The Walkabout

Have you ever had one of those days on the lanes when you couldn’t hit a truck if it was parked at your breakpoint? How about days when you can’t repeat a shot to save your life? Can’t get the ball off your hand the same way twice? Can’t post a shot? Timing is off and you can’t seem to fix it?

How about a practice session where you are trying to learn some new things, like moving from four steps to five, a new release, or just improving the old one, but you just can’t seem to get your body to cooperate? Maybe you just need to reboot and clear out some of the junk files.

The day you first plug in a new computer is the day it will run its best, it won’t likely crash, and it will work at the speed of light. The more you use it, the slower it gets. Sometimes files will get on our computers that we know nothing about. They accumulate slowly over time to gradually slow the computer down. The same kind of thing seems to happen to our bowling game.

How to reboot a brain

The best way I have found to reboot the bowling brain is to go on a walkabout. Merriam-Webster defines a walkabout as “an occasion in which an Australian Aborigine goes on a long walking journey that is far from towns and cities.” A person can find a walkabout very refreshing, Aborigine or not, because it takes them away from their normal routine.

While I am not going to ask you to head for the outback with your bowling ball, I am going to ask ...