The lane is quiet at 10 a.m. before Diversey River Bowl open their doors to the public.

No crowd. No scoreboards. No one watching. Just me, the arrows, and the sound of a ball hitting the pocket the way it’s supposed to. That’s where I learned what training really means. Not in the spotlight. In the silence.

People think training ends when competition does. That once the titles are won and the trophies are shelved, the work stops. It doesn’t. Not for me. Not for anyone who has built their life around the discipline of getting better.

I’m a World Champion. A three-time Hall of Famer. I spent fifteen years on Team USA. But none of that is the reason I still train. I still train because training is who I am. It’s not something I did. It’s something I do.

How I Train Now

Mentally, I train every time I sit across from a young athlete and help them separate the voice that analyzes from the voice that criticizes. I built my “12 Frames to Mastering the Mental Game” curriculum because I lived every single one of those frames first. The lessons I teach aren’t theories. They’re scars that healed into strategies.

Physically, my body learned decades ago that stillness is not the same as rest. I move because movement keeps me sharp. It keeps my energy matched to the pace of the life I’m building.

Emotionally, I train by choosing to be honest with myself. When something goes sideways, I don’t perform strength. I ask the question I’ve asked myself a thousand times: “What is this teaching me?” That question has saved me more times than any strike ever did.

What Leadership Looks Like Right Now

Leadership, for me, doesn’t look like a corner office or a title on a business card.

Right now, it looks like being a solo founder running four businesses and making hard calls every single day about where my time goes. It looks like saying no to things that look good on paper so I can say yes to the things that actually move the needle.

The Bowler’s Agency. Beyond the Lanes. Elite Youth Tour. Striking Showcase. Nobody handed me a playbook for building all of that at once. I wrote it while I was living it. And some days I’m still writing it.

But leadership also means being visible. Showing parents how to support their young bowler without coaching from the bleachers. Showing athletes that your skills get you to the door, but your mindset walks you through it. Leadership right now is less about titles and more about showing up consistently. Especially when nobody is watching.

The Moment My Athlete Mindset Made Me a Better Leader

I want to talk about Striking Showcase for a second.

You’ll start hearing about it soon and think it’s new. It’s not. I tried to launch it twice before. Two different times, two different versions. And both times, something felt off. The timing wasn’t right. The vision wasn’t fully formed. The pieces weren’t where they needed to be.

A different version of me might have forced it. Might have pushed through just to say I did it. But the athlete in me knew better. In bowling, you learn fast that forcing a shot you don’t have leads to an ugly result. You read the lane. You adjust. And sometimes, you wait.

So I waited.

I didn’t look at those two attempts as failures. I looked at them as practice frames. Each one showed me what wasn’t working. Each one sharpened what the platform needed to become. And when the right time finally came, I was ready. Not because I rushed. Because I prepared.

That’s the athlete mindset applied to leadership. You don’t abandon the goal. You don’t force the timeline. You trust your preparation, read the conditions, and make your move when everything lines up.

This version of Striking Showcase is better than anything I could have built the first or second time around. And it exists because I had the discipline to wait for it.

To the Young Girls Reading This

Lead yourself before you try to lead anyone else.

That means knowing your own voice before the world tells you what it should sound like. It means showing up when it’s hard. Showing up when nobody claps. Showing up when the girl next to you makes it look effortless and you feel like you’re grinding for every single pin.

You don’t need permission to be strong. You don’t need to apologize for being competitive. And you definitely don’t need to wait for someone to hand you a lane.

Walk up to the approach. Set your feet. Throw the ball.

The pins don’t care if you’re nervous. They only care if you commit.

Your skills get you to the door. Your mindset walks you through it.

March is about renewal. About looking at what didn’t work and choosing to see it differently. About training, not just your body, but your mind and your heart. About leading yourself first so you can lead others well.

Whatever lane you’re standing on right now, trust your preparation. Read the conditions. And when the time is right, don’t hesitate.

Throw the ball.

Ready to take the first step? Grab your copy of Out of the Settee: A Parent’s Playbook for Navigating Competitive Youth Bowling and start building the mindset that matters most. www.parent.beyondthelanes.com/out-of-the-settee