Bowling For Prize Money

By: bowlingball.com, 11/24/15

If you are a highly skilled player but are removed from bowling in tournaments or stiff competition other than your regular leagues, you are likely rusty when it comes to bowling for prize money.

Tournaments provide immediate prizes, in most cases, and the pressure or impact on you in a tournament feels differently than it does in your routine leagues where the prize money payoff is not until weeks later at the end of the leagues.

If you are preparing to bowl your first serious tournament in a while, then you need to recognize that your attitude when bowling for money involves a change in your comfort level during competition.

Some players rise to the occasion while others do not. If you wish to get the most out of your game when you face the challenges of a important tournament, then some preparation can help.

First, you must prepare your bowling ball equipment to make sure the ball surfaces are refinished to a known texture which helps you achieve a ball reaction from each of your bowling balls you expect to see when the “lights come on” during the tournament you are gearing up to bowl.

You can work with your coach or instructor briefly to get your game in shape for the rigors of a tournament.

You may need to practice at a pace different than your league pace dictates. If you are heading to a singles tournament where you compete against the entire field with no teammates to rely on, then bowling on a five man person team league is not the usual pace your will encounter in the tournament.

You may be scheduled with three other bowlers on your pair of lanes so the pace of play is much faster than in leagues and faster than you have been used to since your last encounter with a singles format tournament.

In many tournaments, there is a qualifying round and a finals round or rounds where you may have to bowl in head-to-head matches against an opponent.

Heads up matches are another type of pressure you might not be geared for unless you face these match play situations often.

Because of the format of tournaments, you may consider practicing with friends at home but on a pair of lanes and with only four bowlers per lane.

Also, consider wagering a small amount of money, even if it is just a quarter of a dollar, on the scoring outcome of the game.

Create a match play situation with an immediate payoff after each game. You may wish to wager a quarter with the other three bowlers as one does in a pot game and then choose one player bowling directly across from you and wager a separate quarter on your game scores.

The point is to get into the frame of mind that urgency exists in making good shots each frame because you will only get one chance at winning a given match, not thirty weeks of league play to determine a winner.

With urgency comes pressure and anxiety. The best way to become familiar with bowling under pressure is to bowl under pressure against players equally as talented as you or more talented.

Put yourself in bowling “harm’s way” by facing direct opposition on a per game basis which establishes a sense of urgency where each shot matters and is critical to an outcome you seek.

Heads-up action bowling involves your mental and a physical game skills and because of this, you must develop the desire to overcome self-induced pressure and perform well when it matters most.

Bowling for prize money, however, doesn’t just happen by chance; you must first commit to the challenge and next, you must prepare your physical game and you must develop mental discipline to allow yourself to perform to your capabilities when the money is on the line.

Any bowling champion at any competitive level, leagues, tournaments, or head’s-up action bowling, has learned the art of staying in the moment and executing the best shots possible.



The real secret to success when bowling for money is making one good shot at a time, slowing down the game mentally so you can place full focus on each delivery.

Avoid distractions and avoid hawking what everyone else is doing. Pay attention to your game and to the lane conditions.

Developing strong willpower and mental toughness by getting yourself back into the competitive arena of tournament bowling. In fact, schedule a tune-up tournament leading into the important event you are targeting.

Enjoy the preparation leading into your targeted tournament. It is fun to test yourself against other highly skilled players.

Once you do, you become a complete player finding out more about your game skills during these competitions than you ever can during “comfort-zone” practice sessions or the easy environment leagues sometimes provide.