Mental Game.. PC4 style

“The big difference between great players and good players is behavior, especially in adverse situations. Some players can leave a solid 8 or a solid 9, and it’s like it doesn’t faze them. That sort of behavior is what I think all of us need to strive for. It’s not that I want everybody to go out there and be mechanical or not be emotional."- Norm Duke

The Mental Game, the hardest part to the game of Bowling or any sport for that matter.  In about 97% percent of every bowler and athlete, it is the weakest part of everyone’s “Game” and is the game that will never have a maxium level or a peak to it. The Mental Game is the part of sports that can always improve and grow to help you reach your goals in life.

Some of the things that go into the mental game, is everything that has to do with bowling once you step into the bowling alley for practice, league, or tournaments. It’s a thought process, it’s a routine, it’s whatever you want it to be.  You can make your game however you want it to be, its personal that’s what makes it so great.

I am actually trying to strengthen my mental game at the moment, I am working with a sports psychologist Doc Kolasinski.  She is from Florida and is very knowledgeable about the mental game and it is an absolute honor to be working with her. (the quotes actually came from one of her articles).  If anyone knows me from the past, My mental game is by far the weakest part of my bowling game, It is still today an issue with me and what is holding me back. Now I want my mental game to be the best quality or part of my game, which is the reason  why I’m working with Doc.

Since I gave a little background to my mental game and what my opinions on it so lets get into some of the things I have learned so far during the strengthening and learning of the mental game. First lets start off with books to read, “Focused for Bowling,” “Mind Gym” and the
“Inner game of Tennis”. Although I have not read these books I was suggested to read them and also heard great things about them and the readers learned a lot. I plan on getting to them this summer and read them.

Working with Doc, I have learned from her that the mental game is a five step to a good mental game. There is the 5 areas to the game as I mentioned before:

Area 1: Take responsibility for your performance

Area 2: Control your emotions

Area 3: Control your thinking

Area 4: Focus on the present

Area 5: Committing yourself to constant learning

If you can get these areas of the mental game under control, you will be able to achieve the results you want to achieve.  As I stated before, the mental game is the weakest point of the everyones game and it has no peaks to it.

Taking responsibility for your performance is something that everyone I believe struggles with. Everyone rarely takes responsibility for their performance and it bugs the absolute hell out of me. People point the fingers so many different ways and directions, instead of pointing that finger at the one way it should be… at themselves.  I believe that is where people lose at. They look at the carry the opponent got and rarely look at what they did during that match or throughout the whole tournament. Like I stated before, it is the weakest part of the mental game that everyone has, as well with controlling emotions.

Controlling emotions has always been my weakest part of my game but it is improving and will continue to improve. Showing negative emotion is something you see throughout every level of bowling but it’s apart of being a competitive bowler because you want to succeed but it is something that needs to stop. Im not trying to tell you to go out there and have no emotions but you need to control them and find ways to keep those in check. If you can do this along with controlling the other areas of the mental game, you will find yourself bowling better than ever.

If you ever want to talk the mental game with me, feel free to talk or ask. I’m always looking for ways to help or improve my own mental game.

PC4

" I’m a very emotional person, but I require a certain type of behavior from myself because staying composed brings many benefits. It allows me to keep my heart rate and blood pressure down, which allows me to stay under control. It also shows my competitor that I can handle the situation – and not only can I handle it, but I can handle it and still be a threat, which can scare the heck out of them.” – Norm Duke

Short Patterns 101

Tonight i would like to write about something that i think i feel confident enough to write about. Overall in the last 3 years or so, i have had much success on short patterns. Granted there were times where everything went out the window, but all in all very successful... in the following post, i would like to explain a couple things...first, i would like to overview what short patterns are. secondly, id like to examine how i attack the pattern before i throw a ball and my adjustments throughout the day....and thirdly, hopefully cover ball choice, surface prep and laneplay.


