Bowling Patience
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Originally Posted: 12/17/2014; Updated: 7/29/2022If you want to get the best out of your game, learn some bowling patience.
The players who are able to retain composure in pressure bowling situations, those who can exercise patience, are the ones who typically enjoy the most success.
Be a cool customer in competition. Work at not losing your temper and avoid getting overly emotional if things are not going your way.
In bowling’s competitive world, performances run in cycles, just as in regular life.
If you remain patient and focus on what you must do to make good shots or on what you need to do to get the results you seek, you will soon realize that when things turn your way, you are ready to take full advantage.
Getting emotional in competition is only human. It is the players who do not repeat the mistakes over and over due to negative emotions and fly off the handle every time when things go against them are the ones who rebound from adversity.
It is a proven fact that when any athlete operates under control, with tempered emotion, focuses on the job at hand, and does not think about what has happened in the past but rather what he or she must do next to succeed will be the one who emerges victorious most of the time.
You can read all kinds of literature on containing emotional outbursts, on how the brain works, and how getting riled up deters you from success, but until you buy into it, your temper may overshadow the outcome you desire.
One technique you might use is to visualize your favorite player who is cool under pressure and learn to emulate that bowler when you are in competition.
Getting really mad at your bowling or at a bad break is a choice, not a given. You can choose to accept an outcome and plan to improve the results in your next competitive session.
Focus on your next opportunity to succeed, the next shot you deliver or the next session where you will engage competition.
No one likes watching a bowler who completely loses his or her composure, curses profusely, kicks the ball return unit out of pure anger, tosses a shoe or some other such item in the bowling area, and makes everyone else tense just being around it.
If you advocate keeping a calm demeanor and containing emotions while you are in competition, you place yourself with the best chances to win.
It boils down simply to having some bowling patience and remain focused on the big picture, not riding the highs and lows of competition.
