tonx
New Member
I took this story from Allbowling.com. I think it was a great read, and it brings up some VERY important points.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
I am not one of those people that are easily amazed. I really just have high standards so I am not all that easily impressed. This rather cynical characteristic makes it somewhat difficult to enjoy some things. Don’t get me wrong, I am easily entertained when it comes to movies, books, television and things like that but I am NOT easily amazed by things like home run records, football scores, and bowling accomplishments, especially my own.
I am a 180 – ish, average bowler. I have never really bowled any tournaments other than some local things like the City Tournament and the local 500 or 600 Club tournaments. Since I have only been bowling for about seven years, I never really felt like I had the experience or the confidence to bowl ‘big’ tournaments. Of course, I never really thought that I needed to bowl some tournaments in order to get experience and build my confidence. I guess I just thought I would miraculously acquire those by bowling one night a week at my league. So much for common sense.
So here I am now. My coach has encouraged me to bowl more than just my weekly league and to start a practice regimen. I made a commitment and promise to myself to work harder so that I can improve. As such, for the past several weeks, I have practiced almost daily. I have been working extremely hard on some simple things like targeting; hitting the same place on the lane; ball speed and consistency with my timing and spares. Yes, spares. The spares I miss in league cost me easily 100 pins each night, and that doesn’t even include the splits I miss; that is simple spares. I have also started bowling some local sweeper tournaments. Because of this, I have improved my once 170 average to 184 in about 12 weeks. WOW, I say. Hard work can pay off. But that isn’t my entire point.
It’s Saturday night and the Viator Sweeper is at Kegel. I show up to bowl because it’s only $25 and it’s all about learning for me. This particular night brings more people than we have seen in the past so we have to use more lanes than we have in the past. As such, the group I am regularly paired with was on a different starting pair. This starting pair was a bit difficult. I started out with a not-so-good 151 putting me in a not-so-impressive 33rd place of 36 bowlers. Even with handicap, I figured I was pretty much out of the cut seeing as how I would need 250+ for each of the next two just to be in contention. So we move pairs. I got lined up pretty quickly given that the first pair wasn’t pretty and managed to string a few together for a 245. Not too bad, but I honestly thought I was still out of the cash zone. Even with that game and a jump to 14th place, I was still out of the cash and definitely out of the cut for roll-offs.
We move pairs again for the last game. Knowing there had already been several games on the pair; I made a small but smart adjustment for the first ball and threw a really nice strike. I strung a couple together and before I knew it, I had five in a row. While this is nothing to get overly excited about, I was working on a nice game. This is normally the time when I start to realize that I am bowling well and generally when my brain starts to kick in and over complicate everything. That generally results in a bad shot and a slow but progressive downward spiral to what could have been a good game. But not this night. Like I said, I have been working really hard and in with all this hard work, I have been working on shutting my brain off. It helped me this night to think that I was out of the cut and since I never looked at the standing sheet, I didn’t know where I was in the ranks. I also don’t look at other people’s scores, except on my pair, so I really had no idea what others around me were shooting. Frame six, strike, seven, strike, eight, strike and a new personal best for a string. Now, even I am starting to realize what is happening. But, I making it a point to keep it consistent by going through my same ‘routine’ for each shot. No one around me has said anything about my string; they just give my ‘five’ and say ‘nice shot’ when I walk by to sit down. The ninth frame. I get up, pick up my grip sack, flip it around a couple times; pick up my ball, right hand over the dryer; all part of that routine; setup, approach, release, strike. I walk by the ball return clapping my hands quietly, telling myself good shot, grab my grip sack and sit back down. I’ve never been in this position before; what on earth am I supposed to do.
I am obviously not a seasoned bowler. The nerves were definitely getting to me as I got up in the tenth frame. While I did not shoot 300, I did make a decent shot and left a 3 pin. I spared it and then got 8 on my fill ball for a 277. I just managed to amaze myself. I kept my cool (as best as possible) and shot a new personal best game and series; a 673 with a 151 to start; not too shabby. I made the cut as I qualified 3rd. In my match, I bowled OK, but I lost to a 290 game so I finished 4th.
Talk about a confidence booster. I never knew how it could feel to bowl well and to see my hard work actually pay off. It was a moment of personal amazement.
On another level, I learned about the pressures of bowling. I put a lot of personal pressure on myself and oftentimes make it harder to be successful. And while I thought it was just me, I have even more recently realized that seasoned veterans can and do have the same feelings. In my weekly league, I bowl with Brenda Viator (formerly Edwards). You may remember her from the PWBA in the late 1990’s or from the collegiate bowling ranks at the University of Nebraska. Only a few short weeks ago, she put together a nice little string of 12 in a row; 300. She came back after the 12th shot and I gave her a big hug only to feel her shaking like a leaf. She was so excited and near tears; all this coming from someone who has competed at a high level having been a two time Collegiate National Champion and Collegiate MVP as well PWBA pro. Yet, even she still got nervous about shooting 300. She threw the first ball in the next game and left a rather ugly split and came back to say that she couldn’t feel her feet; it was hard for her to move. She was the first person in our ladies league to shoot 300 and it was another amazing moment.
It’s easy to forget that athletes are human too. Oftentimes, they just seem like machines programmed to perform. Sometimes they perform poorly for any of a number of reasons and sometimes they perform like a finely tuned, precise machine. Either way, even on their worst day, they can outperform a lesser trained person. This is what has spawned my realization. I want to bowl better and I want to be competitive. While I may be nowhere near ready to contend for National Champion, I want to break the barriers that I have set for myself. I have to stop beating myself and the only way I can do that is to get out there and bowl. And I will. I just registered to bowl my first ever scratch tournament. I don’t know what the outcome will be; I can only do my best and hope that my best will be good enough. And for me, good enough doesn’t have to be a win if I walk away with something learned.
