Bowling Psychology Dean Hinitz Human Kinetics Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Hinitz, Dean R., author. Title: Bowling psychology / Dean Hinitz, PhD. Other titles: Focused for bowling. Description: Champaign, IL : Human Kinetics, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015049770 | ISBN 9781492504085 (print) Subjects: LCSH: Bowling--Psychological aspects. Classification: LCC GV903 .H56 2016 | DDC 794.6--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc. gov/2015049770 Copyright © 2016 by Dean Hinitz All rights reserved. Except for use in a review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying, and recording, and in any information storage and retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher. Notice: Permission to reproduce the following material is granted to instructors and agencies who have purchased Bowling Psychology: pp. 16, 36, 131, and 143. The reproduction of other parts of this book is expressly forbidden by the above copyright notice. Persons or agencies who have not purchased Bowling Psychology may not reproduce any material. This book is a revised edition of Focused for Bowling, published in 2003 by Dean Hinitz. The web addresses cited in this text were current as of January 2016, unless otherwise noted. 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Box 80 Windsor, ON N8Y 2L5 Mitcham Shopping Centre, South Australia 5062 800-465-7301 (in Canada only) 0800 222 062 e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected] Europe: Human Kinetics 107 Bradford Road Stanningley Leeds LS28 6AT, United Kingdom +44 (0) 113 255 5665 e-mail: [email protected] E6412 To those who enter and walk on the path of mastery, it is no easy trek. The trolls are often disguised, and the guides and teachers are commonly in hidden form as well. The journey is challenging. But beyond the periodic pain and discouragement is a payoff that has been lauded throughout the ages. The journey really is the destination. This book is dedicated to all of you who take it on. You are in special company. Contents Foreword by Jason Belmonte ....................................................................................vi Acknowledgments ......................................................................................................x Introduction: The Road to Championship Play ...........................................................xi Chapter 1 Goal Setting and Self-Assessment ........................ 1 Learn the essentials of goal setting and the ingredients to craft a clear vision for your game. Chapter 2 Thinking Like a Champion ................................... 20 Explore the secrets of a champion mindset. Learn to develop the traits, personality characteristics, and thinking modes of championship players. Chapter 3 Establishing Your Preshot Routine ....................... 37 Learn to design and implement a powerful, effective preshot routine. Chapter 4 The Shot Cycle: One Shot for the Money ........... 49 Dial in the essential elements for delivering your best shot under any circumstance. Learn the keys to managing excitement and mastering the competition to create your customized shot cycle. Chapter 5 Toughness to Overcome Adversity .................... 70 Develop mental toughness, and take an inventory to see where you stand. Learn to autograph your shot in the heat of competition. iv Chapter 6 Mental Secrets to Making Spares ........................ 94 Learn to be a great spare shooter. Absorb detailed tips, strategies, and systems to make spare shooting work for you. Chapter 7 Raising Peaks and Filling Valleys ........................116 Bust your slumps by fighting your way through tough times. Discover ways to come out on top of any challenging situation. Chapter 8 Team Building ..................................................... 151 Learn what makes a world-class team, how to train like world-class teams, and the best strategies for improved teamwork and communication. Chapter 9 Coaching and Raising a Champion ................... 171 Read the cardinal features of successful coaching and effective parenting for athletes. Chapter 10 Putting It All Together to Play Boldly ............... 194 Combine all you’ve learned to play boldly at will. Overcome the seven deadly sins of bowling on your way to becoming a bomb-proof bowler. Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 224 Index ...................................................................................................................... 226 About the Author ................................................................................................... 232 v Foreword Welcome to Bowling Psychology. You’re about to join me on a journey with Dr. Dean Hinitz. Each of you reading this is on your own championship path. And much like me, you’ll have to carve out the individual footsteps toward your goals. Your mental game is as individual as your fingerprints. Clarifying, enhanc- ing, and honing it is a significant part of the ticket to championship play. I have known Dr. Dean since I came to the United States to play on the PBA Tour. As much as I have enjoyed our discourses over the years, I know that you’re going value your time with him in this book as well. A champion’s story is written on the pages of your practices, your chal- lenges, your resilience, and your resolve. In this book, Dr. Dean will help you to author the outcomes you intend to have. This book is an invitation to join me in exploring how one transforms into a champion. People are often curious about the origins of my two-handed delivery, and the path of my championship journey. In truth, a journey that has been extraordinary has pretty ordinary roots. My bowling story started very simply. My parents built a bowling center when I was barely six weeks old. They were not bowlers. In fact, neither had ever rolled a bowling ball. Rather, they built the center as a business opportunity. There I was, an 18-month-old, with nothing better to do than to try to roll a bowling ball. Of course, I was not strong enough to hoist the ball in a conventional fashion. So I intuitively did the only thing that remained to me. I learned to roll and control the ball with two hands. I did not know right from left or one hand from two at that age. And no one told me that I could not play that way. And no one told me that I was doing anything wrong. That would come later. I was 19 years old before I learned that there was another two-handed player out there (PBA and World Ranking Masters champion Osku Palermaa). I did have success early. By the time I was four years old I was playing competitively with older kids. That is when my mum and dad started to receive pressure to have me bowl conventionally. Thank goodness, what mattered most to them was that I was having fun, and that I was out of their hair in the bowling center. No one had a plan for me to be a tour player. They just made sure that I was having a good time. Everything changed shortly thereafter. From the time I was five years old, up into my teens, I heard every day that I was throwing the ball wrong and that I would never be any good unless I changed. There are those who vi Foreword vii certainly tried to coach me out of my style of play. In fact, I tried to bowl one handed a couple of times, but the ball just went dead straight, and it wasn’t fun for me. Although there was pressure to change, there was no logical reason for me to do so other than to look like everyone else, and to be normal. Fortunately, I am stubborn. I’m not going to listen to anyone if I’m not clear that what he or she has to offer might help me. If someone tells me to do something different just because the way I do it isn’t normal, I resist that. I think that great champions, leaders, and winners of anything have a similar quality. Being effective is more important than garnering the approval of everyone around you. In the early part of my career, I had no aspirations to be the best bowler in the world. I was having fun and enjoying myself. But things sort of took off. I won my first doubles tournament at age 4. When I was 12 or 13, I was giving adults a run for their money. At age 14, I started playing for the adult Orange city team. We played other towns within a few hours’ drive of Orange, and I was beating people 20 years or more older than me. As far as I knew, I was the only one in the world playing the way I did. Certainly no one locally bowled with two hands. And not even anyone in Australia. Then I started to play internationally. At a youth tournament in Thailand I saw Osku Palermaa. By then, I was always the guy who hooked the ball the most, and who threw the most powerful messenger pins. I was shocked out of that reality. Simply put, Osku did everything more and better than I did.