Bowling Psychology

Dean Hinitz gives serious bowlers the mental tools for performing at their best. Bowling Psychology features the latest mental training concepts including mindfulness training, sensory awareness, and mind–body connection as well as insightful interviews from top bowlers—many of whom are clients of the author.

Learn mental techniques professional bowlers use to perform their best and build high averages. Focused for Bowling includes game-tested strategies to help you pick up spares more consistently, recover from and avoid slumps, and get more satisfaction from each trip to the alley.

As the leading authority on bowling’s mental game, Dean Hinitz has worked with the premier players, coaches, and teams in the sport. He has helped countless pros elevate their results, avoid slumps, and overcome stressors affecting performance. He has improved their play, and now he’s ready for you. In Bowling Psychology, you’ll learn the mental strategies for performing your best, day in and day out. From progressive muscle relaxing techniques to positive self-talk and focus cues, you will pick up spares more consistently, improve accuracy, and overcome anxieties. You’ll also find insights, advice, and anecdotes from bowling’s best: Kim Terrell-Kearney Jason Belmonte Diandra Asbaty Carolyn Dorin-Ballard Rick Steelsmith Bill O’Neil Mike Fagan Gordon Vadakin Jeri Edwards Bob Learn, Jr. Amleto Monicelli Fred Borden LeAnne Hulsenberg Del Warren Del Ballard, Jr. Rod Ross Tommy Jones, Jr. Jason Couch Manage pressure, find your focus, and reach your potential. With detailed information on topics including mindfulness training, sensory awareness, and the mind–body connection, Bowling Psychology is your all-in-one toolbox for mental mastery of the lanes.

The Zen Bowling the Psychology of Bowling Manual and Workbook covers the mental techniques necessary for consistent high performance. In this book you will learn how to use the principles of goal setting, visualization, mental imagery, self-talk retraining, mind control training, emotion control and in general, ways to establish true ideal thoughts, images and emotions to enhance bowling performance.

Finally a book for the serious and dedicated bowler, designed to push the intermediate to the highest level and help the experienced professional stay there. Sport Psychology Library: Bowling -- co-authored by sport psychologist Eric Lasser and US bowling coaches Jeri Edwards and Fred Borden -- provides bowlers with the specific psychological strategies and exercises necessary for that sound mental game, grace under pressure, and an impenetrable focus. With 20 chapters each addressing specific mental aspects of this highly technical sport, 'Bowling: The Handbook of Bowling Psychology' is essential reading for anyone who wants to know what it takes to compete at the topmost levels of the game.

Updated to include a new chapter about the influence of social media and the Internet—the 20th anniversary edition of Bowling Alone remains a seminal work of social analysis, and its examination of what happened to our sense of community remains more relevant than ever in today’s fractured America. Twenty years, ago, Robert D. Putnam made a seemingly simple observation: once we bowled in leagues, usually after work; but no longer. This seemingly small phenomenon symbolized a significant social change that became the basis of the acclaimed bestseller, Bowling Alone, which The Washington Post called “a very important book” and Putnam, “the de Tocqueville of our generation.” Bowling Alone surveyed in detail Americans’ changing behavior over the decades, showing how we had become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and social structures, whether it’s with the PTA, church, clubs, political parties, or bowling leagues. In the revised edition of his classic work, Putnam shows how our shrinking access to the “social capital” that is the reward of communal activity and community sharing still poses a serious threat to our civic and personal health, and how these consequences have a new resonance for our divided country today. He includes critical new material on the pervasive influence of social media and the internet, which has introduced previously unthinkable opportunities for social connection—as well as unprecedented levels of alienation and isolation. At the time of its publication, Putnam’s then-groundbreaking work showed how social bonds are the most powerful predictor of life satisfaction, and how the loss of social capital is felt in critical ways, acting as a strong predictor of crime rates and other measures of neighborhood quality of life, and affecting our health in other ways. While the ways in which we connect, or become disconnected, have changed over the decades, his central argument remains as powerful and urgent as ever: mending our frayed social capital is key to preserving the very fabric of our society.

Professional Bowlers Association Hall of Fame coach John Jowdy provides guidance on mastering the skills and techniques of the game, covering reading lanes, developing a rhythmic approach, fluid motion, releasing the ball, follow-through, establishing a comfort zone, choosing equipment, and other related topics.