Honestly, bowling completes me. I am ever so thankful that my parents were bowlers and that I annoyed the hell out of my mom enough to put me in it. I didn't have the training that the bowlers I bowl with now did. I started at a house (where you bowl out of) with a guy who was a friend of my mom's helping me out. No actual coaches. Then I moved on to another house. They had tons of coaches here! They definitely improved my game, but there were still things wrong with it. One pretty major fix, and many small fixes, but I don't think they really had the training to do anything about it. Then I moved to Edmonton.. best move of my life! There are two EXCELLENT coaches. They really know they're stuff and are amazing bowlers themselves. With their help, since coming from Calgary, my average has jumped nearly 30 pins! This is incredible since it's only been a short amount of time. I still have kinks to work out, but I am one heck of a bowler now! Once these get straightened out-I hope they do and relatively quickly-my coach is convinced that I will be nearly unbeatable. Sold. I'm in.
I already knew that staying in Edmonton was going to be a good thing bowling wise-I get free bowling since I'm in the youth program and I was definitely going to profit from that. But now, my coach Ted and this other coach want to change me, and now they'll be able to do that over the summer. Can't do it now since I still have a tournament coming up that I need to be able to perform as well as I can. But look out! I know it's going to be a lot of work, it's going to be tough to change things that I've been doing for 10 years but if that's what it takes to become the elite, I'm ready for it! I'm planning on doing this until the day I die (literally! Ok, well as long as I can lift a ball!!), and I want to get as good as I can while I have the means. I only have about 2 years of youth left, so I've gotta get on it. Plus I want to go to Nationals a few more times.
So Ted is my main coach. He makes sure he watches me every day and always tells me what I'm doing wrong, how to fix it etc. He is very good at this. But this isn't the only reason why I love this guy. Whenever we talk after or before a tournament, he really gives me a boost. He's kind of giving me an ego boost actually, and I think sometimes I actually do need that. I don't have a big ego, and I don't hear this often anymore, my mom used to brag to friends about me but I don't hear it anymore, obviously lol. He also makes me feel better about what's going on and he's understanding. At the last tournament I broke down and cried. I had 3 coaches helping me but nothing was working. The weekend after this, Ted comes up to talk to me. Just trying to basically say that it's not the end of the world, it was a tough day, and there wasn't just one thing I was doing wrong and he was sorry he couldn't catch one of the biggest things that was going wrong. Then he said that even if I don't win, I'll still be loved, everyone loves me no matter how I do, it's just that I try that counts. And look how far I've come... That last part made me say aw. I don't think these things, I just really wanted to friggen win! And it so wasn't his fault, I just wasn't in the groove-shit happens.
He is awesome, it's really hard to show exactly how so, but without him I would not be here. I would not be loving the sport as much as I am. He pretty much said that it sucks that I have school, because it's getting in the way of bowling. LOL. Oh if only. I think another reason why I like him so much, and Aisha, the woman who is in charge of all of this, is because they are like my parents here in Edmonton. Aisha always comes and gives me hug, asks how it's going, etc. She saw my break down, she was there to give me a hug. She asked me today how I was doing. In other capacities than just bowling I have people here for me. I know this has sort of strayed away from what I intended this post to be, but it also reinforces my love for bowling. The people are awesome, they are like my 3rd family (I have my real one and also my friends/rez). I hate to admit this, but being away from home for so long is making me love my other families more.. well maybe not love, or caring more about the people up here, but that's really what it feels like.
So without bowling, I really don't know what my life would have been like, or what it would be like right now. I just know for sure that I would have been miserable this year, and I'm glad that I've had bowling as a source of joy, distraction, time consumer, and of course money :p
I'm seriously planning on keeping on with it until I'm hopefully in my 80's, until, like I said earlier, I can't hold onto the ball anymore.
Ps. I was filling out my form for CNC's today and it asks for interesting info about your family. So I surfed the web for my uncle Clem. I had already known that he had bowled in the World Championships. But what I didn't know was that he came 18th!!!! AND that he was inducted into the Manitoba Bowling Hall of Fame in '96. (And he only just recently bowled his first 300 LOL) I kind of wish he could come watch me in Montreal, but for some reason I don't feel comfortable asking, mostly because I find it's a lot to ask, since he lives in Winnipeg (he's retired but still).
Major love <3
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