For most of my career, the word “off-season” didn’t mean anything to me. I competed all year. I trained all year. There was no version of the calendar where I put the ball down and stepped back.
These days, I still don’t really have one. But it looks completely different than it used to.
My bowling isn’t in the forefront anymore. By design. I’m building the Elite Youth Tour, Striking Showcase, and Beyond the Lanes, and that’s what I’m dedicated to now, with my whole heart. Those are the things that have my focus in the slower months: not chasing another title for myself, but building something that helps other people chase theirs.
These days I bowl for other reasons. But, that’s for another letter.
The quiet season is still a season
Here’s what I think people get wrong about the off-season, whether they’re an athlete or not: they think quiet means empty. It’s not. It’s just pointed somewhere else.
If you’re at your peak and you’re trying to stand out on the lanes, the off-season isn’t a break from getting better. It’s actually one of the best times to get better, if you use it right. And the way you use it right is variety.
Too many people spend their practice time on what already feels good. The shot they’ve already got. The pattern they’re already comfortable on. That feels like progress, but it isn’t. It’s just repetition of what you already know.
Real growth happens when you get out of your comfort zone. Practice your weaknesses. Learn what you don’t already know. Mix it up so nothing gets stale, and nothing gets easy enough to stop paying attention to. That’s how you stay sharp without burning out: not by doing more of the same thing, but by doing the harder thing.
The training that has nothing to do with bowling
If you asked me what the single most important kind of training is, and I couldn’t mention bowling at all, I’d tell you this: train yourself to be optimistic. No matter what.
Too many people are complainers, and it doesn’t stay contained to one part of their life. It leaks into everything. The way you talk about a bad practice is the way you start talking about a bad day, and then a bad week, and then a bad season.
So train yourself to see the good. Train yourself to spread kindness and do good for other people, on purpose, not just when it’s convenient. Watch what that does to your life, on the lanes and off of them.
That’s not a soft skill. It’s the hardest training there is, because nobody’s timing you on it and nobody’s keeping score. You have to choose it every single day, especially the quiet ones, when no one’s watching and there’s no tournament to perform for.
What to actually do with the slow months
When athletes ask me how to use the slow months well, my answer usually surprises them, because it isn’t “train harder.”
Sometimes you need time away. You need to let it all breathe.
Use that slow time to reconnect with what you didn’t have time for all season. Reset by finding another love, something that has nothing to do with your sport. Help other people. Learn away from the lanes. Work on your mental game.
Read the mental game books. Actually read them, not just buy them.
None of that looks like training from the outside. It doesn’t show up on a stat sheet. But it’s the work that lets you come back to your sport, or your business, or whatever your next season looks like, with something more than you had before you left it.
What is your off-season really for?
My off-season used to not exist. Now it exists, and it’s full. Just not full of the things it used to be full of.
It’s full of building things that outlast me. It’s full of practicing gratitude on purpose. It’s full of reading, resting, and reconnecting with people and passions I put on hold for twenty years of competing.
So I’ll ask you the same question I ask the athletes I work with: what does your version of the off-season actually look like? And is it building you into who you want to be next season, or is it just time passing until the next tournament shows up?
The off-season is when the real work gets done. The kind nobody sees. The kind that shows up next season when it matters most.
12 Frames to a Stronger Mental Game is where I’d start. Everything you need to build it is in the Pro Shop. beyondthelanes.com/pro-shop →
Diandra