A Return to Regular Writing

It's a new year, and one of my resolutions is to keep the bowling column updated for people who don't see a Nebraska Bowler paper.

I'll do my best to stop by the blog and see if anyone's reading, and to add some of the latest news we're working on.

We're currently looking for a person interested in helping us take high school bowling around the final turn to the finish line, NSAA recognition. Are we really that close? I think we are, although sometimes the progress we make seems to be slow and insignificant.

The schools know we're out there, and I think the administrators see the good in what bowling has to offer their student-athletes. The challenge for many of them is balancing what they know to be good about bowling with the two big issues they face daily. Money and time.

To get us to the finish line, we're hoping to attract a retired AD with enough passion for bowling to get this rock pushed the rest of the way up the hill. The thinking being that someone with knowledge, and some empathy for the demands on the athletic director's time, will be able to make the inroads we have only been able to do slowly and slightly.

If a retired AD can't be identified, we'll need to get someone with the energy and determination to work the schools on a daily basis to make the case for adding the sport we love to the NSAA's roster of activities.

Stay tuned.

Share Your Stories

This will be a quick post to solicit stories on how high school bowling has been a positive experience for Nebraska high school students.

We're looking for feedback from students, parents, and/or teachers, who would like to share their story on the benefits of being involved in high school bowling.

The goal is to have some stories to share with Athletic Directors on the positive aspects of being part of a high school bowling team.

Thanks in advance for sharing your stories with us.

Part 2 is Completed

I'm making good progress through ASEP's on-line Coaching Principles course. I wrapped up Part 2, which deals with communication, motivation, and managing athlete's behavior.
It's easy to forget sometimes that there's more to coaching than being able to show student-athletes how to bowl. Obviously, one needs the knowledge to show the proper technique, but how the coach communicates this information to his or her players goes a long way toward how succesful a coach will be.

Part 2 goes into great detail on the various communication styles used by coaches, and examples of which ones are successful and others, not so much.

Do you spend so much time talking that your athletes tune you out?
Is your feedback generally positive or negative?
Are you spending more time judging your atheletes than you are instructing them?
Is your communication consistent?
Are you a chatterbox during practice and during matches, to the point that your athletes can't get a word in edgewise?
Are you expressionless during practice and matches?
Do you talk down to your athletes when discussing their technique?
Are you all over the board when it comes to reinforcing the positive or negative behavior of your athletes?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, or you aren't sure why those questions are important, you're a good candidate for taking this course. Regardless of how much time you've spent working with student-athletes.

Part 2 goes on to talk about motivating athletes, and how to help them feel like they belong on the team and how to have fun while practicing and developing their skills.

The final unit in Part 2 discusses discipline and the importance of establishing a team culture and team rules. The key here is that discipline is not the same thing as punishment. As you go through this section, you'll find that we often treat those two terms the same.

Reading through the book and answering the questions on-line, I've found that much of the first two parts of this class have universal application, so if you are in any type of management for your career, much of what you'll learn here could be adapted on your job.

I'm spending anywhere from 30-45 minutes on each unit, between reading the material in the text and going through the exercises on-line.

Tomorrow I move onto Part 3, The Principles of Teaching.

Moving Beyond a Monthly Column

For several years, the High School Bowling Confidential column has appeared in the Nebraska Bowler. It's great getting the word out on what the Nebraska High School Bowling Federation is doing to get bowling accepted by the NSAA.

There are, however, some limitations to only publishing in print media. For one, there is a definite lack of immediate feedback. I hear through the grapevine that people get angry or agree with what I've written over the years, but it would be cool to get that feedback more directly, and be able to respond more immediately. The addition of this blog should help with that.

So, for those of you who read the column each month (I know there's a couple of you out there), let this blog be a place for you to read and comment. Also, you'll get a little bit more information than what I'm able to publish in the column. So, everybody wins, right?