What are "short" patterns?
I guess referring to a pattern as short, medium, or long is all relative....a 39 ft pattern is long compared to a 30ft pattern....However, generally we see short patterns around 35-38 feet in length. The most common and probably well known short pattern is the PBA Cheetah pattern at 35ft. Of course, there are plenty of other short patterns from WTBA, Kegel, etc. I think the shortest ive bowled on was a 33ft WTBA pattern..... JG used WTBA "Beijing" this year. So if you are a top level bowler, you see short patterns fairly regularly. This makes it important to know how to attack one and what to expect.

My gameplan.
After a while, you start to see certain patterns develop while bowling on shorter stuff. One could say that, lane surface aside, most play pretty similar. So, my first thoughts before even throwing a ball is to start as far right as i can. I literally stand on 1-board or in the gutter. Dont be afraid to move really far right. Your mind will force you to keep it on the lane. Because you have around 25ft of backend for the ball to hook, you can expect everything to hook. Couple that with lane surface and you can have some crazy ball reactions. During practice, i try to gauge how the lane surface will play into my ball roll. When the friction is high, i have to adjust for the energy spent earlier and vice versa for harder lane surfaces.

Now, as for adjustments, i find that i rarely ever move my feet or target during the day. When i do, its really only a board or two. I want to keep myself from messing around with the inside, so i try to keep my front target outside of 5 the best i can. I never really find ymself having this problem as outside of 5 stays pretty consistent throughout the day.

Ball choice and surface prep.
The fact that i have two different urethane balls should say something about my preferred ball choice on short patterns. However, ive found success with all different types of ball. I only choose urethane cause it allows for a more controlled approach to the pocket whereas reactive can give a little unpredictability. Remember, urethane isnt a "no hook" ball, it just needs friction to move as it doesnt absorb oil. The only downside to using urethane, is there needs to be a straighter trajectory for the ball to obtain optimal carry. Unless the lane is high friction, i cant really "hook" it from the right. I need to stand right and throw it straight or even a slight right-to-left path. 


Surfaces are key. Polished is usually a no-go on shorter patterns. You need to be able to control backend as there is a ton of it. You might be able to get away with polish if there is low pin. However, polish creates a more violent change in direction so it would be wise just to avoid it completely.  have yet to see anyone really bowl well with polish on short patterns.

Laneplay.
I sort of addressed this in the "My Gameplan" section, but there is a issue ive been struggling with that i want to put out there. We all know that patterns break down. We see it all the time. However, i still have a hard time understanding the breakdown of short patterns. I think if you are in the right area with the right ball, you will see very little breakdown. As ive said before, moving left could spell trouble, especially if you are not used to throwing at the gutter. Add to the fact that not everyone can play as right as others, moving during a block is very uncommon. At JG, the only time i had to really adjust is when the 1 board didnt hook on a pair i hit and had to switch to reactive. Other than that, i stayed in the same place the entire block. If anything, i made accidental moves left and had to realign myself right.

Conclusion.
Overall, short patterns are fairly straight forward if everything is done correctly. One of the best things you can do is to practice throwing it up the gutter. Even if a shot isnt there,just practice it. Make sure your ball is 5 and out both at the arrows and down lane. Also consider picking up a urethane ball. There are at least 3 different companies making urethane, which shows that people are understanding the benefit on having one. Finally, remember that the more controlled ball reaction you have, the less chance of leaving wide open splits. Because of the amount of friction, uncontrollable ball reactions can cause some ugly games.

As always, thanks for reading. I sometimes tend to not make sense or give false info, so if there are any questions or comments, feel free to ask and i will give my best answer.
-Cameron
"I dig the urethane!"

Losing weight

I said i would follow up on my weight loss goal so here it is. I thought about making a sister blog just for this but decided against it, choosing to just post updates now and then here.

Basically im looking to shed about 20-30 pounds by the time i head back to school. I have lost weight in the past so i know i can do it. However, it will be hard getting back into the healthy habits i had way back when. So, to help myself achieve that goal, ive set some rules. These rules are subject to change including adding and subtracting, but overall these are what im going to abide by.

