What Bowling Can Teach Us About Our Brains and Growth Mindset
Bowling is a deceptively simple sport. Right? Simply roll balls, hit pins, and repeat. Yet anyone who’s spent time trying to improve a bowling move, knows that this game is anything but simple. The precision required to roll a consistent shot, the mental focus needed to adjust for lane conditions, and the patience necessary to improve over time all make bowling a fascinating test of both skill and mindset. Add to that a senior who spent a lifetime avoiding sports of any stripe, and you’ve got anything but simple in the lanes.
The good news? For anybody interested in how we learn, perform, and grow at any age, bowling provides valuable insights into the workings of our brains and the principles of a growth mindset.
The Role of the Brain in Motor or Kinesthetic Learning Such as Bowling
Bowling requires a combination of motor control, timing, bodily-kinesthetic IQ, and coordination. Skills that land a good bowling shot are heavily dependent on the brain’s ability to learn through multiple intelligences and to refine movements through high bodily-kinesthetic IQ. The cerebellum, which plays a key role in motor learning, helps bowlers develop muscle memory through repeated practice that raises kinesthetic intelligence. Meanwhile, our prefrontal cortex is engaged in planning and decision-making, helping bowlers adjust our shots based on lane conditions and previous outcomes.
One of the biggest challenges in bowling is achieving consistency. Many bowlers, even experienced ones, struggle with fluctuations in their performance. This inconsistency can be explained in part by how the brain refines motor skills. When learning a new movement, the brain creates neural pathways to make the action smoother over time. However, because these pathways are constantly adapting based on feedback, small changes in approach, such as shifting weight slightly differently or tensing a muscle, can lead to unpredictable results. The brain is always learning, but it sometimes learns inconsistently. In addition, if we spend too many hours in any one practice- we can actually work against the brain and against good plays. That’s because tiredness or stress defaults our brains back to repeating old or tired habits stored in our basal ganglia, our brain’s mental warehouse for everything we’ve ever experienced in life. Yes, sadly that includes endless bad bowling tosses stored there for some of us!
Not that practice doesn’t gain amazing ground in every skill bowling demands. The more we repeat any action with deliberate attention to form, the stronger and more reliable these neural pathways become, as we lay these down closer and closer toward that perfect shot. In bowling, this means that small adjustments made with awareness, such as keeping an arm straighter or adjusting foot positioning, can, over time, create significant improvements in our performance.
Growth Mindset and Our Learning Process Toward Good Bowling
Bowling provides us with an excellent real-world example of the growth mindset, or the belief that abilities and skills can be developed through steady effort and persistence. Some bowlers, especially those who struggle with inconsistency, may feel tempted to think, “I’m just not good at this.” But a growth mindset re-frames these struggles into amazing opportunities for learning.
Not that it’s easy, especially if we have never before played sports. One of the most frustrating aspects of bowling is the way that success and failure often feel random. A bowler might execute what feels like the perfect shot and still leave a stubborn pin standing. On the flip side, a shot that felt off might result in a lucky strike. This unpredictability can discourage us, but it also reinforces the idea that progress is not always linear. A bowler who adopts a growth mindset understands that every frame, even a failed one, provides useful information. By analyzing mistakes without self-judgment, they create the conditions for ongoing improvement.
A key part of our growth mindset is embracing challenges rather than avoiding them. In bowling, this might mean actively working for endless shots on one weak area, such as consistently missing a pin on the right side. Rather than focusing only on what already feels comfortable, we grow when we continue to do what will grow the weaker skill, such as hitting the pin on the right side. Yes, bowling with our brain in mind involves resilience. We will want to ensure our brains are fueled with serotonin, (an aha and well-being chemical) and not fueled with cortisol (a toxic chemical) After a bad game, for instance, a bowler with a growth mindset does not see their performance as proof of their limitations (which increases cortisol) but rather as feedback for future improvement (which increases serotonin).
Applying These Lessons Beyond Any Bowling Game
What makes bowling a great metaphor for learning and growth is that it combines instant feedback with long-term progress. Bowlers can see results of our actions, whether we hit our target or not. Yet real improvement happens over weeks, months, or even years. This is similar to many areas of life, from developing a new skill to pursuing other goals. The brain’s ability to adapt and learn, combined with a mindset that values effort over innate talent, creates a powerful formula for growth.
Ultimately, bowling teaches us that learning is a process, not a destination. Top bowlers are not those without mistakes, but those who learn from mistakes without getting discouraged. The same is true for anyone looking to improve in any area of life: persistence, adaptability, and a willingness to learn from failure are what separate those who stagnate from those who enjoy mental and emotional growth.