The Decision to Change Your Game

A famous coach once said that everyone wants their game to get better, but no one really wants to change what they are doing. Most of the readers of this magazine would most certainly say that they are consistently looking to improve their games. So what do you do to bowl better, raise your scores, and increase confidence in your game? Well, first off you do the obvious…spend money.

Here is what we spend money on. New grips, can’t hurt right? Address your ball fit, absolutely! You can’t outcoach a bad fit…everyone knows that. Get a bigger badder ball, for sure! Ball technology has to be respected and responded to. Heck, don’t leave out micro-fiber towels, grip sacks, and you better have good shoes.

If you are really going after it you will address your mental game. Your coach will take a look at your pre-shot routine. He/she will see whether your focus, concentration, and trust in your swing are already there. The coach will ask about how you deal with pressure. The mental game has plenty of layers to plumb.

Physically, we can always get stronger and more flexible. Those qualities alone will kick you up a grade for sure. That should be everything. Did we leave anything out? Oh yeah, your game! Now everything listed above really does matter, of course. But getting on to the physical aspects of your game is where some real surgery occurs.

This month we are going to look whether you can, or should, boldly go after changes in your physical game. Moreover, we are going to look at the mental game variables involved in making even the slightest alteration in your grip pressure, timing steps, or swing plane.

The psychology of change

“We fear change.”
–The character Garth, in Wayne’s World

All things in nature gravitate to familiarity. Whether it is deer in the wild, dogs with their favorite place to sleep, or humans who always drive on the same routes to their favorite places, nature likes what it knows. Research shows that very early in life, babies are attracted to familiar faces, humans prefer musical tones that they have heard before, even if they don’t consciously recognize them, ...