Can i suggest a new practice schedule? I think the way we practice now could be better! We are one of the best bowling teams in the country, but we could be better. Here is what i was thinking: Monday- SPARES!! Everyone brings there spare ball and we work on spares. With sport shots not being put out on Mondays shooting spares makes sense.
Tuesday-We could work on breaking down patterns and the upper classmen could work with the under classmen. I think it would be benifical to the younger players if the older players gave them tips and worked with them on ball motion/technique. Phil and Randy cannot help everyone at every practice. In my opinion the varsity players should help the younger guys, it would only make our team stronger.
Wednesday- All players would bowl six games. Each Wednesday we could bowl on a different pattern. First week a short pattern, second week a long pattern, third week a medium pattern and the last week of the month we could bowl on the us open. At the end of the month the top bowler for men and women would recieve a bowling ball. I think the 24 games each month would give the coaches another factor to look at when they are picking the teams for nationals.
Thrusday- If there is a tournament that coming weekend and we know the teams before thrusday we could split up into our teams and bowl baker games. This would get the Freshmen familar with Baker bowling and the extra practice would help.
Friday- Since friday is usually the day we leave for tournaments the bowlers on the team do not have to practice if they do not want to.( I believe it was that way this year?) If they do practice i would suggest shooting spares. Plus it would give them a fresh surface on their bowling balls for the tournament.
I think a practice schedule like this would be more efficient than the way we are doing it now.
I agree with Ray and think the schedule he's put together makes a lot of sense. The only thing I might change or add is that I think we need some time thrown in every week, or at least every couple weeks, for mental game and team building work. They say bowling 90% mental, so I think we could all benefit from this. I think the sports counselor here on campus was really helpful and I think it would help if we could get him to work with us again and require everyone to go to at least a couple group sessions with him. Also, with a team this big, I think team building skills are a must.
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*There comes a moment when it's more than just a game, and you either take that step forward or turn around and walk away. I could quit, but here's the thing...I love the playing field.*
Ray, I like your idea so much, I'm considering using it verbatim. Especially Mondays, when we could practices spares on the burn. Make it a whole team thing, both men and women.
I like at the end of this year when both teams did some drills together. I thought it made both teams stronger.
Krista, I made the guys sit thru my lectures before we went to Nationals. Mostly is was vanilla stuff like visualization, bio-feedback, concentration; all principles in the handbook. I actually thought it was our best tourney in years (even losing to Weber, we won more games; 10.5-9.5). I believed Phil ask the school's sports counselor to talk to the team, and he said no, that he only works with individuals or small groups. So if you know more, pass that on to Phil. Maybe, we do a little fund raising and get Dr Dean to come visit!
Also, before everyone leaves. Phil handed out the Team USA worksheet on goal setting. Maybe we could revisit that before everyone is gone for the summer. It was not only setting goals, but how you were going to attain those goals.
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"It's not who we are underneath, but what we do that defines us."
Ray, I like the idea for practices next year. I think it would benefit alot of people on the team and make the team more of a group. But, I also think that alot of people come to Lindenwood because they know we have far less team required practices and that you can practice during your free time. Many people come to this school because they know they will have the time to get their school work done first and then if they have time, to come and practice their game if they have time. I personally like have only a few mandatory practices per week. It gives me time to get school work done and plenty of individual practice on my own.
Just a quick thought. I will be at the practices daily, I just don't want anyone on the team to get burnt out on bowling because they are required to show up everyday.
Good ideas. The key is to figure out how to make the logistics work for a program that will have a total of 50 players on the travel roster and could have upwards of 70-75 overall. I think that you're right about varsity players helping out and I think that happens to an extent already. Our program is about everyone getting better and working together is a great way to do that. Working on spares or your fundamental physical game is a great focus for Monday and having the men's and women's teams work together was good as well.
Interesting thought about the six games a week. I like having an element that makes everyone really compete and focus, but for just the travel rosters, that would take about six hours to do with 10 lanes, three hours to do with 20 lanes. Once again, logistics.
I almost prefer an opposite approach where there is more focus on making a shot first rather than the ultimate result (you can ask the girls about that!).
