Expert: David Kenward - 12/9/2007

Question
I bowl for a high school team and i am one of the highest average bowlers with a 200+ average and there is alot of weight being put on my shoulders.  I can bowl really well my first game but come the second game i crack and throw alot of gutters and miss spares.  What can i do to fix this problem

Answer
Hello Michael

The first thing I'd suggest is sit down and write out when this started.  What was going on?  What house were you bowling in?  Who where you bowling with?  Was it in practice or in competition against another school?  What else was going on with your life at the time?

I find a lot of times working with clients in my office that a particular event precipitates cracking under pressure.  Then it gets to the point where the fear of cracking gets worse and worse.  The good news is this is fixable.  Mental training can help.  Since you can ONLY experience one emotion at a time, you can train yourself to feel confidence on command and use that when you start your second game.

Here's a mental training tool that can help you.  Get relaxed, close your eyes, and take five slow deep breaths.  Then, picture or imagine one of those first games, when you bowled really well.  Make it a multimedia experience - the sights, the sounds, the smells, the physical feelings (whatever was going on physically) and how you felt inside, the confidence.  Let that feeling take a color and let it flow through you.  Now let that fade and repeat it, let the color flow through you, and this time, say the name of the color (silently) as it flows through you.  You'll notice as you do that the feeling of confidence starts to grow.  This is building a habit, so it needs to be done a number of times.  Practice this until breathing in, exhaling, saying the color and feeling it flow through you brings a feeling of confidence.  At that point you can do it when you are bowling in practice.  When you are ready to start a game, take in a deep breath and as you exhale feel your color of confidence flow through you.  When that works well, than you can do it in competition.

I use these tools successfully with many sports competitors - they work!

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

David

David Kenward, The Mental Coach
Sacramento, California
http://www.thementalcoach.com
Win the Mental Game: Perform better under pressure in any sport