Day Two. Reps. Iterations. Staying Inside the Bubble.

Day Two. Reps. Iterations. Staying Inside the Bubble.

Today I am reflecting on day two of Team USA Trials, grounded in reps, repetition, and trust.

I listened to a podcast that kept coming back to one idea. Reps matter. Iterations matter. But not just doing reps for the sake of doing reps. There is a sequence to growth. You need data. You need feedback. You need experience. You need time doing the thing over and over so you can learn what works, what does not, and what needs to change.

That landed hard with me as I think about these bowlers preparing to compete.

There is no avoiding the reps if you want to grow. Bella Love has bowled a lot. A lot. And because of that, she has something valuable now. Data. Awareness. Understanding. She can look at what happened, not emotionally, but honestly. This worked. This did not. What can I adjust. What can I refine. What can I leave alone.

Iteration happens naturally when you stay curious instead of defensive.

You try something. You see the result. You make a small correction. You repeat. Over time, those small corrections stack into confidence. Not fake confidence, but earned confidence. The kind that comes from knowing you have been here before and you know how to respond.

Bowling is a perfect teacher of this.

There are so many ways to throw a bowling ball. So many releases. So many shapes. So many styles. It is tempting to look at someone who is striking and try to copy exactly what they are doing. But what we forget is everything that came before that moment. The thousands of repetitions. The failed attempts. The awkward phases. The learning curves.

If you have not done the iterations they have done, their solution might not make sense for you yet.

Sometimes you learn by watching how the ball rolls down the lane and how it reacts. Sometimes what works right now will not work later. Sometimes a tiny adjustment changes everything. One board. One degree. One decision. That is the beauty of bowling. It rewards awareness, patience, and humility.

Day two starts with a clean slate. A new oil pattern. New information. But not a blank mind.

You bring every rep with you. Every lesson. Every mistake. Every adjustment. You trust that preparation did not disappear overnight. You trust that learning compounds.

And then there is the energy.

A tournament of this magnitude has an energy you can feel the moment you walk in. It is loud, even when it is quiet. You feel the highs of success around you. You feel the weight of struggle around you. And if you are not careful, that energy can pull you out of yourself.

The challenge is staying inside your own bubble.

Trusting your preparation. Staying present. Not chasing the noise. Not absorbing the emotion of others. Not getting too high. Not getting too low. Keeping your eyes forward. One shot at a time. One frame at a time. One foot in front of the other.

Play your game.

Be a good sport. Be a student of the game. Read the lane. Learn as you go. Adjust when needed. Stay grounded when things go well. Stay patient when they do not.

When you choose to be a student of bowling, there is no finish line. And that is the gift. There is always something to learn. Always something to refine. Always another rep that teaches you something new about the game and about yourself.

The men are bowling now. The women will take the lanes later today. New pattern. New information. Same foundation.

Bella Love is excited and ready for day two. The focus is simple. Stay within herself. Stay present. Keep the noise outside the bubble. Trust the work that brought her here. And give her best effort, one rep at a time.

That is all any of us can do.