Graaille

Just as you work on physical techniques like your steps and your delivery, you also need to work on mental skills that will strengthen your game

YOGI BERRA ONCE SAID OF BASEBALL that "90% of this game is half mental." While the math is questionable, the importance of the mental game is not. And bowling certainly mirrors this philosophy.

Developing and strengthening your mental approach to bowling will help you attain greater success in scoring and in enjoyment of your game. There are many areas that merit attention, including self-talk, mindset, focus, goal setting, visualization, and your pre-shot routine.

If you work on these areas, not only will your bowling improve, but so will your mental approach to life. Bowling is just a microcosm--the skills that you develop to deal with challenges in your game can also help you deal with challenges in life. You learn to identify areas that need improvement; you handle joy and sorrow; you are asked to make decisions and find balance.

Sounds like a lifelong journey--so let's get started.

We all constantly experience an internal "dialogue" with ourselves--called "self-talk"--in every aspect of our lives, but how you talk to yourself during competition is very important. It takes discipline to manage your mental comments.

If you have a personal coach, the communication between you probably has a certain respectful nature, but when you step up onto the lane you are, in the grand scope of things, your own coach, and you must rely on yourself to "talk" to yourself with that same respect. If your coach talked to you disrespectfully or disparaged you, would you want him for a coach? If not, you shouldn't talk to yourself that way, either, and you may need to work on your self-talk.

When you first start paying attention to what that internal "voice" is saying, you may be surprised. In fact, you may have to practice some thought-stopping techniques in order to generate a more positive stream of thoughts. Imagining a big red stop sign with flashing lights, or hearing a voice loudly saying "Stop!" are ways to get your own attention and guide yourself into more positively stated thoughts.

You also can use affirmations to reinforce these positive ideas. Team USA members came up with a list of affirmations to use personally and as a team. These may be helpful in designing your own set of affirmations.

Taking control of your mind can go a long way in generating feelings of confidence and positive thinking, and you don't even have to be bowling. When you're traveling to your bowling event, start talking to yourself and make a decision about how you will react during your competition. For instance, tell yourself that no matter what happens, you'll give 100% on each shot. No matter what distractions, disturbances, or arguments may occur, you'll focus on each shot, and if you miss a few spares or fail to carry well, you'll still continue to make each shot with your full effort.

When you do this, you've made a pact with yourself before you even step foot in the building, and you have a game plan. This kind of discipline isn't easy to achieve, but once you've done it you have your mindset determined.

Focus is an important aspect to your mental game, and there are two specific types to discuss. When you're working on developing physical skills or replacing an existing bowling habit with a new habit, your mind is very active. You need to think about the skill you're working on, or you won't execute the motion correctly. In this mode your focus is inward or internal: Your eyes may be open and looking at your target, but you may not "see" it because your focus is elsewhere. It's much like talking with someone who is looking directly at you, yet he's a million miles away and doesn't hear a word you're saying.

The important thing to realize is that when you're in this state of focus, you usually don't have your best performances. You may have experienced this in practice or playing in a league, when you're thinking about your pushaway, armswing, and release--and you cannot hit your target twice in a row. This type of internalized, self-aware focus helps you develop new or modified skills, but use it only in practice.

Additionally, when you're working in this mode, do not keep score. For most bowlers the temptation to judge what you're working on by the score is great, but it can be detrimental to your progress. When you're working on technique, be patient with your progress. Don't keep score, and acknowledge that you're focused differently than you would be in competition.

When athletes in any sport are asked about their best performances, many say they weren't thinking about much--they were just playing.

In competition you need to react to what you see the ball do as it goes down the lane. Your eyes should be on your ball reaction, interpreting what the lanes are doing by that reaction. All of this is happening outside of your body and is referred to as external focus. Your eyes "see" your target and then pick up the ball as it travels down the lane to the pins and all the way through the pins. This gives you a "read" on what the lane is doing and what your ball is doing also. This focus allows you to make decisions faster in respect to how you're lined up and which ball you've chosen to use.

This is not to say that you wouldn't have a physical key when you play, but choose one and keep it simple. Michael Jordan's focus on the basketball court was intense and external. He saw the floor and all that was going on around him. There was probably never a time when he literally thought, "OK, I'm going to take three steps, jump off of my left foot, spin 180 degrees, and let the basketball roll off my hand, leaving my middle finger last." He just reacted to what he was seeing on the floor, just as you need to react to what you see happening on the lane.

Setting goals can be another important area of your mental game. Most bowlers have felt like they could get better if they only knew how or what to work on.

Writing things down helps you maintain focus on the aspects of your game you're trying to remember. When you get it in ink, it's more permanent and the picture begins to get clearer. You can go back and refer to things you noted weeks earlier, and remains clear in your mind.

Goal setting can also help you plan your work and work your plan by giving you a series of steps to follow. It can help you identify important performance keys, and it can help you establish and experience quality practices.