Show Notes

• Belmo’s introduction to bowling
• An unorthodox style
• Three environmental pieces that affect scoring
• Controversy in the bowling community
• Mindset in high-pressure moments
• Balancing the PBA Tour schedule and personal life
• Maintaining such a high level of consistency, year after year

Connect With Jason Belmonte

✩ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jbelmo
✩ Twitter/X – https://twitter.com/jbelmo
✩ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/belmofanpage
✩ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jbelmo
✩ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/jasonbelmonteyoutube

Summary

Jason Belmonte is an Australian professional bowler. Known for his unique, two-handed delivery style, Jason has won 31 PBA titles (which is the seventh most all-time), including a record 15 major championships. He is also a seven-time PBA Player of the Year. “Belmo” reveals the advantages of his unorthodox technique, and how he stays mentally focused in the 10th frame of an eventual 300 game!

Full Transcript

Brian
Welcome to another episode of LifeExcellence with Brian Bartes. Join me as I talk with amazing athletes, entrepreneurs, authors, entertainers and others who have achieved excellence in their chosen field, so you can learn their tools, techniques and strategies for improving performance and achieving greater success. Jason Belmonte is one of the greatest – if not the greatest – bowlers of all time, known for his unique two handed delivery style. Belmo, as he is known to his fans, has transformed the sport, and his list of accomplishments is unparalleled. Jason has amassed an astounding 31 PBA titles, including a record setting 15 major championships. He is a seven time PBA Player of the Year, tying the legendary Walter Ray Williams, Jr, for the most in history. Additionally, he is one of only two bowlers to complete the Super Slam. Having won all five PBA major titles, his dominance also extends to the prestigious Triple Crown and Grand Slam, making him the only bowler to achieve this remarkable feat, with over 100 perfect 300 games to his name, including three televised 300 games. Belmo’s precision and power have redefined what’s possible in the sport. His influences also reached beyond the lanes. Receiving four ESPY Awards in recognition of his excellence in bowling, in 2022, Jason was appointed a member of the Order of Australia for his significant contributions to ten pin bowling as a trailblazer and ambassador for the sport. Jason is an incredible inspiration. He joins us today from his hometown of Orange in New South Wales, Australia, and I’m very excited to have him on the show. Welcome Belmo, and thanks for joining us on LifeExcellence.

Jason
No problem at all. It’s my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

Brian
It’s great to have you. Jason, you were exposed to bowling at a very early age, almost from birth, I think. How were you first introduced to bowling and how old were you when you rolled your first ball?

Jason
Yeah, so I was in the womb when the idea of a bowling center for my parents was a business plan of theirs; non bowlers, never bowled a ball in their life, but they saw my small, little country town was in need of something for the community to do. So I was, I think, four to five weeks old when the bowling center was officially opened, and I rolled my first ball when I was 18 months old by myself. Wouldn’t have it any other way apparently, I wanted to do it all by myself. I think I’ve rolled the ball – maybe I say this tongue in cheek, but I think there is a little bit of truth – I think I’ve rolled the ball down the lane more than anyone has ever done it, ever, in the game. I feel like I’ve bowled so much in my life [that] I can quietly say that that might be true.

Brian
Well, I have no reason to doubt that. And boy, being in the womb, I’ve heard of supportive parents, you know, parents wanting to do things to support their kids, but boy, how fortuitous it was on their part to have set this entire career up for you.

Jason
Oh, look, we talk about it from time to time, about just the way that the life’s trajectory went for them and for me, and we often laugh about like, who would have thought? Like, who would have thought this, this crazy business idea from two people who had never bowled before in their life would essentially be the launch pad for their son to have a career out of it? Pretty funny to me.

Brian
Well, it’s a great story and I look forward to discussing it more with you. Jason, anyone who has seen you bowl immediately recognizes an unorthodox style. Something that most people don’t do; you don’t put your thumb in the ball like most people who learn to bowl, and you use two hands instead of one. Tell us more about that.

