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by Ken Gryschuk
To the outside observer 5 pin bowling looks like a game without hazards. You don’t have to deal with a blitzing linebacker as you
throw a ball and you will not have to contend with a lane that makes a dogleg left. The hazards in bowling are internal rather than
external but that doesn’t make them any less real than that blitzing linebacker. It only makes them harder to contend with.
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Sandtraps, water and the rough are some of the obstacles found on a golf course but just as dangerous for bowlers are the sandtraps
of the mind, mindtraps as it were.
A mindtrap can be an emotion, an attitude or a single thought. Like a bunker in front of a
green, it represents a place the athlete may not be successful in evading. They are impediments to performance. In order to
improve your bowling game it may be beneficial to spend the next few minutes with a golfing analogy.
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While some hazards seldom come into play, others are positioned to challenge the skills of the golfer. It would be irrational to
suggest that they don’t exist. The prudent golfer acquires the skills needed to deal with each particular challenge. Golfers know
that balls will wind up in the most inconvenient places.
When learning the game of golf, many beginners make the mistake of attempting to use every club in the bag. This problem is
solved by reducing the number of clubs and learning how to use these proficiently. Only after a higher degree of mastery is reached
does the golfer begin to use a greater array of clubs. The professional golfer is comfortable with every club in the bag and knows
when they are best employed.
Mindtraps exist. From time to time every athlete falls into a mode of thinking that is not beneficial to performance. The
professional is often capable of avoiding most mindtraps and is masterful as escaping them, but even the best can a do get stuck.
Getting caught in a mindtrap can be devastating. It can render an otherwise skillful player ineffectual.
Just as a golfer will survey the course to identify the possible hazards, it is important for the bowler to take stock of possible
mindtraps. A walk through some painful competitive memories of tournament gone sour may be enough to allow the athlete a
chance to catalog some of the deepest and most enduring hazards.
Part of the success of dealing with any menace is to know that it is there. This knowledge may be enough to avoid obvious pitfalls.
However, bowlers will find themselves in mindtraps, they are an unavoidable element of the game. A golfer is aware of playing in a
sandtrap. Unfortunately bowlers are usually unaware when they have landed in a
mindtrap. They keep banging away hoping that eventually something constructive will happen while often digging themselves deeper and deeper into the
mindtrap.
When a golfer winds up in a sandtrap, it helps if countless hours have been spent practicing how to get out. The professional is not
only adept at getting out, but also of getting to the most advantageous position for the next play. The best golfers know where they
are going.
Bowlers caught in a mindtrap should have a strategy to extricate themselves from the situation. Elite athletes practice the ability to
change their mindset. Top competitors may have many ‘clubs’ or a few ‘clubs’ but what they have are effective ‘clubs’. Their
choice of strategy helps get them to their most advantageous position. Knowledge is not training. Knowing how to do something is
not the same as being able to do something. It takes time and practise to turn knowledge into training. Most of all it takes desire.
While water hazards and sandtraps are facts of like for the golfer, it is detrimental to dwell on them. As a matter of fact, focusing
on them is a great way to meet them more intimately. Focusing on a mindtrap is a way to land up in one. Training allows the
bowler to avoid the mindtrap in the first place and to make the stay in it as short a possible. Take heart from the golfer’s example.
No matter how great the golfer may be, the ball will find its way into a hazard on occasion. It’s important to be able to do
something constructive once you are there.
copyright 1997 Ken Gryschuk
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