I had my last tournament of the season this past weekend and I did rather well, which I am very happy about. I ended up averaging 205 for 5 games and bowled all day Sunday which is just amazing for me considering how my season has gone this year. This tournament meant a lot just because one of my best friends is graduating and I won’t be able to bowl with him like this ever again. His mom and his family has helped me a lot these past 2 years and without him I don’t really know where I would be right now. He is going to continue his season and bowl at nationals and I couldn’t be happier for him. He helped me last year a lot with me personal issues and last year was by far my best year for bowling and easily the hardest year personally of my entire life.
I had a lot of personal issues last year that hindered my performance and really kept me back from reaching my full potential. This year was a little different in the sense that my issues were a lot better but over the summer I developed extremely painful back problems. I had 2 X-Rays done as well as an MRI, everything came back fine with no required surgery’s. I still had pain and it was painful to bowl, I had bulging discs and it was hindering my performance over the summer.
Most of the time I would practice maybe 5 times a week but over the summer I was only bowling once a week because I physically couldn’t bowl. I was fine once I got back to school but when I moved in it started to hurt again, I had try outs and everything was super sore and painful. I ended up going to practice and tweaked it and couldn’t bowl the first tournament. Every year it seems like I have some issues going on whether it be mental or physical. I couldn’t focus at all this year and my drive and passion to bowl went down the drain. Practice seemed like a chore and not enjoyable all year.
Once I came back from winter break I had a moment of truth and came back with a positive mindset and started to work on my game hard. By then it was to late because my stats were so terrible that it wasn’t going to be saved in time for post season. Last year I had some of the highest stats as well as one of the highest averages on our team. I ended up this year in the middle of the pack for everything, I missed more single pin spares in 1st semester than I did all last year.
The drive to get better wasn’t there like I use to have it, but this last tournament was an extreme confidence booster for me. The varsity team has the Hoosier this weekend and come back for sectionals and nationals as well as club nationals. I can’t wait to get back into bowling like I use to be and find that drive to basically live in a bowling alley because I am there so much. I have a tournament this weekend in Illinois so tune in this weekend to see my results!