Jason
The story of the style is born out of necessity to hold a ball. Like I mentioned, I was very, very young when I rolled my first ball, and as I was getting older, back in 1985, ’86, ’87 the balls that we had were just too heavy. We didn’t have the lightweight balls that we do today. In order for me to just do it, I had to figure out a way that I could carry it on my own, and with two hands was the only way that I could do that. So every day that I was bowling as a kid – and I’m talking prior to the age of five, like when I was in my youngest years – it just allowed me the freedom to do this by myself. I also realized that it was fun, I was enjoying it and getting pretty good at it. I suppose I was knocking the pins down, making spares, getting strikes, and so that just continued to add the fuel to want to keep doing it. And because my parents were not bowlers, had never bowled before, they weren’t coaches, and so they weren’t there illustrating to me, oh no, no, son, this is how you do it. It was, we’re busy, we’re trying to run a business here. We don’t know what we’re doing, and you are down there bowling, out of our hair, that’s good enough for us.

Brian
Certainly they knew enough about bowling to know that most people bowled with one hand though. Did you ever try to bowl one handed anywhere along the line?

Jason
Yeah. I remember…never from my parents, my parents never told me that there was a correct way to bowl. Honestly, mate, they [had] limited knowledge about the game, they didn’t care. It was just business to them. I was busy, they were happy with that. But where I started to hear it more were from the older kids who had gotten pretty good at bowling. They would give me a hard time for bowling like a baby and so they would always try to encourage me – might be the best way to phrase it – to encourage me to bowl like them. There would be a handful of times where I’m like, okay, I want to be cool like you kids, I look up to you, you guys are cool. And I would try it and it would just be miserable for me. I wasn’t very good at it. I didn’t like it. Again, I felt like I was really only doing it because they were telling me I should, not because…when I say that, they were bigger kids, it wasn’t like a true authority was telling me, hey, you need to bowl this way, because it’s illegal or something like that. And so I just said, no, you know what? I think I’m going to go back to doing it the way that I do it, and I’m very grateful. Since then I’ve been incredibly stubborn about it, from that day, anyone that ever suggested I try to change was met with a lot of hostility from my end. It was, no, I don’t think I’m going to do that.

Brian
That’s funny. So you started bowling with two hands, really out of necessity, because the ball was heavy and you were young, and over time, though, you developed this unique style into an incredibly successful delivery. At what point, Jason, did you realize the power and accuracy of your delivery, and how has that evolved over time?

Jason
When I look back, during the moment I don’t think I necessarily saw it like that at the time. I thought it was a way for me to do it. I could create this big hook that no one else could do. So that was cool, but I never thought it was going to be an advantage or that I was going to essentially change the game or create a movement into the future. I think that’s probably part of the reason why I just did what I did was because I wasn’t looking too far ahead. I was just, hey, I’ve got these pins in front of me right now, and this is how I know how to do it and I just want to get really, really good at doing that right now. But I do think it’s just a wild story. It’s crazy to me to how a stubborn kid who, out of necessity, did something a little bit different, was told shouldn’t be doing it this way, decided not to listen to them, and then just figured out a way to make it work and work really, really well, to the point where, now I think it’s over 30-35% of the bowling population has adopted the style and that, honestly, that is mind blowing to me. It’s just that it’s crazy to think that that’s the path that I’ve been on.

Brian
I never would have guessed that the percentage was that high, that actually three out of ten bowlers would bowl with two hands. Really, when you think about it in its simplest form, I mean, basically you take this ball and at the other end of the lane you have ten pins and the object is to get the ten pins down. So I can see how you start bowling a certain way and then you adapt that, and you develop it into your style and it’s successful so why would you not want to do that? Because there really aren’t rules about whether you have to use one hand or you have to use two hands. It’s a little bit like golf. The object of golf is you hit the ball and you want to get it into the hole. I guess you could use a two by four to do that and somebody came along and they grew up playing with the two by four and they were the one of the greatest golfers ever using a two by four, who’s to question that?

