Mental Aspects of Bowling

by Michael Bartholomew

You wake up on Sunday morning and you have your coffee and breakfast.  At about 11 AM you decide it is about time to head to the bowling alley.  11:50 the lane lights come on and you do your Mr. Rogers impersonation; you change out of your street shoes and into your bowling shoes.  Let the game begin.  The arrows highlight your name.  You get out of your chair and walk to the lanes.  Grab your ball.  Step on the approach.  Look at the pins or possibly the arrows. Away you go.  Toss the ball.  If you throw a strike, great.  If not, you start the process again for your spare shot. 

That’s the physical aspects of bowling.  How many of you forget the mental aspects of bowling?  Mental preparations for the day, the game, the shot are just as important if not more so than the actual physical portion of the game.  

You can practice over and over again.  You can bowl in multiple leagues and have a great deal of equipment.  I know.  Trust me, I know.  You see me practice before Sunday.  Many of you know I bowl in multiple leagues.  You see my equipment behind the lanes.  That’s just the equipment I brought for that day.  There is twice that amount still at home.  Physical practice is important for improvement.  This helps loosen the muscles up.  It also helps with muscle memory.  Let’s not forget about the mental game.  “ME” against “I”.  

That lone 10 pin staring at you while you are on the approach for your spare.  What’s going through your mind?   The thought about the last time when you threw a gutter ball?  The thought about the previous shot where you thought you threw a perfect ball in the pocket and it should have fallen? The score board and how important this spare is for your team game?  Think about it.  How do you prepare yourself?  

I think most recently we could ask Andy Ballnik after his 11^th strike.  I remember him telling me afterwards that his legs were shaking so much.  There is a lot of emotion going through your head at that point.  The first time I threw 11 in a row was at this house; only when it was 20 Century and had 50 lanes.  We had the entire house for our league.  When I had done this, the entire house was silent and so many people were standing behind my lane.  I turned around and said “GO AWAY”.  My knees were shaking too.  BTW I threw a decent shot and left a 10 pin for a 299.  

Emotional preparations are key to bowling and increasing your average.  Managing your temper and your level of intensity.  How do you deal with a poor delivery or that Solid 9 pin?  How to relax when you have that lone 10 pin and you need to deliver that big spare?  By handling these emotional aspects of the game you can let go and let that muscle memory you developed during practice take over.  You will see increased scores. 

Just as there are many different bowlers and deliveries, there are many different ways to prepare mentally.  Some people will use a breathing exercise.  Some have music playing in their ear.  Some people show up early.  You just need to find what works for you.  If you ever watch me, you will see I do things in three’s.  I spin the ball three times on my towel.  Then I wipe the ball three times.   Then I will slide my left foot three times before getting to my starting position.  (BTW, this also helps me know for sure I remembered to remove my booty.)  I will breathe in three times and then I will start my approach.  Why three, no clue.  It just helps me know that every shot is exactly like the last one.  No bigger.  No different.  Exactly what I have done so many times before.    FYI – I didn’t realize I did this; someone I bowl with pointed this out to me.  

I hope those of you that have bowled with me for many years can see the difference in my mental and emotional prep.  I am not the same ill-tempered bowler I was a few years ago.  “ME” is the toughest opponent “I” will ever face.  Once I release the ball I have no control over the outcome of the shot.  However, I do have complete control over how I react.   I will say I believe that the mental aspect of the game is far more important than the physical.  

If you find this useful and would like more posts like this, let me know.