Every August, September, and October, baseball enters what I call Fall Ball—a season of experimentation. It’s not about perfection; it’s about progress. It’s where we try new things to find out what works and what doesn’t. Fall Ball is the lab before the lesson, the classroom before the test.
Fall Ball leads into Winter Workouts—November, December and January—when we take what we learned in the fall and begin to build habits. Then come Spring Games—February, March and April—when habits become skills and skills pay bills. But without the trial and error of Fall Ball, you’re building on sand.
The most committed players understand this cycle. They don’t have the luxury of being lazy. Laziness isn’t about being tired—it’s a mindset. When your mind quits, your body follows. But commitment and discipline mean you keep going even when you don’t feel like it, because you know your goal is bigger than your comfort.
The F.A.L.L. Framework
Fall Ball isn’t just a season—it’s a mindset. Here’s what F.A.L.L. stands for—and how to live it:
F – Focus
Focus is easy to say, hard to do. It’s more than attention—it’s endurance. Building the capacity to focus for long periods requires failure and feedback. Every mistake you make in the fall is a chance to strengthen your mental stamina.
How To:
During batting practice, commit to five rounds of ten swings each—with no phone, no music and no small talk between rounds. Treat every swing like it’s the ninth inning. If your mind drifts, reset your breathing and refocus. You’re not just training your swing; you’re training your focus muscle.
A – Action
Nothing grows without movement. Action turns ideas into evidence. When you act, you learn. When you sit, you speculate. Fall is the season for doing—for testing swings, routines, and approaches so you can enter winter with data, not doubt.
How To:
If you’ve been thinking about changing your stance or load, do it now. Track the results for two weeks. Video your swings from the same angle each session and compare notes. Don’t wait for a coach to confirm it—take action, record, review and adjust.
L – Learning
Fall is feedback season. The scoreboard doesn’t matter as much as the lessons. Great hitters don’t fear failure—they study it. Learning is what transforms effort into excellence.
How To:
After every scrimmage or practice, write down one thing that worked and one thing that didn’t. Share it with a teammate or coach. When you verbalize what you’ve learned, it sticks—and when you share it, you grow together. That’s how learning becomes part of your rhythm.
L – Leadership
The best players use the fall not just to improve themselves, but to lift others. Leadership in the fall sets the tone for the spring. If you can lead in the lab, you can lead in the game.
How To:
Before practice, choose one younger player to mentor. Give them one piece of positive feedback and one challenge. Teach them how to stretch properly or how to track the ball in the cage. Leading in small moments prepares you for big ones later.
From Fall to Winter: Building Capacity
As Fall Ball fades into winter, the focus shifts from what you do to how you do it.
Winter workouts are about repetition—building habits that can hold up under pressure. That’s how you grow from being interested in success to being invested in it.
So as this fall comes to an end, remember:
You don’t become great in the spring—you reveal what you built in the fall.
Remember: Intelligence tops being smart.
For more information, visit www.diamonddirectors.com today.
If you found this inspiring and thought-provoking, or if you have any questions, comments or concerns, add me on Discord and let’s go deeper.
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 associate scout for the Cincinnati Reds. As founder and CEO of Diamond Directors Player Development, C.J. has more than 22 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 a track record of success that can work for you.
Leave a Reply