Training Your “Don’t Give Up” Muscle

As we all know, performance at a high level in any endeavor requires many factors coming together to yield an optimum result. Bowling is no different. In order to be an elite competitor, there are many aspects of the sport that must be worked on, both mentally and physically. Additionally, there are many aspects of ourselves that must also be worked on to reach this status. It is often necessary to take a long look and see which areas of your general makeup may need to be tweaked or adjusted to take you to the next level.

It is my belief that what holds many of us back from reaching the heights we hope to in the sport we love is not necessarily bowling related. Rather, it is instead more centered around our own persona in general. Things like focus, handling both success and failure, dealing with adversity, controlling our emotions, etc., are more ingrained in our being as a whole, than in a bowling-specific sense.

With that in mind, this month’s article deals with a specific trait that haunts many of us. It is time to address it and to look at the reasons why we must recognize and build it into an asset, rather than have it remain as a liability.

The “DGU” muscle

The mental trait that I want to address this month is what I call the “DGU” muscle (Don’t Give Up). I’m sure many of you out there believe that you are an ultimate competitor, one who battles to the end and never gives up. We all would like to believe that about ourselves.

However, if you take a harder look, you can probably find times where you gave up at the end of a tournament. Or, on a league night, maybe you fried out after a bad game or two, perhaps even throwing a seemingly meaningless spare shot from the back of the approach.

The point being, when firmly entrenched in a position of perceived hopelessness, it is very easy to let your guard down, even if it’s just for a ...