At night, I take the time to reflect and acknowledge the things I appreciate. Sometimes I meditate on them for a moment and sometimes I write them down in my journal.

My grandma Betty introduced me to bowling when I was five. She gave me my first bowling ball. It was purple and had swirls. And she would take us to league Saturday mornings. I remember five-year-old me riding in her red Cadillac like it was yesterday.

She never knew then what the impact of that first introduction would be. She just loved bowling and wanted to share that love.

A few weeks ago, I reflected on how appreciative I am that she introduced me specifically to bowling and how great bowling is as a distinct sport.

I also wrote that I think bowling as a sport goes underappreciated.

At that time a few weeks ago, I had just gone to a Bulls game. What prompted my reflection was that the refs at that game kept calling fouls on Alex Caruso. Watching the replays on the screen, it was clear that they were making bad calls. That annoyed me. In sports and life, I value fairness. And when I see something that isn’t fair, it upsets me.

Overall, that game made me appreciate choosing a sport with no subjectivity. There are only a few sports like that if you think about it.

We don’t have referees making judgments. It’s objective. You either hit the pins down, or you don’t. In so many other sports, there’s judgment either on what is a “score,” or the score is based on technique.

There’s so much subjectivity built into so many other sports.

In other sports, such as skating or gymnastics the judges are literally judging everything. I can only imagine the amount of frustration athletes must experience in those other sports. Personally, I just can’t imagine dealing with the emotions and would feel so distracted by someone else’s opinion.

In my mental game, I focus on the controllable – what’s in my mind and what’s in front of me. And nothing outside of that affects my score.

In my experience, your mental game strengthens whenever you remove outside subjectively.

When there’s some subjectively built into the game, I realize that it would be an added challenge to manage within your mental game. In some sports, achieving an actual “score” is not as black and white.

Another thing I appreciate about bowling is that there is always a winner. That might sound funny, but there are sports such as soccer where you can end in a tie. From my perspective, if you’re going through the effort of getting dressed for a game and training for a game, you shouldn’t walk away without an answer. When it’s a tie, it feels unresolved. I want it to be decisive.

I have friends who play soccer, and I’ve gone to watch their games. I always tell them the only way I’ll walk away disappointed is if it is a tie. I want them to win, of course, but even if they don’t, I won’t be disappointed. But a tie? Come on.

What is the point if the game ends the same way it started? As an athlete, I’d find it hard to manage competing in that kind of sport. In most other sports, at least, there’s a tie-breaker or a sudden-death decision to determine a winner. Soccer is the only sport I can think of when that doesn’t happen. I cannot get over the fact that after all that time on the field playing, they could go home without an answer. They didn’t win. But they also did not lose.

I know I always say to focus on the process and that the process does pay off, and you’ll be better because of it. I honestly do believe that. You can draw something from the experience that will make them better, something to build off of. And that’s a win.

But I’m also competitive. And I still really appreciate that I’ve chosen bowling as my sport, a sport that has clear lines for what is considered a win in the game or not. 

There are a lot of other reasons to love bowling though. 

Like say, the fact that it has no rainouts. 

As bowlers, we’re not constantly at the mercy of the weather. We don’t have to deal with freezing cold weather. And we don’t have to deal with scorching hot weather like my son often has to do with baseball during the summers. When we bowl, we are always comfortably playing inside. In the air conditioning. For the most part. (There were some bowling centers in Europe that didn’t have air conditioning.)

Bowling also doesn’t have bad weather delays. Whether it’s snowing, pouring rain or even storming outside. We can still bowl. We don’t have to deal with the weather at all. I’m so glad I chose a sport that is almost always on time. If there is a rare delay, it’s not because of the weather.

I created EYT to form a movement of youth energy that could carry this sport forward. EYT is doing what Grandma Betty did for me. It’s introducing youth to this incredible sport.

Now an entirely new generation is coming up through the Elite Youth Tour, making a difference, showing the world what they’re capable of and spreading their own passion for the sport… without any rain delays.