Mental game tips for elite bowlers
November 13, 2009
By Teresa Ross
USBC Coaching Specialist
A coach can help you with your physical and mental games, but he or she can't teach you how to win. That's something you have to learn for yourself, and you can begin that process by buying into one word: belief.
You have to believe you can win any event you enter. That's the line of thinking that gets bowlers such as Walter Ray Williams Jr., Chris Barnes and Norm Duke to the top of the standings week in and week out. They don't worry about the other elite players in the field; they believe they are the best. As such, they are not satisfied until their names are on top of the standings because that's where they believe they should be. You need to master that same line of thinking.
Don't go into a tournament hoping to make the cut or finish in the top five or 10. That line of thinking allows you to become complacent. Instead, go in with the confidence that, if you bowl up to your potential, you will be the one raising the trophy when the tournament is over. Remember, if you don't believe it, you'll never achieve it.
USBC Coaching Specialist
A coach can help you with your physical and mental games, but he or she can't teach you how to win. That's something you have to learn for yourself, and you can begin that process by buying into one word: belief.
You have to believe you can win any event you enter. That's the line of thinking that gets bowlers such as Walter Ray Williams Jr., Chris Barnes and Norm Duke to the top of the standings week in and week out. They don't worry about the other elite players in the field; they believe they are the best. As such, they are not satisfied until their names are on top of the standings because that's where they believe they should be. You need to master that same line of thinking.
Don't go into a tournament hoping to make the cut or finish in the top five or 10. That line of thinking allows you to become complacent. Instead, go in with the confidence that, if you bowl up to your potential, you will be the one raising the trophy when the tournament is over. Remember, if you don't believe it, you'll never achieve it.