Building a Championship Bowling Program: Program Development & Practice Organization

with Gary Sparks, Vincennes University Head Coach;
11x National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Champions; 3x NJCAA Coach of the Year; distinguished member of the NJCAA Hall of Fame (2003)

Hall of Fame coach Gary Sparks presents a seven-step program that will put your program on a path to success.

Coach Sparks' seven step program covers:

• Team/Coaching Philosophy - Explore what kind of coach do you want to be and what type of program you want to have.
• Coaching Skill Level - What level are you and your assistants? What type of certifications are required and how can you earn them? These and other considerations will help you develop your expectations for yourself and your assistants.
• Selecting and Evaluating Your Athletes - Select the best possible bowlers for your team! Get tryout and selection tips and ideas, along with specific things to look for when evaluating talent during tryouts.
• Developing an Action Plan - Learn how to set team goals and develop a road map for moving towards your goals.
• Checking Equipment - Coach Spark's mantra is "you can't out-coach a bad fit" as it is incredibly challenging to develop fundamentals of the game with balls that do not fit properly. Sparks details how to proactively address grip and fit, ball weight, and accessories issues.
• Good Practice Facilities - Along with team management, team bowling requires teams to co-exist with a commercial proprietor and sound planning will assist in making the most out of practice opportunities. Coach Sparks addresses the challenges of facility scheduling, cost, and how to make the most of your practice facility.
• Good Practice Organizations and Routines - This segment includes key factors you need to consider as you put together your practice schedule - start time, frequency, location, and more.

Practice Organization
Coach Sparks delves into how to organize and run an efficient bowling practice. Balancing individual skill development with the team concepts, Sparks provides essential strategies for developing effective practices.

You will learn how to incorporate essential techniques and skills into practices, including: skill drills, advanced techniques for improving players, score vs. no score practice tactics, spare shooting, tracking statistics, inter-team competition, Baker Games competitions and more.

Each of these areas include invaluable implementation strategies and tactics for covering all critical areas of the game that need to be practiced in order to achieve success in competition.

This video provides a coach at any level a working blueprint to build and maintain a successful program.

109 minutes. 2013.