My concern is that it's hard enough to coach and implement new techniques now with our schedule. It's human nature to revert to past muscle memory "when the lights come on" at a tournament until there has been enough repetition of the new skill outside of competiton. Bowling more games for score in practice takes away from that, especially when most players are already bowling a league of some kind every week. Just a thought.
Our practice schedule was completely overhauled before last season and I think we spent way more time on the lanes each week with everyone than we were ever able to do before. But, with change, there are always some bumps along the way. My hope is that now that we've made it through a season, we can streamline things and make it better moving forward. It's why I put the original post in this thread in the first place. Randy and I will sit down soon and figure it all out.
Krista, I agree that mental game and team building is a must. It doesn't always have to be a formal thing though. It's interesting to note that our sports counselor from the fall came and watched match play for the Lion's Classic and was incredibly impressed to the point that he told me that he learned a few things from us about mental focus and tenacity that day.
Randy mentioned the Team USA worksheet on goal setting. I did hand it out at the beginning of the season, but like all of the principles that Randy reviewed about visualization, biofeedback and concentration, that worksheet (as well as one on imagery and one on concentration) is readily available in the handbook that is on the CD that you received.
To that end, expect the handbook to serve a greater role in our program in the future!
For the Wednesday tournament idea, why not build a team of 5 people and have a decent amount of teams. Let's say we do 5 teams. Team captains can be the Top 5 after tryouts. Then each picks a player from 6-10. Then they pick again 11-15, and so on, kind of like a baker team draft. It gets everyone used to the idea of doing baker games, plus it makes everyone feel like they're part of the team, it gets everyone use to baker, and it also works on the higher players helping the lower players. The captains have to keep their team in check, helping them out, etc. You will keep the same team for the month, then pick again the next month. Just an idea.
With that being said, I have class until 3:50 on Tu-Th, so I would be getting to practices around 4. Monday and Friday, I shouldn't have any problems making it to practices.
I loveeeee the idea of trying to get Dr. Dean here! I definitely be willing to take the lead on some fundraisers for that!
If we do the 6 game a week thing, I think it would be really helpful if we try to make it as much like a tournament setting as possible. I know we won't be able to make it exactly like what we experience at tournaments, but I think it would be a good way to mentally prepare for tournament pressures. For example, on the girls side, we can be doing our cheers and everything else we do at tournaments to simulate the pressure situations. Maybe even go all out and wear our uniforms to practice occasionally. Idk...just a thought from sport psych major :)
Ricky, what do you mean by 6-10, 11-15, etc? Do you mean like where we are in averages?
One more thing, and I know that we're never gonna get everyone to agree on this matter, but...I know that there are a lot of people who like to come here because it is less structured, but I think a lot of people don't come here for that same reason. I feel like most college athletes come into college knowing that they won't have much free time...that their top 2 priorities are going to have to be schoolwork first, and practice/team stuff second. I think most athletes are prepared for that kind of structure because most of us have gotten that in high school bowling or other sports.
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*There comes a moment when it's more than just a game, and you either take that step forward or turn around and walk away. I could quit, but here's the thing...I love the playing field.*
Ohh and one more thing I forgot, I think that would be great if we could do some group work/studying/discussions with the handbook. Dolph, you said you used it with the guys team before nationals and obviously it at least had some sort of positive impact because they did so well :) Definitely think we should be utilizing this resource more than we already do :)
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*There comes a moment when it's more than just a game, and you either take that step forward or turn around and walk away. I could quit, but here's the thing...I love the playing field.*
FYI, I also made it a requirement for the varsity women's team to read (or re-read) the handbook over spring break in preparation for Nationals. After a slow start, the ladies went on a 13-1 streak before running into a team that aside from a couple 150 games, averaged 220 a game for two matches against us.
See the end of my previous post in reference to the handbook moving forward.
Can you at least tell me if there is going to be practices on Tuesday nights, please and thanks? :)
I'm thinking about adding a class that is Tuesday nights from 8-10:30, but I'm not going to add it if it conflicts with practices.
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*There comes a moment when it's more than just a game, and you either take that step forward or turn around and walk away. I could quit, but here's the thing...I love the playing field.*
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