Preparing a Team for the Nationals

How do you win the team event of the USBC Open? Do you just throw a bunch of guys together at the last moment from your league or house and hope for the best, or do you do what the current team on top did?

This was their formula for success, and I'm guessing that just about every team that does really well in this tournament will take a similar approach:

1. Have a clear game plan and stick to it.

2. Everybody on the team has a similar style and plays the same part of the lane at the same time.

3. Start out as far right as you can and move left as necessary.

4. Communicate...communicate...communicate!

5. Bowl as many USBC Opens and other events as you can together as a team.

6. Practice extensively on the tournament pattern for a couple of months before the tournament.

If you do all of this, maybe you can someday stand in Ray Struck's shoes:

"Right now, this is awesome. This is the biggest tournament of the year. This is what you bowl for. We spent months preparing and discussing what we wanted to do, and to come out and do it is awesome."

To read more about this story, click here. To read a similar story about how one man successfully prepared for the all-events portion of the competition, click here.