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In this new recurring feature, I’ll be digging into three quick things to help improve your game. In each installment, we’ll cover one aspect of the mental game, a lane play issue, and an element of the physical game.
In this inaugural edition, we’ll discuss the three mental ignition points to get into your best mental space before competition begins, why acceptance is so important to effective lane play, and rethinking the crossover step.
Three mental starting points
Bowling with your best competitive mindset isn’t a light switch. It’s not something that a person can simply turn on and off when needed. When it comes to bringing your best self to the lanes, it’s more of an on-ramp to the highway. The goal is to gradually accelerate so that by the time you’re merging into the freeway, you’re up to full speed.
The mental game is no different. By the time the arrows come up, if you’re just starting to get zoned in, it’s too late. Maybe you can get away with it in league, but the higher your level of competition, the less time you can waste working your way into the block. With that in mind, here are the three mental starting points to help you get into your ideal competitive mindset.
Entering the arena
On his Finding Mastery podcast, Dr. Michael Gervais shared a story of a football player he used to work with. Now on opposing teams, he went to greet him before the game in their usual way but was met with, “I don’t really do that before the game.” As a world-class athlete, he had already started to get zoned in, presumably accessing the more violent, competitive aspects of his personality, well before the start of the game.
Bowlers can train themselves to also begin the process of accessing their best mindset when they walk into the bowling center. It’s not about being unfriendly the way a football player might. Instead, it’s about starting to access the intensity and focus you’ll need to compete at your best. Because everyone is different, this will be reflected in different ways. Some will be social, and others will be more quiet. Some will sit down and listen to music, and others will walk around.
This continues as the bowler goes through other elements of their pre-competition routine—shoeing up, applying tape or patch, checking ball fit, etc. By the time the lights come on for warm-ups, you’re already partially into that competitive zone.
Practice/warm-ups
The obvious purpose of pre-competition warm-ups is to feel loose and find the line and ball you intend to use to start the block. But there is also a mental purpose.
During practice, you should be increasingly focused and calibrated to your desired intensity. It’s not simply about becoming more intense. If you’re a bit agitated from a rough day at work or simply a bit nervous for a big tournament, you might actually need to relax.
Some bowlers prefer a more relaxed feeling, while others do like a higher intensity level. The goal here is to realize where you are and then either bring the level up or down to match your desired state. This takes a bit of reflection and forethought, so the first step is understanding your needs. Then, it’s about using your mental tools to either energize yourself or calm yourself down.
The lights come on
The final stage of getting into “the zone” is when practice ends and the arrows come up. This is where you fully lock in and use your pre-shot routine as the first step of your shot cycle before the first ball.
If you’ve waited this long before starting to get into your competitive mindset, it’s probably too late. It will likely take you several frames or up to a full game to get there. It’s often why many bowlers have their lowest game of the night or miss more spares than normal in that first game.
Even worse, if the lanes are confusing and you’re spending more energy thinking through the adjustments, it will take even longer to get into the right mental rhythm.
Start thinking of getting into the right mindset more like an on-ramp and less like a light switch, and it will become easier to repeat consistently.
Acceptance equals action
This tip is as much a mindset shift as it is a change to your tactical approach. Why do bowlers want to blame themselves when their ball reaction isn’t good? There are a few reasons.
The first one is our default training. As bowlers work to improve, it’s most often through practice sessions that focus on physical mistakes or inconsistencies. While this is clearly important, it trains your mind to look for physical errors. As your level progresses, this can become a very limiting mindset. We tend to blame ourselves rather than blame the lanes and delay making a tactical adjustment.
The second reason we tend to blame ourselves and not the lanes is because it’s easier. Taking a step back from bowling for a moment, the human brain likes the status quo. That’s why it’s hard to break bad habits, even when you know they’re bad. Even in less-than-ideal situations, such as being unhappy in your job, what you’re used to often feels safer than the unknown of looking for another one. With this kind of wiring in our brains, it’s much easier to say, “I just need to throw it better,” than “I need to make a change.”
By not accepting what you see in front of you, it’s easy to avoid taking action.
Changing the mindset
Once you’re aware of these limiting thought processes, it’s simply a matter of shifting your focus.
Blaming yourself and thinking about the feel of your shot is an internal focus. If you wish to focus on your ball motion to identify the problem and make an adjustment, the focus needs to be external.
