Feature


later—paints a general picture of a bowler who flourished without adversity from first game to last. But the details suggest otherwise, and those details reveal the anatomy of a great player. Barnes shot 188 in just the second qualifying game of the Team USA Trials, when bowlers competed on the medium, 38-foot Atlanta pattern. In the first three games of qualifying the next day, which featured the longer, 43-foot Tokyo pattern, he again shot a 188 in game one and then a 189 in game three. The day after averaging 255 on the


significantly shorter Stockholm pattern, which is just 34 feet long, Barnes again fought through low games of 177 and 195 on the 45-foot Mexico City pattern. On the final day of qualifying, bowling on the 40-foot Athens pattern, Barnes barely shot 600 in the first three games, shooting scores of 204, 207 and 192. He called his


performance that day “ consistently mediocre.” These are the stats—not those that


depict monstrous performances full of 300 games and 800 series—that prove a great player is not a bowler who bowls great, but rather a bowler who is not afraid to bowl badly. In fact, Barnes posted an average score of 236 in the game following every score below 200 throughout the week at The Orleans. “Ultimately, you’re best served by taking the emotions out of it and answering the question ‘Why?’” Barnes said about bouncing back after poor games in tournament competition. “Ask why it’s happening first, and then ‘How can I fix it?’” For Barnes, there are many ways to


answer those questions, many ways to keep a block from getting away from you. “You can identify which part of the lane


is hooking and not hooking and match up surfaces and RGs to that. But you also can take a look and see who is bowling well and where from, and how close you can get to them,” Barnes said. Barnes calls himself “a collector of trends.” He is the kind of player who keeps as


A Team Player: Barnes (right) is a 10-time member of Team USA. In 2013, he teamed with John Szczerbinski to win doubles gold at the WTB World Champion- ships.


much of an eye on the games of those around him as he keeps on his own, gathering information on what parts of the lane are working for which players and why, thinking about what he himself can do to realize the same success himself. “A real good friend and coach of mine,


Mark Baker, says you can’t bowl good every day, but you can always be lined up. The first two days [of the Team USA Trials] were very much that for me. My execution was really just not very good at all. But I paid attention. I walked around. Robert Gotchall happened to be close to me and he was bowling really well. [John]


Standing Trial: Barnes and Brittni Hamilton emerged as the


winners of the 2014 Team USA Trials. It marked the first time ei- ther bowler won the Trials, which earned each a trip to the 2014 Qubica/AMF World Cup.


Sczerbinski was only a few pairs away from me. So I could keep an eye on those guys a little bit. “You don’t have to reinvent the wheel,”


Barnes said. “You can see who is doing the right things and then imitate. If what you’re seeing and thinking isn’t working then that’s why you work on versatility, and that’s why you work on your physical game. “You can do what you want to do, or you can do what you have to do. And if you do what you have to do enough times, then things will turn out alright in the end.” If the results are any indication, Barnes


has a tendency to do what he has to do a lot more frequently than most of his peers. And when he is in a mood to do even more than what he has to, as he was when he showed up to bowl the 2014 Team USA Trials, that, especially, is when his fellow competitors need to be on guard.


/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /////////////////// March 2014 26


CHRIS BARNES


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