Jason
I think that the analogy would probably just be like a swing technique, because even in golf I’m sure, even in bowling we do have restrictions on equipment. I can’t use a bowling ball that weighs more than everyone else’s. I can’t use a bowling ball that’s bigger than everyone else’s, so there are restrictions regarding the equipment. But the way that the individual can throw a ball or swing a golf club, I think that’s part of the beauty of sport in general, is that there are so many different ways to skin the cat. If you happen to get really good even though you are different and unique, I think that’s exciting to be able to see an athlete do something and go, how does he do that? Then obviously, in many sports, like high jump as an example with Dick Fosbury, where everyone used to do the scissor kick over the high bar and now they all jump backwards. Then, I forget the the gentleman’s name, I should remember this because I talk about it enough, but the ski jumper who was the first to actually change his skis into a V shape. Little things like that, they evolve the sport and I like that. I like that over time we’re getting people to think outside the box, whether it be through necessity or through study; an idea pops into their head how this could be done differently but it takes that game to another level. Again, sports is meant to entertain us. It’s meant to impress us so if someone can ski jump even further than the next guy because of a new technique, that’s cool. If someone can throw a bowling ball a little differently and knock the pins over in a very dramatic way, that’s fun to watch. So I like seeing athletes that are a little obscure in their technique but also really successful.

Brian
Well, it is wonderful to see. Sticking with your examples, the Fosbury Flop and the the V shaping of a slalom ski jumper, what are the advantages of a two handed technique over the traditional delivery? It sounds like it’s more than just that’s how you learned to bowl. You figured out how to adapt the role to become successful in bowling. Are there advantages to the two handed technique over the traditional delivery? Start with how it’s different in terms of the roll…

Jason
The most obvious one is rev rate; the faster the ball is spinning down the lane, the more opportunity there is for the ball to impart power into the pins. You can do that through revolution plus speed. So if you have a high rev rate, you bowl relatively quick. Your bowling ball now has more power generated through it than a traditional player with less rev rate and less speed. The higher the rev rate as well, the more opportunity the ball has to grip the lane, to create angle. Your listeners may not be familiar with just how complex the game of bowling is. I mean, at a first glance, like you mentioned earlier, you stand behind the foul line, you throw a ball, you knock over ten pins, correct? But in order to do that at a high percentage, there are a lot of very, very small, intricate parts of the game that allow you to develop a higher strike percentage: angle of entry, the types of equipment, and surfaces that you can use. Again, mixed with that higher rev rate and speed, you’re trying to create an optimum, powerful delivery through an optimum angle of entry and allowing maximum pin carry. So the two handed style allows for a larger hook. It allows for more power to mix the pins up, and therefore our strike percentages also can go up. But like everything else, the faster it spins, the faster you throw it, your margin for error is also narrowed. So on tour, I feel like sometimes I might miss by the same amount as a traditional player with less rev rate and speed, and I might get punished more for that delivery than them, just because my angles are so large and my ball is spinning so much. If you can harness that power and also create a consistent and repetitive action in which you’re accurate, well, that’s your advantage. I would liken it very similar to when Tiger Woods first came out; no one swung the club as hard as he did and also hit it where he wanted it to go as often. That became his advantage. He was longer off the tees, longer with the irons, but he also knew where it was going, so he was very difficult to beat, not to mention his short game was immaculate. That’s the spare; the sparing in bowling is if you have a great spare game as well as a great strike game, you become very difficult to beat. That’s kind of how I’ve seen my career; for every advantage that I have with power, I’ve tried to figure out what’s a waste. It’s meaningless if the ball isn’t going in the same spot every time. I’ve got to make sure that it becomes repetitive, otherwise who cares if I break a pin or throw some really cool strikes. If the other six frames are splits, it doesn’t matter anymore.

Brian
That makes sense. Without getting overly technical about this, how do the oil patterns fit into what you’re describing? Because I imagine, depending on how that’s set up, that would affect you as well and affect the rev rate and speed. Now I’m getting into an area that I don’t understand at all, so forgive me.

