Getting the Tournament Team Lined Up – Part 1

It’s actually past time to start preparing for the USBC Championships. You should have started years ago! Actually, I’m only kidding a little bit. Getting lined up as a team is pretty important. Remember the Six Shot System™ of lining up? It is in the November and December 2007 and January 2008 issues of Bowling This Month. So how can this apply to a team event since it’s quite likely (slight understatement) that not all of you will get all six shots? What if you’re in a tournament that doesn’t treat bowling as a sport or bowlers as athletes? You know the type: five minutes of practice with ten people on the pair, or worse yet, one or two balls on each lane, or the ultimate insult, no warm-up between events in the doubles and singles portion of your competition, no matter how long you have had to wait.

As an athlete, even if you have never participated in any sport except bowling, you know that athletes warm up their bodies before participating. Baseball players stretch, run, poke at a few balls with the bat, have a little fielding practice, and work on their scratching and spitting techniques before every game. Football players stretch, run, work on their chest bumping skills, and hit each other in the head with their helmets. (No comment). In all athletic endeavors, even recreational players warm up before participating for score.

I only need a game or so to get loose

You absolutely cannot be a tournament bowler and need a lot of time to warm up. You can’t afford that in league either, of course, but in tournaments, it is devastating. It is not, “Let me warm up and then I’ll worry about finding the shot.” Warm up is shot-finding time. If you must, you can roll a couple of games before the tournament starts either in that house or in a neighboring one. Sometimes this isn’t possible or at least, it’s very inconvenient. You will really be better off as a tournament player to develop a quick warm-up ...