If you want to be successful on the lanes, it helps to have a plan. Setting goals helps you plan your way to success. Follow the easy steps below to start turning your goals into reality!
To get where you want to go, you have to know where you’re coming from. Take a good look at how you’ve bowled in past leagues. What was your average? Did it improve over the length of the league? Did you attend each league session and give each game your all? Have you ever noted how many strikes or spares you get in a game? How often does your bowling ball hit the pocket? (The “pocket” is between the 1 and 3 pins for right-handed players and the 1 and 2 pins for left-handed players.)
Once you’ve taken a good look at your past performance, you’ll be able to see how you can improve. If you’ve missed frames in the past for being late, work on getting to the bowling center on time. If you have a tendency to shoot gutter balls, keep track of how many times your ball makes it all the way down to the pins. If you want to improve your targeting skills to hit the pocket or certain spares, you can set specific goals to help this happen.
 |
Goals should be:
G – Growth focused. Goals should help you grow from where you are to where you want to be.
O – Obtainable. Set realistic goals that you can work toward and achieve during the next months.
A – Action-oriented. Say what you will do or change to meet your goals.
L – Listed and prioritized. We all would like to shoot a 300 game, but most of us first have to work on short-range improvements that will get us to a higher performance level. Meeting your smaller, early goals can get you closer to other, long-range goals.
S – Specific. Write down your goals and include the tactics you’ll use to change. Talk with your coach to find specific ways to practice towards your goals, which leads to the next step… |
2 – Make your goals official.
Discuss possible goals with adults who are familiar with your bowling abilities, such as your coach, your league organizer or possibly your parent. Write down your goals and the things you will do to help you reach them. For example, “My goal is to hit the 1-3 pocket more often, so I will practice lining up and targeting methods with my coach.”
3 – Create a plan.
What steps can you take to help you reach your goal? If your goal is to hit the 1-3 pocket more often on the first ball of a frame, for example, you could first see how often you hit the pocket during a three-game series. Second, figure how often you’d have to hit the 1-3 pocket to have improved by 10 percent. Third, work with your coach to pinpoint the ways your approach and delivery are different when you don’t hit the pocket. Fourth, develop practice drills with your coach to help you maintain the good habits you have when you do hit the 1-3 pocket on your first ball of a frame. Fifth, keep on tracking your success rate on hitting the pocket, so you’ll know the results of your efforts.
By breaking down your goal into manageable steps, you create a roadmap that you can follow to achieve your dreams.
4 – Keep to the plan.
A plan can only work if the most important part of it – you – keep on track and follow through. If you want it bad enough, you’ll be willing to put forth the extra effort to reach your goal.
5 – Stay flexible.
Any good plan allows for changes. If your coach has other suggestions for reaching your goals, or accident or injury prevent you from keeping to your original plan, see how you can adapt to your new situation or new opportunities. If your goals change, write down your new goals and use the same steps to plan your way to achieving them!
Is one of your goals to someday represent the United States in official bowling competitions as a member of USBC Junior Team USA? If so, one of your goals should be to join the Junior Gold Program!
USBC’s Junior Gold Program provides the ultimate test of skill for the most talented youth bowlers in America. Each year, thousands of Junior Gold members compete in Gold events for the chance to win an entry into the USBC Junior Gold Championships. That’s the tournament that determines who gets on Junior Team USA.
Any USBC Youth member can work toward a goal of joining the Junior Gold Program. Your first step would be to improve your skill levels so you meet Junior Gold’s minimum average requirement – 175 for boys and 165 for girls.
Once you’ve achieved the minimum average requirement, become a Junior Gold member by completing the application and submitting the $30 sign-up fee. Join with a friend and the fee is just $25 each!
Junior Gold members receive a free Sport Bowling upgrade to their USBC Youth membership, a year’s subscription to the program’s newsletter, Gold Approach, and an exclusive sign-up gift offered only to Junior Gold members.
Whatever your goal is, plan for it.
You can achieve great things!