Jason
No, no, there are…well, look, there are three main environmental pieces that can dictate scoring pace, the oil pattern being the most obvious one. The oil that you see on the lane, when the machine goes down we have the technology and the ability to design shapes. It can be an easier oil pattern, it can be a harder oil, it can be a long oil pattern, it can be a short oil pattern. Depending on that pattern [it will affect] how the ball will react to the lane. So anytime there’s oil, the ball will skid. Anytime there is no oil, the ball now has a chance to create friction, which allows you to create hook. So you can put oil and friction on the lane in certain spots and they can become bunkers or water hazards for us; it can be difficult. You can make it easy where there’s not a whole lot of oil on the outside part of the lane and there’s a whole lot of oil in the middle. So if I miss my target inside, it’ll skid on the oil, but if I miss it to the outside, it’ll create friction and want to curve back to the pocket because there is less oil. On the PBA tour we have dozens of oil patterns and they range in difficulty from – I say easy – but what we consider easy to what the DAC might consider easy or the local house would consider easy, it’s still quite difficult. But we have patterns that range in scoring paces where the field will average 230, 240, to patterns where bowling 195 is a fantastic game because of the difficulty. So that’s one. The second is the lane itself; they look flat, but not all lanes are flat. We have topography and that’s just something that happens over time. We install them flat but the more use that they get through different temperatures in the bowling center, the lanes can warp a little bit. We’re only talking, sometimes, 1/1000 of a millimeter, very, very minute warping. But the difference from flat, to say this angle of the lane, is now when the ball is trying to hook, it’s coming up the hill so it will hook less. Sometimes it’s the other way and it’ll bank off the hill like a NASCAR does with a car driving around a bend, so all of those things also can create a change in scoring pace. And then the final thing is the pins themselves, the kickbacks and the machine that they sit in. You can have bouncy kickbacks where the pin will bounce off the side and, like a trampoline, come flying across. You can have places where they’re dead so when they hit the side wall, that’s it, there’s no more bouncing. Again, that dictates scoring. So the environment is really tricky, because you and I might be bowling together on lanes one and two, but lane one could essentially be easier than lane two, and lane three could be harder than both of them, and lane four could be easier than both of them. You’re navigating an entire bowling center with the environment so different from lane to lane and then we throw an oil pattern in there, which can change also from lane to lane. It becomes nearly impossible to understand what you’re doing until you do it. So I’ll throw a ball, I’ll see the ball reaction and with my experience now – I’ve been bowling my whole life – I can quickly say, oh, this lane has these types of parameters to them, I need to adjust. Or this one doesn’t, I don’t need to adjust, this looks pretty similar, whatever the case may be. So it’s very complicated at our level to out strike everybody, because sometimes you misread a lane like a golfer would with a green or distances. It’s the same thing for us. It’s so critical to get that part of it right otherwise it doesn’t matter how accurate you are. If you’re using the wrong equipment, playing the wrong part of the lane and playing the wrong line, you’re probably not going to do very well.

Brian
I appreciate the tutorial. And also, now I’m really embarrassed about saying that you just walk up to the line and you roll a ball and you knock ten pins down. That was obviously [crosstalk].

Jason
Listen [crosstalk] in everything that I do in my life and I watch, there is a simplistic visual aspect of it, like I understand exactly what you mean when you say you just go up to the line, because, yeah, until you dive deep into it and you learn and you study or you get educated in this, it’s impossible to know. Bowling is a very unique game where our environment and all of those things that I just talked about, they’re invisible to the naked eye. You can’t see the oil on the lane, therefore you can’t see the pattern. The only way you can tell what the pattern is is if you bowl on it and you throw it to a spot; does it hook or does it not? If it doesn’t, I’m starting to understand what pattern is on the lane based off the ball reaction that I’m getting. Same with topography on the lane. So when people say to me, oh, I had no idea, to me, I’m like, why would you, it’s invisible. How could you possibly know? So part of what I love to do in talk about bowling is to share that stuff so you can then take it forward and go, maybe I want to learn a little more about this. Or next time bowling comes up, this is a point of difference in my knowledge to, maybe, my friends, and I can sound a little smarter when it comes to bowling.

Brian
Well, certainly our listeners and viewers now have a much better – as do I – a much better understanding and appreciation of bowling so I appreciate that. Jason, I was surprised to read…you talked earlier about being kidded and razzed a little bit by the other kids when you were young because you threw the ball with two hands…I was surprised to read in prepping for the show that your unique delivery has been somewhat controversial in the sport. One article I read said bowling with two hands – and I’m quoting – resembled an alien species. Some have called it a gimmick and others have even said it’s cheating. Now, I think the bowling community has really come around on this but where did that sentiment come from? What effect does that controversy have on you, if any?

