Every year around this time I get the same question, and it always arrives in the same shape.

Fall ball is winding down. A player or a parent asks what to work on this offseason. Then they answer it themselves before I can say anything. Get stronger. Fix the leak in the swing. Add velo. Clean up the front side.

So I ask a different one. Not what do you want to work on. What actually cost you this season?

That one goes quiet for a second, because the list is not the same list.

Picked off twice in one week. The at bat where you knew what was coming and took it anyway. The inning that got away after one error, and the four hitters that followed. The week you found out you were not in the lineup and then played like you were not in the lineup.

None of that is a swing problem.

Here is why the end of September matters. You still remember. By December you will not. The season turns into a batting average and two or three highlights, and the moments that actually cost you are gone.

So write them down while they are still yours.

The offseason defaults to skills, and there is a reason for it. Skills come with numbers. Exit velo. Weight on the bar. Sixty times. A video you can hold up in March next to the one from October and see the difference.

The mental side gets a sentence instead.

I need to be more confident. I need to stop letting one inning snowball. I need to be tougher.

So do not start with a plan. Start with an inventory. Five moments, written down, specific enough that someone else could picture them.

Then mark each one: was it your head or your body?

Be honest in both directions. A ball off the end of the bat on a good decision is your body. Taking strike three on the exact pitch you were sitting on is your head. A throw that sailed because your mechanics broke down is your body. A throw that sailed because you rushed after the error before it is your head.

Most players who do this come back looking like this:

I am not telling you to skip the weight room. Lift. Hit. Throw. But you have about eight weeks before it all starts again, and right now the thing that cost you the most is getting none of them.

The other thing the list does is turn a word into a job. "Snowball" is not trainable. "After the first error I stop moving my feet" is. One of those you can fix by Thanksgiving.

Parents, this one works at the kitchen table. Ask for the five, write them down, and do not argue with any of them.

The printable has the five slots, the H and B boxes, the count, and the check date line.

If your five come back mostly H, that is the whole point of Big League Brain. It runs the mental game as a six week plan with one thing to install per week, so the fix is a schedule instead of a sentence. Week three is the reset.

One question before you go. What is the one moment from this season you would take back, and was it your head or your body? Hit reply and tell me. I read every one.

Can't Hear Excuses.

Dr. Skip