Bowling Becomes More Mental

One thing about the sport of bowling: "Your best efforts may not produce your best results." How many times have you "pounded the pocket" only to end up with a low 200 game? On the other hand, how many times have you not "flushed the pocket" on every shot and shot a terrific score? How you handle your good or bad fortune is the determining factor as to whether your game improves or not.

Admit it, you can't bowl super all the time, and neither can you bowl bad all the time. But, I'd venture to say that you can bowl good all the time. It is your attitude and outlook (philosophy) toward the outcome of your game that will determine how you actually do. Please allow me to coin the old Yogi Berra cliché about baseball - "Bowling is 90 percent physical and the other 50 percent is mental."

Have you noticed that whatever we study intently tends to become more and more mental as we progress beyond the beginner stage? Take a closer look at any of the past-times, hobbies, or sports that you are participating in. Don't you feel that as you continue to improve and learn about them, your "mental game" has to get keener and keener? So with regard to bowling, the better you become, the more your game will shift from the physical to the mental aspects of the game.

I'd venture to say that at the beginning stages, you efforts may be pretty close to 100% physical as you learn about the timing and coordination necessary to master your approach so you can get the ball on the lane properly. As things become "automatic" with your stance, approach, and release of the bowling ball, your mind has to become tuned in to all the mental thinking or your bowling stagnates. As your average progresses from the 150's to the 180's, and then on into the 200's, your bowling game has to become more mental.

For the sake of throwing figures out there, I'll say that the top bowlers are in the 95% physical to 5% mental range. At your local level, watch the top performers around you. They're all smooth and they pretty much can all talk the technical specs of the game, can't they? But carefully watch when they bowl. Why is it that there are certain ones who always seem to be just a little better?

I think all you have to do is watch them to see where they are in their mental game and you'll see what is making the difference. Their demeanor, focus, concentration, and positive-thinking all play a part in their ability to come out on top.

Be careful that you don't confuse "mental game" with "over-thinking the game." Do you learn from your bad shots so that they bring you closer to a strike, or does every strike bring you that much closer to a split?