| Nathan
Bohr
(Click here to see Nathan's PBA Bio)
Lets get to know one of the young stars of the PBA tour.
Nathan has exempt player status and is in his first full year on
the National tour. He earned his exempt status by being the
point leader in the Southwest Region. Born in 1980 and
raised in Austin, Texas until he decided to attend Wichita State
University in 1999. Nathan now calls Wichita home. Nathan's room
mate on tour is fellow Austin resident Wes Malott. In getting to
know Nathan the dominate characteristics are his kindness and
desire to learn. These are wonderful personality traits but it
also sets Nathan up for some confusing times early in his
competitive career. Nathan is on Brunswick's regional staff and
will join Brunswick's exempt staff at the beginning of 2006.
Having Nathan as a featured player of the week not only
allows you the opportunity to meet a nice personality, but it
also allows me to give you some insight in what it is like
during the early stages of development in a bowlers professional
career.
Nathan comes from a successful collegiate career with obvious
skills on the lanes. There are no obvious flaws or weaknesses.
His ball speed is med-fast to fast. His rev rate is in the med
range. Nathan is comfortable playing any arrow and angle on the
lane. Nathan's style can be described as a balance between
traditional and modern. Nathan uses the traditional style by
having his shoulders square to his target but has the quick hand
and release of a more modern game.
One of the first things we have to do as a professional
bowler is look for the natural uniqueness of a player and find
out how we can take advantage of this. In Nathan I have been
working on getting him to understand that a professional bowlers
has to learn to play their angles and ball roll before they can
become too concerned about all the invisible aspects of lane
play and ball technology. Working with the younger players is a
little challenging because they are overly concerned about
balls. Nathan is not as difficult as many but there is still the
generation characteristic of too many balls on the wall.
We are working on building Nathan's game around his ability
to play squarer angles than most bowlers and following his and
his opponents breakdown. This will allow him to match-up in the
match-play and TV environment the PBA uses. The challenge for
Nathan is developing the ability to deal with breakdown
transition with physical tools and grip pressures instead of
just trying to follow breakdown by moving laterally on the lane.
Bowlers can be identified by their instinctive moves off of a 4
and 10 pin. 99% of bowlers just move left off of a 4 pin and
right off of a weak 10. This is because of their learning
environment and levels of competition they are competing in.
The learning process can be very confusing and Nathan is
feeling the effect at this time. His desire to compete at the
highest level is having him play around with some of his new
tools before he really knows how to use them. Anybody who has
ever tried to make changes to their game knows what it is like.
The most obvious effect on Nathan has been his ability to repeat
shots. I would not be concerned about Nathan's ability to repeat
shots if this was a skills challenge. He is very good at
repeating what he knows. But he is not at the level of repeating
what he does not understand. Remember nothing is a tool until
you understand how to use it and how to follow transition with
it. It is one thing to see success on a practice pair when you
have the ability to develop a tempo and rhythm to your liking.
But when you have to wait several minutes in between shots and
move across pairs, where breakdown transition is confusing
enough, you need to be much more confident than a couple
practice sessions will allow. Our latest conversations
have been about the learning process and waiting till he knows
how to use the new tools. One of the most difficult challenges
of being a professional bowler is the ability to sort through
information and deciding when and how to use it.
Nathan's development would be easier to monitor if the tour
did not have the "no coaching" rule, which will have to be a
subject of another article. There is no doubt in my mind that it
will all come together but for now I am asking Nathan to focus
on bowling more natural (let his body repeat shots) and focus on
angles and shapes. We have to monitor his analytical thought
processes. Nathan is a very skilled player and he needs to know
that he doesn't have to have all the tricks right now. He can
get to the next level by focusing on what he already knows and
making good shots. A tool is not a tool until you have
confidence and understanding in how to use it. You can't be too
quick to use your new tools. The opportunity will present itself
when it is time.
The biggest progress in Nathan so far has been his ability to
recognize what is happening on the lane. I am very satisfied
with his development in that area. What I need is a shock
collar. When I see Nathan start fishing around with his new
tools or knowledge and it begins to effect his ability to repeat
I could give him a quick buzz.
I am sure we will notice weekly improvement in Nathan as he
is very dedicated to his dreams and desires. And when you see
Nathan on TV I am sure you will appreciate the kind personality
and special skills I have had the opportunity to meet. |
