Coach’s Corner Tip
Lessons from Junior Gold
(from August 2009)
I just returned from attending the Junior Gold tournament in Indianapolis, where 1110 junior boys and 524 junior girls bowled for the chance to be on Junior Team USA. These athletes bowled on 5 World Tenpin Bowling Association (WTBA) patterns. These patterns are fairly flat and very challenging, testing the ability of each bowler to attack the outside of the lane, the mid-track potion of the lane and the deep inside angles.
The bowlers competed in three different centers on three different patterns in qualifying, then a fourth pattern in the semi-finals and a fifth pattern in the finals. I took an average of 208 for the boys and 201 for the girls to make Junior Team USA outright (4th place), and two additional spots were selected by the coaches. As I watched and spoke with some of the competitors, there are a few lessons to be taken away from this type of tournament.
The first, most obvious thing I observed was that you can’t force the wrong shot to work. When you are playing the short pattern, trying to cross too many boards just didn’t work, and playing right of 10 (preferably around 5) was the best strategy. For some players, this pattern took hurt their overall score greatly. In today’s environment, it is critical that you are able to understand the distribution of oil across a pattern and from the foul line to the end of the pattern. As a reminder, your breakpoint on the lane should start by following this simple rule:
DISTANCE OF PATTERN – 31 = BREAK POINT
For the short pattern, getting a break point around the 5-6 board was the best method of attacking the pattern. The challenge was to create a ball reaction with the right ball that would allow you to play this part of the lane.
This leads to the next item: keep a range of equipment in your bag. The athletes were limited to only using 6 balls during the course of the tournament. If you had too much of the same equipment in your bag, you might not have had a good option for one of the patterns without being very, very good with hand positions and changing the amount of hook you are able to generate.
Patience is a virtue. In a longer tournament, where you might not bowl well on all three patterns, it is important to be patient and grind out the rough stretches that everyone had at one point or another in this tournament. Patience and a belief in yourself allows you to keep grinding out spares when that is all you are able to do.
Don’t pre-bowl a block of competition. This is something that applies to all tournaments. The lanes never play the same in the practice session as they do in competition, and they also don’t play quite the same from day to day. If you take some assumptions based on the practice session and assume that they are going to work in the tournament, you will be in for a rude surprise. Even in practice before each block, practice with a few different balls that might work – you might get a pleasant surprise!
You never know what the scoring pace will be. Sometimes the scoring pace decreases as the tournament proceeds. If you assume that your scores were too low, you may throw away some pins that you wish you could get back later in the tournament. This may cost you making the cut or making the finals.
Also, one bad game may not take you out of contention, so never give up. You can’t throw any shots away – focus on every shot. In a longer tournament, it’s easy to fall into a lapse of concentration for a frame here, a frame there. In 18 games this can add up to 100 pins or more lost. This leads to a similar theme – your mental game is important. You won’t know how good your mental game is until you face this type of test. The lane conditions and the environment combine to challenge your ability to maintain focus and believe in yourself. If you can overcome the mental challenges over the course of the tournament, you can be successful. However, no amount of talent can overcome a weak mental game.
Don’t be afraid to be creative – you may find something that is a unique advantage. If you can combine a knowledge of lane play with a little creativity, you may be able to attack the lanes in a way that makes them easier for you than they are for most people. Sometimes you have to think out of the box with your hand position, ball speed and ball surface and attack angles to get this advantage. Some of this has to be learned and practiced, but some of it can be made up on the spot during the course of a tournament, if you have the courage to do this.
You need to control your ball reaction – sometimes you need to take something off the ball to regain control of the pocket. You have to have control of the pocket at all times, no matter what. If you can’t control the pocket, ugly spares and low games are sure to follow. You have to be willing to make compromises to get your ball reaction under control when the lane wants to take that away from you.
You have to command ball speed, direction and roll. You will always need to be able to vary the amount of axis rotation you create on the ball to play different parts of the lane at different times. Sometimes you will need more ball speed to control your reaction, sometimes you will need less ball speed to get the ball to react properly on the lane and carry well. Sometimes you will need to roll the ball with a higher rev rate and sometimes you will need to take revolutions off the ball.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you must be a great spare shooter. The best players who make the team can make their spares at times when knocking down 10 pins is virtually impossible. Great spare shooting over the course of 46 games translates to a lot of pins. You should have a spare game that allows you to make 95%+ of your single pins and a high percentage of all make-able spares. The straighter and more accurate you can be on spares, the more success you will have under difficult circumstances.
Congratulations to all the bowlers who had the courage to take on the challenges of this tournament, and more to those who had some success in the tournament. You have faced the ultimate test in junior bowling!