits become muscle memory… not permanent muscle memory. I’ve fixed many of the ‘problems’ presented to me from a players previous experiences

On the other side as well… you can have 10 years of great coaching age 8-18 and one ‘bad coach’ can destroy a player in less than a year

My OP had zero to do with good people who are bad baseball coaches ruining players

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

@CasinoJack3 The player and family approach to a well-meaning coach certainly matters

I’m curious though… in what way could the coach you’re describing ‘ruin’ players?

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

@CasinoJack3 He presented himself as who he was. That’s great coaching

Pretending in person & on social media that you are knowledgeable beyond your depth is a bad example for any child to learn from

As an example… because you played college ball doesn’t make you a college level coach

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

@BradMarrs298068 I agree to a certain degree… but you definitely want that move in the later stages of development. Regularly not playing on the clay from age 11 up is definitely a disadvantage in potential career progression

But again if you’re playing for fun yea go ahead and swat those flies

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

One of the most undertrained areas of youth and even upper levels of amateur baseball is the concept of throwing from multiple arm angles, specifically below the ‘3pm slot.’

I hear the line often, ‘My son has played infield his entire life and all the sudden he got moved to the outfield.’

After watching them play catch I can tell why… the more advanced you get in the game, the more arm angles that sound infield play requires. If you can’t make those throws, you will be moved (this isn’t always a bad thing for players careers tho)

However, there is a solution to ‘being moved,’

Players: from age 8 and above, throw the ball from all possible arm angles every time you play catch

Coaches: force your players to do the above

You’ll always have your ‘natural’ arm angle, but it only takes about 6 weeks (if you’re throwing every day) for your body to get used to altering arm angles

Then you can be taught when to use which arm angles in certain and specific situations

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

@ChrisPepper616 DM me your cell

[Ben Bizier @TheTruthFromBen]

In terms of the integration, it’s either an assigned ‘mini drill,’ before or during practice, but also we stand over catch play and finish with it

We use the clock as a reference, so for a RH thrower 12 o’clock is perfectly over the top and 3 o’clock is sidearm. We’ll do high intensity drills as part of practice as well where we direct the angle of the arm and stress that as a coaching point

Older guys we inherit or just start training, it’s always a mini drill associated with the start of their day and forced into catch play