The BTM Book Report: ‘One Elite Frame at a Time’

Tyrel Rose and Bill Sempsrott have once again teamed up to bring bowlers a collection of tips and advice to help them take their bowling skills to the next level. One Elite Frame at a Time builds on the success of our first book with more advanced knowledge and a deeper approach to improving your game. With a similar format of easy-to-read, actionable chunks of information, this book is aimed at bowlers in the intermediate to advanced skill range. It builds on the foundation of the first book, and we wanted to take this opportunity to share with our readers some information about One Elite Frame at a Time and how it can be used to improve your bowling.

This book is organized into four main categories. The tips are longer and more in-depth than the tips from our first book, One Frame at a Time, while still being organized into bite-sized pieces. At the end of each section is a series of practice activities you can use in your training. While our first book contained many of the most popular tips from our Quick Tip Tuesday email and social media series, each of the tips in One Elite Frame at a Time was written exclusively for this book.

The “Physical Game” chapter offers technical corrections through a nuanced approach, helping you personalize certain aspects of your game, develop a more powerful release, and gain a deeper understanding of bowling technique. At the end of this section, we’ve included some of the foundational technical drills that bowlers should practice, including a few that were not found in the first book.

The “Lane Play” chapter digs deep into one of the most challenging aspects of bowling to demystify the decision-making process. With advice from understanding oil patterns to building an arsenal and understanding ball motion, this section will help competitive bowlers take the next step in improving their lane play skills. The end of this section includes practice activities to help train your eyes and apply the knowledge gained.

The “Mental Game” section provides actionable tips and mental tools to help you bring your best self to the lanes. We introduce the concept of NExT, discuss the different types of visualization and how to use this skill more effectively, and further improve your pre-shot routine.

Finally, the “Practice Planning” chapter offers advice to bring a long-term approach to your training sessions. It’s not enough to simply know what to practice; you also need to know when to work on the different aspects of your game. We introduce and simplify the models used by professional and Olympic athletes and apply them to bowling so you can make better use of your practice time. This section includes a dozen sample practice plans that you can use immediately or as templates to make your own plans.

Application

Just like our first book, One Elite Frame at a Time is designed for easy reference and immediate action. Bowlers can refer back to their favorite tips while training or in competition so they can get the help they need when they need it.

Looking at one example from the book, “Acceptance Equals Action” is a lane play tip that focuses on a decision-making process to help bowlers make adjustments more quickly. Another example, “Personalizing Your Start Position,” takes a nuanced approach to finding the right stance for your game. Every tip can be immediately used in practice or applied on the lanes when needed.

Bowlers looking to add some variety to their training could easily open the book to any random page and use that as the focus of their practice for that day. This kind of approach is great when in a period of maintenance versus development.

In some cases, a bowler might practice and work on a specific tip for several weeks, such as improving their swing plane. Other tips can be incorporated almost immediately upon reading. It’s not a book that’s necessarily meant to be read cover-to-cover. Readers are encouraged to skip to the section they’re most interested in, find a tip on a subject they’re struggling with, and work on improving it. Then, go to another tip when they feel ready.

Improving lane play

At the competitive level of the game, good decision-making is often what separates the winners from the cashers and the cashers from those who miss the cut. One Elite Frame at a Time shares knowledge gained from coaching at the highest levels of the game to help you improve your lane play. From pin carry tips to a deeper understanding of axis rotation, you’ll gain a more nuanced perspective on the tactical side of the game.

Better mental tools

Clear thinking and good decisions rely on a calm and confident mind. The book offers actionable mental game advice and asks you to consider your own personality in building your mental toolkit. Are you an intense bowler like Pete Weber, or are you a more fun-loving showman like Kyle Troup? Adopting mental game strategies that suit your personality is as important as the tool itself. Improve your mastery of your pre-shot routine, visualization, and other mental tools with a better understanding and a more personalized approach.

Better practice habits

This book contains a robust but simplified collection of training methods that you can’t find outside of technical coaching manuals from Olympic sports. We’ve made it easy to apply the periodization model to bowling to help you understand the importance of when to work on different parts of your game. Most amateur bowlers only have a limited amount of time for practice, so they need to get the most out of each training session. The methods and plans in this book will help you improve faster by focusing on the right areas at the right time.

Bowlers could easily keep this book in their bowling bag and review the most important and relevant tips for their games each time they go out on the lanes.