How does your personality affect your mental game strengths and weaknesses? Or does it, at all?

As bowling has picked up over the past months, I’ve been focusing a lot of my messages on the mental game again. I’ve always talked about the way I approach the game based on who I am. What works for me. But a question that sometimes comes up is, “what if my mind doesn’t naturally work that way?”

Don’t worry, I get it. I understand that everyone is wired differently. I know a lot of people who don’t approach the game, or life, the same way as I do. For me, everything is about tuning in to how I feel and my intuition. Grounding into that is really simple and easy for me. It’s instinct. But I recognize that it isn’t easy or a natural instinct for everyone. Some people might not be able to tap into that at all.

There are essentially two different types of people and bowlers. Knowing who you are, which bucket you fall into is definitely important to managing your game.

I don’t think either way is right or wrong either. But what I do think is that it’s important to know who you are.

There are countless great bowlers in both buckets.

If you’re asking yourself which one YOU are, just think about your natural instincts when you’re talking about your game. When I ask some bowlers about a game they just bowled, (or simply say, “how’d you bowl?”) some will launch into giving me a full play-by-play — every pin hit, the angles, the order. Everything. That’s an analyst or technical bowler. They’re into the calculating side of things. 

On the other side of the bowling spectrum are the feelers, the intuitive bowlers. That’s me. I’m very “right-brained,” very artistic, and very visual. 

So, let’s first center the conversation here: how the brain operates. 

Our brains just have different operating systems, plain and simple. The “left brain” analyzers don’t have my strong intuition. I believe they are intuitive, it’s just not as natural for them. As an intuitive “right brain” person, I don’t have that ability to analyze like they can. People who are more data-driven are going to have a hard time feeling their way through a game when things don’t go technically as planned. They’re in their head, thinking. The intuition-based bowlers, like me, are going to have a harder time with the technical decisions. We’re in our heart, feeling.

I do think each side can benefit from understanding the other style of operation and there are advantages to each side. I know there are moments when I felt it could have been nice to be more technical. But we can’t change who we naturally are. This is especially important to understand when you are on a team of bowlers who process things differently than you!

When it comes to managing the mental game, no matter how your brain operates, the objective should remain the same and that’s simply staying in mental control of your game, 

It’s just how you personally manage getting there that may be different. How do you deal with pressure? How do you focus on the things that you can control? All of those fundamental questions stay the same, but the issues faced by the two different types of people in answering them could be different.

The bottom line is that whether you’re an intuitive bowler or a technical one, you need a quiet mind when you step up on the lane. It’s the in-between frames that feel different. In between the shots, the analysis is different. The feeling in the gut is different. So, whichever side you’re on, what can you do to get back your focus, to keep the pressure at bay?

For a technical person, the focus could mean breaking down what RG and Diff the ball you’re using has and if it’s not doing what you want it to, what ball will considering those measurements. It could mean breaking down your axis tilt, and moving it up or down a degree. Technical people think in terms of statistics, numbers, and data. 

They look at the lane in numbers. I look at the lane in pictures. The way we process it is different, but we are all seeking the same result. 

I’ve always kept things simple and just tuned into myself. The minute I start thinking in terms of being more technical I’m not going to be my best self. 

For someone like me, feelings-based, sometimes it is actually managing all those feelings that is the challenge. I’m so heart-focused in my entire life that it has taken practice for me to not let those emotions actually take over my game, just like others maybe have to manage so that their analytical mind doesn’t take over. I have to get to that quiet mind by separating out the emotions. If anything is going to distract me, it’s feelings — not thoughts on technical stuff. If I throw a bad shot, I have to separate out the emotional response I might have in order to arrive at the next frame undistracted. It took me a little while to understand that’s what I needed to do. How can I take that emotion out when that’s my first instinct? It’s a bit ironic, isn’t it? Leaning into my intuitive side, knowing it’s how I bowl best but then also knowing there is a line to draw and times when I need to take that emotion out of it. 

But that’s all part of the mental game. Lean into your strengths and understand your weaknesses and manage them all in a way that keeps you focused.

I also talked to my psychologist friend, Dr. Weems, to get his perspective on the right-brain left-brain idea as it relates to developing the mental game. First, he pointed out the popular understanding of left and right ‘brainedness’ actually “lacks the full appreciation for the actual collaboration of both left and right hemispheres of the brain.” That makes sense to me too, as there’s surely a lot of our brain firing no matter our strengths. However, he agrees that if we are going along with thinking in those popular psychology terms (rather than actual neuropsychology terms), there are strengths to being either left or right brain dominant but either one has a chance to develop a strong mental game.

“In my opinion, the most important aspects of developing a strong mental game involve focus, balance, discipline, self-love and confidence, ego strength, resilience, and a positive mindset.  These can be (and are) developed and fortified irrespective of left or right brain dominance.”
— Dr. Weems

I agree that it’s all about doing what you personally need to do to step up on the lane as your best self so that you can make your best shot… no matter what your natural instinct is between shots.