This section will be used to discuss the weeks strategies.
Wauwatosa, Wisconsin and AMF Bowlero Lanes has been the home of
the USBC Masters tournament for 3 years. Each year has proven
that the house provides a pair to pair challenge. The lane
surface provides a very challenging environment that confuses
even the best bowlers in the world. Add to that a 485 bowler
field with different theories
and strategies and you get a lot of bowlers scratching their
head.
Every year bowlers show up early to practice and every year they
find out that the practice session didn't give them the feedback
they were looking for. Making ball choices and physical
strategies based on
the practice session is not very wise. I see more bowlers
committing to poor strategies based on these practice sessions.
Finding push and a hook spot is much easier on practice day than
it is as the week progresses. The front part of the lane wants
to hook more and the down lane hook becomes much less consistent
with each day.
There are many theories as to why this happens but the one that
makes the most sense to me is the cleaning process. With each
strip and re-oil the memory of the league shot is erased and by
mid-week the bowlers are seeing what seems to be a totally
different condition.
This is not unique to just this tournament, the weekly
transition happens almost every week. The conditions almost
always seem change during the week. The front and middle part of
the lane seem to get drier. Not all bowlers ball reaction is as
sensitive to the front part of the lane. This is a very
important aspect of learning to bowl in the tour environment. If
a bowler has a ball roll that is too sensitive to the front part
of the lane, that bowler will be at an extreme disadvantage.
Going into any tournament at this house I would suggest a bowler
be physically prepared with strategies to deal with an often
unseen obstacle. It can be very difficult to see the early
friction but when developing a game plane I suggest that a
bowler prepare their physical game for the early friction. This
allows the bowler to make better ball choices and moves.
Loft usually proves to be a very good transitional tool in this
house. This factor becomes very obvious with an increase in
lineage but often is the reason bowlers struggle with carry in
the earlier stages of competition. A bowler will get the feel of
higher volumes down lane and if the right choices are not made
they will get stuck with very challenging lane to lane
differences and multiple ball and hand changes.
When bowling the Masters format there is no advantage to
leading. Part of our game plan is to just qualify. I don't know
what the percentages are but it is not often that the top
qualifiers are the ones that make the show in this environment.
The bowlers go from crossing the house and having a large number
of bowlers transitioning the lane to being responsible for their
own transitions.
There are styles that are natural matchups to the qualifying
portion that just don't know how to control and react to their
own transitions. This is often the case at the Masters and those
bowlers that reap the benefits of the large field and moving
pair to pair transitions end up very frustrated.
You can add to that the luck of the draw factor. Shooting the
second high score in a match-play round does not guarantee you
will move on in the winners bracket. Good bowling and very high
scores can be sent to the loser's bracket while bowlers in some
cases 200 pins worse move on.
One on One match-play is very exciting to watch and the
intensity of the bowlers is very real. When winning a match is
more important than total pins is the objective the mental game
and strategies can be quite different.
It is now Saturday and match-play portion is concluded. We are
set for the TV show tomorrow. I just got off the phone with Sean
Rash. We will meet for lunch and go over to Miller Park for the
practice session. We have plenty of time to discuss strategies
but the most unique situation this week is that not only will we
bowing in a show environment with a step ladder format but we
will be moving to t a different location competing on a
different surface with a different oil and a different lane
machine.
It always amazes me how so many people choose to complain about
situations like this. I guess I have to say I understand
especially if you don't understand or believe bowling is a
strategic game. I cherish the fact that what separates our sport
from all the others is we are the only sport that is a battle
with an invisible course and if you want to be a great bowler it
is very important you focus on your development in that area.
Never complain about different environments no matter how
frustrating it is. Develop yourself that you are at the
advantage in a varying environment. Learn to accept that is what
our sport is about. Recognizing, adapting, and controlling
transition has always been the challenge of our sport.
The strategies in dealing with this challenges is a rush that no
other sport can compare with. The sport of bowling is strategic
in nature. You have to have fundamentals, feel, creativity,
knowledge and experience. The better you get the easier it is to
see the invisible course and deal with transition strategies.
The sport of bowling is more than what the naked eye can see.
What a great sport we have when you are watching the show on
Sunday think about the field not the pattern. The field is the
bowlers that are playing. Think about what each of them is going
to try and do. Think about the effect of what they do. Then
think about how you would react to what you think they are going
to do. Try to predict the scoring pace upon what you think the
field is going to do and adjust your strategies upon this. Maybe
controlling the pocket will be the best strategy, maybe the
lanes will play easy enough that carry will need to be the
focus. Maybe what the field does to the pattern will make them
higher or lower scoring pace. There are 3 right handers and a
left hander. Will the right side beat each other and the pattern
up making it an easy victory for the left hander. Maybe they
will make it easier so the left has little chance.
Sure you have to repeat, sure you have to have physical options,
sure you have to be in a good frame of mind. But don't ever
forget what is so unique and special about our sport. Learn to
appreciate the challenge and respect those who take those
challenges to the next level.
I know Sean and I will begin strategizing today and right up to
the time he is ready to meet whoever makes it up the stepladder
to challenge him for the 2007 USBC Masters title.
See you on Sunday.
Bowler development
The invisible course in bowling can be as easy or as
difficult as desired.
This invisible course is what makes bowling so unique when
compared to other sports. The playing surface in all other
sports is either regulated to very tight specs for consistency
across competitive environments...or the course challenges are
visible to the human eye. Bowling is an obstacle course that
bowlers must use their physical skills and probing tools to
challenge their opponent.
Many bowlers deal with the invisibility in different fashions.
The first thing I teach my students about the game is that
bowling is...always has been...and always will be about
transitions of this invisible course. What other sport can boast
the skills required to deal with an invisible course.
Imagine playing any other sport with the invisible challenges
bowling deals with...it will bring a smile to your face.
Football, Baseball, Basketball, Golf, Hockey, or any other sport
you can imagine would take on a totally different look if they
had to deal with a constantly changing environment that is
invisible to the human eye.
A bowler is required to use a combination of repetition,
versatility, creativity, feel, observation skills, knowledge,
experience, and a type of mental thought process that separates
our sport from any other.
A bowler is challenged to commit their strategy and execution in
an environment of constantly changing obstacles. Bowling has a
recreation is quite simple but bowling as a sport is not a game
for the mentally weak.
The bowler with physical skills is at an elementary level of our
sport and unless he or she realizes what the sport of bowling is
about they will plateau. There are a lot of bowlers who get to
this level and simply do not fair well when they are challenged
with what sport bowling is all about.
Great bowlers are artists with the ability to see, feel, and
trust what their senses are telling them. The creativity and
feel of a great bowler is a product of the development in their
human senses. This requires a level of focus and confidence in
human senses that rivals that of any sport. Bowlers who have
reached this stage of development get feedback that is then
processed through the mind to develop strategic Game Plans.
As a bowler moves up the competitive ladder he or she will find
that being physically better then their opponent is much more
difficult. At the elite level of our sport bowlers learn to
appreciate the mental challenges or are sent home looking for
answers. Some minds just do not deal with a constantly changing
invisible environment very well.
The uniqueness of a great bowler is easier to identify by their
mental makeup than their physical makeup. Confusion is the
number one enemy of a bowler. Sorting through information and
making decisions with commitment is a common trait of a great
bowler.
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