IGNITE Her Comeback Off-Season
By Shayla A
The girls crossing this season’s finish line are not the same girls that ran their first lap at our first practice. These are girls that have added 8 weeks of training into their life. These are girls that have added 5+ new relationships. These are girls that have uplifted at least one person, high-fived at least two people, and cheered for a team in their own unique ways. Our hearts have been empowered. Our minds have been expanded. Our bodies have been primed. In this episode of IGNITE, we will discuss the power of our season’s journey and the importance of the off-season.
The purpose of any off-season is to repair, reset, and rebuild. Let’s start with the outside of ourselves. Our bodies physically need an off-season to repair and build us stronger. Our muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments, and cells, grow tougher during the rest. Physically resting our bodies after weeks of added physical movement is when the power building takes place. The training does the tearing, ripping, and lengthening of fibers and cells. The resting replenishes, heals, and restores the good damage done and creates something bigger than what was there before. It is no longer the same muscle, tendon, cell that it once was. With the off-season rest, it is now stronger, healthier, and more resilient for future physical challenges. Jenson Button, a former race car driver feels, “Resting for [him] is fitness training.” Our body is now ready to repair, replenish, and rebuild bigger and stronger than what it was at the beginning of the season.
In our off-season we repair, reset, and rebuild. Working inward, our brains need an off-season to combat fatigue, auto-pilot, and burnout. Experiences are being downloaded and uploaded a gazillion times a minute and our operating system needs to organize, hoard, and purge in order to function at it’s optimum. It needs to throw out the junk, keep the great, and replenish the wounded. It needs to assess casualties and catalogue successes. In the mental rest, the real work gets done- especially if we have been functioning in survival mode. An extended brain vacation from thinking about a specific area of our life, gives our operating system space and time to renovate, recondition, and restore. New relationships, new strategies, and new routines have been added into our lives the last 8-10 weeks. The off-season brings respite for the creativity, resolutions, and rejuvenation we need to flourish, and be prepared for the next season. George Allen says, “What you do in the off-season determines what you do in the regular season.” Our in-seasons are powerful, because we took the off-season to rest.
It is in the off-season when repairing, resetting, and rebuilding happens at our core. Our heart requires a rest from all the love, care, concern, and worry that we pour out into our team, our girls, and our coaches. The girls’ hearts need rest from the new relationship building, difficult conflict resolving, and goal achieving they have journeyed through the last couple of months. Big things have happened in every girl and coach’s life. The off-season rest, allows space and time for the emotions to regulate, nerves to relax, and pressures to cease. Resting our emotions assists with mood swings, reactivity, and emotional resilience. Sitting with our feelings and emotions while allowing them to be, helps give them space to pass. All the challenges, struggles, and conflicts take our hearts on roller coaster rides throughout the season. As a coach and a girl who experiences new friendships, resolves more difficult conflicts, and consistently pushes ourselves to higher achievements, we need to rest from all that heart work! In the rest and repair, our hearts can process and reset, to build the stronger and more durable bridges within ourselves. Disengaging in the off-season to reflect upon the past, brings clarity and restoration to our emotional capacity. It gives new eyes and breath to what the heart can withstand in the future, making us more compassionate and empathetic coaches and girls in our next seasons. The famous professional football coach, Vince Lombardi, says it beautifully, “I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.” There we are at the finish line!
The off-season is so important for our heart, mind, and body. It is much needed to replenish stronger cells, rebuild the wiring, and relax our emotions. The off-season requires intentional slacking off, being idle, and doing nothing. “We humans have lost the wisdom of genuinely resting and relaxing. We worry too much. We don't allow our bodies to heal, and we don't allow our minds and hearts to heal,” says the peace activist and Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh. Rest in the off-season. Relax into the recharging period. Take the necessary care for our heart, mind, and body to rejuvenate and replenish ourselves into the better coaches and athletes that we are meant to be! Relish in your off-season and thrive in the next!
Shayla A is the Coach Mentor for Girls on the Run Greater Kansas City. Her background comes from the classroom, coaching, day treatment schools, wellness, and advocating for children with special needs. She enjoys empowering and advocating for girls and coaches
in every challenge and celebration. Connect with her for support and assistance this season via call, text, or email. shaylaaranda@gmail.com | 816-284-9770
RESOURCE LIST TO IGNITE HERS and YOURS COMEBACK OFF-SEASON:
Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer
Wintering by Katherine May
TO WATCH A VIDEO ON HOW TO IGNITE HER COMEBACK OFF-SEASON: