‘PERFECT BOWLS’ with Peter Belliss is my bowling bible. I love it. It sits on my coffee table and I pick it up from time to time and read a few sentences or a paragraph or a page/chapter. And I hang on every word. I guess this is because I love ‘head’ stuff. The magic of the brain is amazing.
So, when Peter Belliss introduced Rupert as the most sophisticated computer known to man I was hooked. Have you ever wondered how some people can hobble onto the mat, give their bowl a shove and it waddles its way up the green and sits by the jack? Well that is because ‘Rupert’ knows exactly what needs to be done without any obvious thought. Just like he knows how to keep your lungs breathing in and out and your heart beating. Bowls is a mind game – just as golf is a mind game.
When I did my NLP Training (Neuro-Linguistic Programming – NLP is not only about competence and excellence, it is about wisdom and vision. You need to go online to understand what I am talking about as NLP is very difficult to describe) – one of the things we learnt was ‘What the mind truly believes, the body inevitably delivers’. And affirmations really DO WORK! We know we have muscle memory – the heart is a muscle and it remembers exactly what it has to do multi-millions of times. Peter Belliss tells us that the body that wins is guided – driven – by the mind that is trained to expect to win. He calls his personal computer Rupert and if he feeds Rupert clear and concise data he knows exactly what to do – so he has ‘Wally’ to do this. Wally is the computer operator extraordinaire. Wally is the yappy voice in your head and we need him to feed Rupert any essential information then we need to tell him to bugger off so Rupert can do the deed. That’s the basics – read the book if you are intrigued.
So, why am I giving you all this back ground – well, it’s because I think I need a bigger car. You see, I was about to bowl recently. Wally had yapped about the direction of the wind and then I told him to take a hike while Rupert settled down to do what needed to be done and I sent the bowl on its way. To my astonishment someone else appeared in my head – Mark! Who the devil are you? Go away. I’m busy. It seems Mark is prone to road rage and frustration when you have five on the head and some plonker takes the end with one bowl. He has a huge chip on his shoulder because he used to be a dog with a hare-lip – hence the name Mark. I don’t think he is very nice so I have to send him packing when he begins to poke his muzzle in.
Then, to my astonishment, another little entity appeared. I’d sent Wally and Mark packing so I could let Rupert do his thing when Last Bowl Lucy made her presence felt. And I have discovered she is pretty darned smart. Last Bowl Lucy has achieved some amazing shots with my last bowl – often on the last end of the game.
I struggle with the word ‘match’ – I need Rupert to understand that ‘match’ in terms of NLP or hypnotherapy means to actually ‘copy’ the other persons speech, movement, breathing etc to build rapport BUT match, on the bowling green, means competition. Win! Play better than the other team. I often find myself level pegging throughout the game (matching my opposition) and then have to really pull my socks up for the final end. This is NOT good. It causes stress – it interests ‘Mark’ who mutters words like ‘road kill’ and other scary things.
Fortunately, Last Bowl Lucy has arrived on the scene and she gets along well with Rupert.
However, it makes for a very crowded team. If I’m playing triples we have the three opposition team members, our skip, our lead and We, Me, Myself and I plus Rupert, Wally, Mark and Last Bowl Lucy.
‘We can do this.’
Who is the number two – ‘Me’
I can only trust myself when it’s my turn to bowl.
I have responsibilities to my team other than just the bowl – the card, the board, measuring etc.
And of course – all those other folk, Rupert, Wally, Mark and Last Bowl Lucy cluttering up my busy brain.
I really do need a bigger car because if my husband comes bowling with me we have a very crowded vehicle.
