Off-Season Activities to Improve Next Year

For league bowlers across North America, summertime is bowling’s off-season. Even for competitive bowlers, the summer is often a down season with fewer tournaments and probably a bit less motivation for all but the professionals or aspiring professionals.

While the first instinct for many bowlers is to simply pack away their bowling balls and take out their golf clubs until Labor Day, a lot of you want to get better next year, and simply dusting off your bowling balls in September isn’t really a good way to do that. Let’s talk about what to do during the off-season without completely sacrificing a much-needed break.

Recoup and recover

I’ve said this many times, especially to youth bowlers and their parents: even professional athletes don’t train and compete year-round. At the end of their competitive season, they take a much-needed break.

While sports like football take an incredibly physical toll, and sports like baseball, with its 162-game season, require obvious rest, bowling is no different. The typical league and tournament season lasts between 30 and 40 weeks, with a lot of wear and tear on your joints and body. The more competitive you are and the more you travel, the steeper the toll. It’s important to take a break at the end of the season to recover physically and mentally.

With the exception of the most competitive athletes who need to build breaks into their year-round routine, I generally recommend that bowlers take four to six weeks away from the lanes after their last night of league or tournament play. For most bowlers, this break lasts until about the end of June.

This is also the period to start looking at specific goals you might have for next year, from improving your spare shooting to finishing top five at a local tournament. This can ...