You also want to give yourself a sort of self-blame cutoff. It’s okay to throw a bad shot and think that you can throw it better before making an adjustment. However, after two such shots, it’s more likely that the lanes are changing. Subconsciously, your brain understands that the lanes are changing and is “helping” the execution, causing you to throw it badly.
If you find yourself thinking, “I’ll just throw it better” for more than two shots, stop yourself and ask yourself what adjustments you can make to your lane play, not your delivery.
Adjusting to the lanes
Once you’ve accepted to blame the lanes more than yourself, it’s all about collecting the right information and then making decisions based on the information. This requires good observation skills as well as decision-making ability.
Rather than releasing the ball and focusing on how it felt and what went wrong, ensure your focus remains on the ball’s motion:
- How is the ball reading the midlane?
- What kind of back end motion is it making?
- Is the entry angle right?
- How are the pins reacting?
Remember that despite the illusion, there really isn’t a status quo in bowling. Every ball that is rolled down the lane affects the pattern and the required lane play. While you might not need to move every frame, it’s inevitable that the lanes will change, and you’ll need to adjust. Simply throwing it better will never work throughout an entire block.
Depending on your level of competition, you might encounter a wide variety of environments. The higher your level, the more important it is to blame the lanes and make adjustments rather than simply try to out-bowl bad ball motion. It’s highly unlikely that this will work out well for you.
Accept what you see in front of you so you can take the appropriate action.
Rethinking the crossover step
I’ve started referring to the “crossover step” as the “inline step” because I feel it is a more accurate description. Many bowlers overvalue the idea of fully crossing over, placing the step well inside of the desired path.
Thinking of “crossing over,” many bowlers go too far with the step, compromising their body position and affecting their swing path.
This kind of over-cross is common, and it affects everything from your remaining footwork to your body position and swing path. While there are some bowlers who can do this effectively, it’s not recommended. Using more appropriate language is the starting point to keeping that step more in line with the other foot.
Let’s discuss the typical positioning and some variations that can be equally effective based on your game and body type.
Let’s just call it the inline step
The first ball-side step should be placed directly in front of the other one, not crossing over past it. For a righthanded bowler taking a five-step approach, the second step is with the right foot and should be placed in front of the left foot. Generally, the foot should be in a slightly open position with the toes pointed outward.
The typical inline step could look like this.
That being said, this step can vary based on the bowler’s build and game. So long as it is creating space for a straight swing without compensation, it is doing the job.
Variations
Like most things in bowling, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to your inline step. Some bowlers can cross over more, while others don’t need to get fully in line with the previous step.
Crossing over
As I mentioned above, some bowlers can benefit from a step that fully crosses over, but even then, there are limits. Using the channel method to describe the movement, you don’t want the heel of the second step to go more than halfway into the yellow channel. With this technique, the toes are often more open, remaining in the green channel.
Rather than going in line, crossing over slightly can be beneficial to some bowlers.
This tends to be most effective for bowlers with narrow shoulders relative to their hips. This helps bowlers with this body type create enough space for their swing, supporting a bit more forward lean and open hips that promote a straighter swing path.
There are also some bowlers who like to walk more to the inside as a means to creating an inside-out swing path. They will tend to cross over a bit more in order to create this shape. It’s worth noting that it can be very effective, but it severely limits a bowler’s ability to bowl with straighter launch angles.
Partially inline
For bowlers with a bit later timing, either two-handed or one-handed, there is less need to go fully inline during this step. Why? Because the swing will pass the leg at a different time, and the hips can shift out of the way during the third step to help the ball clear the leg.
Also, bowlers with broad shoulders and narrow hips don’t need much help to create space for their swing, so the leg doesn’t need to get fully out of the way. If they use a bit more forward lean, then the space is almost created all by itself. Bowlers with this kind of build might also use less of an inline step and effectively create a strong body position and swing path.
Some bowlers have no real need to get fully in line.
What step should you use?
The vast majority of bowlers should be working toward a fully inline step. I’ve provided some of the exceptions to ensure that we address the nuances of the game, but most bowlers will benefit from an inline step in the modern game.
If your body position or swing is out of line, one of the first places to look is at your inline step. Is it fully crossing over and promoting too much lean or a loopy swing? Or is it not getting far enough in line, promoting a stiff body position and necessitating a swing that goes around your body?
Remember that crossing over is not what we really want to do. We want the feet to be in line with each other, so start thinking of the second step of a five-step approach as the “inline step.”