1. My official weighing everyday will take place in the morning after my shower. I will only wear underwear and sometimes a shirt to determine a true weight. I will weigh myself at the gym purely for satisfying curiosity.

2. Water only. Restaurants, bowling, traveling, home, etc. Purely water. There are some exceptions. I can use 0-cal enhancers like Mio, and can replace water with unsweetened teas. The only time i will allow myself to not drink water is when im making mixed drinks (rum and cokes etc) as those are only once in a while. Even fruit juice will be cut back, unless i drink some OJ for breakfast. Thats at my discretion.

3. There will be certain foods that will be avoided completely and some that will be extremely cut back. Ive decided to completely eliminate Mayo from my diet. This includes mayo based sauces as well (big mac sauce.) Along with eliminating mayo, im going to do my best to cut back on cream based dressing and sauces as well. (caeser dressing, ranch, alfredo, etc.)

4. I will try to keep a record of everything i eat. This will hopefully give me a better idea of how many calories i actually consume on a daily basis.

5. Finally, im going to have to force myself to plainly eat less. There will be times where i cant avoid unhealthy foods, but the detrimental effects can be avoided if i just eat less. So for example, instead of 6 tacos from Jack, only 4. this saves nearly 400 cals.

A few strategies i plan to deploy include:

- Sugar free lattes. Saves 50 cals per drink.
- Always having a water bottle around to drink out of
- Been reading that green tea increases metabolism slightly, so i am looking into that.
- Working out at least 3 times a week, including at least 45 mins of weight-loss speed cardio.
- Eating nuts and fruit as snacks instead of chips and cookies.
- Fish fish and fish.

Basically, there is no specific diet i plan to follow, just a few rules that will cut back on intake and increase burn. I look forward to executing my plan and perhaps i may enjoy it. Perhaps i may find new things that i like.

Thanks for reading
-Cameron
"Hard work sucks"

Offseason Goals, Plans...

Seeing as it is the "offseason" for college bowling, it is time to take a look what i can do to better myself for next season. As of right now, college bowling IS the most important part of my bowling career right now, so everything will be geared around that.

One of the first things that i would like to do is to create a workout regiment and stick to it. I have a history of stop and go gym time, which i would like stop. This workout regiment should help with upping my endurance, overall strength, and weight loss. Along with gym time, this also includes general activities like basketball (anybody want to hoop it up?) and hopefully, some tennis. I thought about trying something like p90x or other systems, but i think i want to do my own thing. I will probably pick up some light free weights and a mat to do some things at home when i am bored.

My plan for this is to use a combination of a liberal food journal and the outreach of this blog. Weighing everyday, tracking caloric intake along with fat intake and then output at the gym and time spent doing activities. This also includes eating better. No specific diet, just watching out for the problem foods and learning to like new things. I still plan to eat the stuff i normally do (jack in the box tacos) but less of them and less often. More detail will come at a later post.

Along with the "diet" and exercise, working on my bowling game is pretty important too. My main focus this summer will be to work on my targeting system and getting my moves down. People say im good (crazy) but this will hopefully improve my game to the point of where i have less bad shots throughtout a series. Other than that, working on leverage could also give a huge boost. This is mostly at the line and keeping my head steady throughout the approach. After that, anything that comes up will be tackled accordingly.

Those are the two most important goals for me this summer. I feel if i can stay with it, my game and confidence going into school in september will be elevated. Something else i would love to achieve is to win a major tournament this summer. JBT invite, TPC, LVO, or JWTC come to mind. I am tired of taking second in every big match. If i make it to the final of any of these, watch out, cause im bringing everything i got.

I would also like to learn a new skill or sport. I still plan on building that horseshoe court, but tennis, hockey, basketball are also on the radar. Maybe curling? is there still a club in seattle? anybody down for that?

So all in all, this summer will focus on physical activity. Just trying to better myself.

As always, Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave your goals in the comment section as well.
-Cameron
"Tearin' down the wall!"