On the Outside Looking In

Thank you to all of you who continue to comment on my last article, as well as those of you who have emailed me asking for more thoughts. While I no longer bowl in tournaments or competitive leagues, the recreational leagues in which I bowl—as well as the $1 senior pot games where I go to donate—still give me a few insights about our sport, albeit from the outside looking in.

Owning successes (and failures)

I was recently talking to a high average (210+) senior bowler. He told me that during the previous week, he had bowled back-to-back league sets of 700+ and 450. He confirmed that they were both bowled at the same center, but when I asked him if he was on the same pair of lanes, he replied, “No, but I threw the ball really bad the second day.” He told me that he had been coming over the top of the ball and just couldn’t get anything started.

While we all have good days and bad days in terms of our physical games, I have a very hard time believing that a 250 pin swing in scores can possibly be attributed totally to a high average bowler’s physical game. When I suggested to the bowler that differences in the pairs of lanes could have been a contributing factor to the score shift, he totally dismissed the idea.

I can’t help but wonder why it is that so many bowlers are willing to take responsibility for their physical games, but refuse to even consider that there is another side of their games—the intellectual side that listens to what the lanes are saying—that needs improvement. I guess it’s easier to blame something that mysteriously comes and goes with no rhyme or reason than to acknowledge that there is simply a part of your game that you are totally ignoring and really need to work on if you expect to improve, or ...