Either they spiral. Phone in hand, replaying every at-bat, stewing the whole drive home, snapping at whoever picks them up.

Or they shrug. Game's over. On to the next one. Don't think about it.

Neither one makes you better.

The bus rides. The boat rides. The long quiet drives after a tough night. There were stretches in summer ball where you played six games in seven days and every single one had a postmortem waiting in your head.

For years I had no system for those rides. I either chewed myself up over every mistake or I shut it down completely and shoved the whole game in a box.

The chewing-up version made me miserable and bled into the next day. I would show up to BP tired, mad, dragging the last game into the new one.

The shut-it-down version felt better in the moment but it cost me growth. I was making the same mistakes weeks later because I never looked at them long enough to fix them.

Both extremes had the same outcome. The next game didn't get any easier.

What changed for me was a question I picked up from a coach.

He told me to take three minutes after every game. Three. Not thirty. Not three hours of replay. Three minutes with three specific questions.

That was the entire intervention.

And it changed everything about how I showed up to the next game.

Well. Better. How.

Three questions. Three minutes. Every game.

That is the post-game habit nobody is teaching and everybody needs.

Pick three minutes on the ride home, in the parking lot, or before bed. Run these three questions in order.

Well. What is one thing I did well tonight? Be specific. Not "I played okay." Try "I worked a 7-pitch at-bat in the fourth." "I held the runner at second on a bunt I should have rushed." Catching one rep you did well rewires you to look for more of them tomorrow.

Better. What is one thing that could have been better? One. Not five. Not the whole game. One specific moment or decision. "I got too big with the bat in the third with two strikes." "I let my body language tank after the error in the fifth."

How. How will I work on that this week? Specific. Actionable. "Two-strike approach drills in the cage Wednesday." "10 seconds of breath before every pitch on defense Friday."

That's it. Three minutes. Three questions. One game at a time.

The players who run this habit pull away from the players who don't. Not in one game. In a season.

Forward this to a coach who is trying to build a culture of growth. Three questions, three minutes, after every game. It is the cheapest team-development habit there is.

Till next time,