The off-season is where nobody’s watching and everything’s decided.

The results people see were settled in the months nobody attended. There is no crowd and no scoreboard in the off-season, so the only thing that gets you out of the door is what you want privately, which is exactly why that stretch separates people. By the time anybody is watching again, the gap already exists.

Decide what you want to be different by the time the season starts, written as two or three specific things. Build a schedule that survives weeks with no feedback, which usually means shorter and more regular than you planned. Keep your own record, because nobody else will.