What Can and Cannot be Controlled in Bowling?

Hi, Scott Pohl here. Three time USBC champion. And what we're talking about today is the mental game. Have a lot of customers come in and friends, ask me what can I do to have a better mental game? What's going to help me from tournament to tournament, league shots, moment to moment. It's a great question, which you have to look at in bowling or things that you can control and what you can't control. Number one, what can we not control when we bowl? A big thing is we cannot control our opponent. What they do, they get lucky breaks, they don't get lucky breaks, we can't do anything about that. So the more you bring your focus on yourself the better you're gonna do. Another thing that we can't control is the pin carry a lot of the time. Sometimes we just have bad brakes and we have to move forward on it. Don't dwell on the past, try to figure things out, move forward towards a better pin carry. Another topic, big things we can't control that I hear a lot of talk about, complaining is on lane conditions. Lane conditions are out there, they're the same for everybody, it's a constantly changing environment. You can't control the lane condition because you can't throw every shot on every lane. Hopefully those things will help. Now what are the things that we can control? Very important, what we can control is our attitude. Okay, how we approach the game, we want to stay positive and have a good reactionary process towards each shot. Another thing that we control is our lane play, where we stand? How we attack the lane? Very important. Another one is the ball choice, you can pick a particular ball on doing different hook patterns on the lane. All those things are great things you can control. I look at it bowling as a game, there is no defense. There's nobody up there who's actually gonna trip you try to tackle you, you're in control of what you do. All right. So what do we wanna do? We wanna have a little bit of a plan before we get up on the approach. That way there's a lot less thinking when you get up there to make that shot, I would recommend before you even get up there, create your own routine. Whether it's you think of where you're standing where you're targeting, I'm gonna go to my rosin bag, I'm gonna wipe the ball off. I'm gonna take a breath at this moment a breath at that moment very important to be prepared for the next shot. Think of it this way, when we get up in the morning or when we get ready for work or school, we typically have a routine or a certain way that we go to work or school. And we really don't have to think about it too much, right? How about those days where your routine is just off? You woke up late, you just feel like you're rushing around, you can't get things done the way you wanna get them done. So I would recommend get that routine in your brain. That when you go up in a big pressure moment you're prepared and it'll keep you a lot more calm from shot to shot. All right. Lastly, I like talking to a bowler. Well, what's your self-talk? Do you talk yourself in a positive manner? Do you beat yourself up from shot to shot? I like to look at it this way, treat yourself like your own doubles partner, and what I mean by that is when you're bowling with another person, chances are, you're not gonna get on them for throwing a bad shot. You're not gonna tell them a lot of negative comments treat yourself that way. If you make a bad shot, so be it, move on, learn from it, go to the next shot throw a better shot, be positive towards yourself. One thing I also like to do, and a lot of other bowlers and athletes listen to music before you bowl, this a lot of the time relaxes you gets in that right frame of mind. Let's say for instance you know a pattern is very oily that day. You might wanna listen to easy listening, slow music. That'll help slow you down or vice versa. If you're on a pattern that's very short with a lot of friction, you have to throw the ball hard, maybe your tempo needs to be faster, listen to a faster paced song. Hopefully all these things help feel free to stop in and see your pro shop operator for more.