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Zeroed in during practice and
then the arrows come up.....Where did it go??? Ever happen to you?
It's probably happened to all of us. Just as it takes practice to
develop a physical game, it takes practice to develop a mental game.
The great benefit of mental practice is that you don't have to go
to the lanes to do it. It can be accomplished anywhere.
I hope you don't think "As I am taking my first step with my right
foot, my right arm is moving forward to push the ball 4 to 6 inches
over my right foot and I'm breathing in as I'm taking the second
step with my left foot as my right arm continues to arc back so
that the ball is over my right calf while my left arm moves out
and back from the ball....." If you are, you're probably doing a
pretty fair impression of a robot. Instead of filling your head
with staccato orders, provide your conscious mind with IMAGES of
these correct physical actions.
A picture really is worth a thousand words. Imagine trying to describe
bowling to someone who has never seen it. "Well, you take this 8
1/2" diameter sphere that weighs anywhere from 6 to 16 pounds with
three to twelve holes in it with some of your fingers in some of
the holes and walk with it for 12-17 feet, swinging it while you
walk, then bend down and roll it on 2 3/4" thick wood or sometimes
some fake stuff that is 42 or so inches wide toward 10 sticks that
weigh over 3 pounds each standing up in a triangle about 60 feet
away and try to knock the sticks over."
Or you could just show them a picture. This same principle works
with you and your shots. Being able to visualize yourself and using
imagery is a critical tool in your skill development.
POWERING UP
The use of imagery can activate all your senses. You can feel the
release as you're solid and balanced at the foul line, see the ball's
path and roll down the lane, hear the pins crashing (and the crowd
goes wild!). When you use imagery, your mind sees you in one of
two ways. External imagery sees your shot as if from a television
camera. (Feel free to add the stop action analysis and telestrator
lines complete with comments about perfect position and follow through.)
Internal imagery provides the view from inside your head - you see
the ball path down the lane, the finger holes rotating rapidly,
the ball entering the pocket. You may find it is easier to do one
type of imagery than the other. The important thing is that you
do it.
Internal imagery is about visualizing your execution, ball path,
and roll when you're in the planning area - the settee or bowler's
area. (This is NOT the pit. The pit is the place you knock the pins
into, also known as kingdom come). No thinking allowed on the wood.
See it, hear it, feel it. If you're thinking on the wood, you're
in trouble. Once the ball is in your hand, you are committed. It
is, of course, not possible to be without thought. You just want
to make sure the thoughts are pictures or images, not commands.
The Nike version is Just Do It. It's all the same thing. It's about
letting your body execute the shot without interference from buttinksy
- your mind!
You can actually use imagery anywhere - sitting in your recliner,
driving to the competition, as you go to sleep. It is a proven phenomenon
that visualization and imagery work. For instance, watching bowlers
provides an imprint you can and will emulate in your game. How many
times have you let your eyes wander and seen someone fall off or
not follow through and then you get up and do the same thing? Why
not make this work for you? Watch the pros on television before
you set off for the lanes tonight - or better yet, watch the video
of yourself doing it just the way you know you can. Then when you
get to the center, just let it happen.
Letting it happen is not making it happen. Letting it happen is
not controlling your shots - tight muscles, rigid armswings, death
grip on the ball. The results of trying too hard are always frustrating.
Using unnecessary muscles wastes energy. Try this - relax your wrist
and just snap your hand back and forth as fast as you can. Now tighten
your wrist and do the same. Your wrist is much more flexible and
snaps back and forth with more speed when it is loose and you are
just letting it work instead of trying to force it to go back and
forth. More flexibility and speed means more power in the release.
Otherwise your stroke is rigid and difficult to repeat. A shot delivered
with tight muscles does not give you the desired feel (and seldom
the desired result), so you try harder. More muscle tightening,
worse results.
When you're using mental imagery, the brain is actually sending
signals to the appropriate muscles - not because you're doing it,
but just because you're thinking it. Your thoughts send actual signals
along neural pathways. The brain doesn't know whether you're physically
doing it or not. It only knows those signals are making those pathways
deeper. The deeper the path the more often the process will flow
toward that path. The path becomes like a trough, allowing the process
easier access to what you have created and not allowing it to overflow
a shallow bank and go outside of where you intend it to be.
This is not a conscious muscle tightening on your part. The neural
pathways are strengthened without physical activity. It's like water
on a rock. Over time, the water can make a rut in the rock. Mentally
picturing what you want to feel and do reinforces the muscle memory
that will perform what you have visualized. This imagery is process
oriented. It reinforces the correctness of physical moves and provides
a simple way for you to FEEL the right moves.
You can use the trough thought a couple of ways. One is the way
I have just mentioned, mentally practicing in the recliner or the
car and knowing your thoughts are like water on a rock, making a
rut in your neural pathways so that your muscle memory will be able
to repeat shots with less effort, more often. The other is to think
of the channel (formerly known as the gutter) moving onto the lane
where you bend and shape it into the ball path the lane requires
and it becomes a trough in which you just lay the ball. The ball
stays in the trough and follows the path you intend.
RIP THE RACK
You may also practice goal-oriented imagery although it is mostly
used to affect your emotional outlook. You might imagine what the
pins look like as your ball rips the rack - vastly different from
process-oriented imagery in which you imagine what you did and what
you felt to make them look that way. Goal-oriented imagery is not
always good during competition as concentrating on the goal rather
than how to reach it can be counterproductive. Driving to the bowling
center imagining back to back to back 300 games is probably unrealistic
and the emotional and mental letdown of not accomplishing it might
be destructive. Most effective images have a basis in reality -
reasonable goals - not under or overestimating your ability to accomplish
them.
Process-oriented imagery is generally more effective as you are
reinforcing images of what you can control. The best shot you throw
today may not carry. Once the ball has left your hand you cannot
predict nor affect the outcome, so just be sure you have thrown
the best shot you can throw and take your chances. Since you have
absolutely no control over outcomes, you cannot be concerned with
it. I can just hear you saying, "Oh right. I'm paying all this money
and taking lessons and practicing and trying to improve so that
I can be unconcerned about outcomes." Perhaps that is exactly what
needs to be happening. Once you let go of the ball, YOU NO LONGER
HAVE ANY INPUT IN WHAT HAPPENS. You are all about how you got to
the point of delivering that shot. THAT is all you can effect and
that is what you are really working toward: to learn to get to the
line a whole bunch of times in a row the same way so that you can
deliver the shot the way you intend where you intend. Truly all
you can do is make the best shot you can. They'll either fall or
they won't. Body english, running out the shot, praying, yelling,
etc has absolutely no effect over what falls and what stands. That
is like kicking the ball return or hitting the scoring monitor.
That doesn't knock down anything but others view of you.
Imagery is a powerful weapon and can provide you with a dynamic
tool to improve performance. We never have any trouble forecasting
doom. It's really amazing that we don't think we can program success
in the same fashion. Have you ever said or even thought, "Shhh!
Don't say that. You'll jinx him." What you are really saying is
"If you say it, it will come true." Duh! Why don't we think that
we can speak about positive things and have them come true as well?
Imagery is a way to breathe life into performing well. Mental practice
is a devastating weapon. Have you ever imagined yourself bowling?
What did you see? Did you miss a spare? Leave a split? Run out the
8-10? NO! In your mental practice, you did everything right. You
struck when you needed to or said all the right things in the post-victory
interview. We don't ever practice the wrong things mentally. Trust
that imagery. Trust you. |