Jason
Yeah, it’s interesting…from my perspective, it’s been an interesting understanding of those that don’t like what I do, because in my head, it’s just bowling. I’m just doing it a different way, but who cares? That’s how I see it. Same when I see a different bowler bowling left handed or have another interesting technique; I don’t care. Like, are you happy? Are you knocking the pins over? Good for you. That’s it. But with this style in particular – the two sides [of] the fence; one of the sides, because of the growth of the sport, is getting bigger I think, and the other side is getting smaller – it’s not traditional. More than anywhere else in the world, I’ve come to find that Americans, with their favorite things in the whole wide world, they’re very passionate about whatever that is. And if you take their passion and you do it differently, it doesn’t sit very well with that percentage of the community. It’s, that’s not how I was taught the game, that’s not how my grandfather showed me, that’s not how I’ve spent my whole life doing it. You’re doing it very differently but more than that you’re doing it so well that I can’t beat you at it anymore, and I don’t like all of the things that I’ve just mentioned. I don’t like any of it, so I’m going to let the world know. I’m going to let him know that it’s cheating or it’s trying to figure out ways to ban it. And growing through social media because obviously there wasn’t any and then all of a sudden there was, and no one understood how to handle that when it first came out. You know, I took it not very well. I was reading everything, I was hearing everything, and all I wanted to do was bowl and compete. Also, I was a very social person, I liked having friends and I wanted to be with friends. Then you read things from people who you thought were friends and you’re like, oh, man, that’s not very nice. So I didn’t do very well with it for quite a number of years. But the one thing that I’m really proud of is, no matter what I read, heard, or even how I felt about that, I was still so motivated to reach the goals that I had. I go all the way back to when I was a kid and that stubbornness in me is…I think that’s been a huge part of my personality which has allowed me to have success through adversity; I hear it, I see it, I’m not doing very well with it, but nothing matters more to me than my goals and successes, so I’ll just fight through it. Now I’m a little older, we’ve been around social media for a long time, there’s a different way to handle things so now I like to poke fun at my haters. I like to kind of have a laugh with them. But more than anything, I embrace support more than the negative side of it and it’s been a joy. It’s such a rewarding, such an energy giving purpose when you communicate with people who are on your side rather than trying to defend yourself constantly on the other side. I’m happier, I feel like I’m in a better place when I’m on the lanes. I mean, I still see and hear the negative and the controversial things, but I think I’m just way more mature today to accept that this is how it is. This is who you are in the game, you’re going to have to roll with it, excuse the pun. How about we focus a little more on that really big group of people who love you, support you, cheer for you, say nice things; let’s communicate with them more than the other side. And so I do that, and I’m very grateful I do that.

Brian
One thing your detractors can’t deny is that success. When you look at your PBA tour accomplishments, which I talked about a little bit in the introduction, your accomplishments are really unparalleled. Again, you’ve reached the pinnacle of your profession, clearly. I wonder, and you mentioned a little bit being motivated by the detractors, but to what do you attribute your high level of success? Or maybe to say it another way, what do you do that virtually no one else is doing that’s caused you to achieve the level of success you’ve accomplished?

Jason
I don’t think I’d be so brave to know exactly what my competitors aren’t doing compared to me, but what I can tell you is what I do. Again, personality-wise from a young age, whether it be cricket, rugby, bowling, it didn’t matter what game I was playing, I hated coming off the field or off the lanes and feeling like I didn’t really try to the end. Like, that would bother me as an individual more than the result, whether it was good or bad. And so no matter the mathematics of the game, if there are ten pins in front of me, I am figuring out a new plan, whether I’m last or first, I’m figuring out a new plan. I’m figuring out how to knock these pins over the best that I possibly can for this shot, and until the games are all over and I can lead the place. That’s how I attack every single frame, every single shot. I think that; never give up, never quit. Constantly trying to figure puzzles out to better myself has been a huge benefit to my career, because I see it with my own eyes; you see some players who will start slow, just quit. They’ll say, I can’t make it, whatever, and then they’ve mentally and physically checked out. They’re just not there anymore. I’ve won tournaments when I was coming last, I’ve been able to fight my way back up the leader board, and it is because every time I tried to fight back and failed, I learned something. There was something new that I took from it, that if I was ever in that position again, I would make sure that I remembered, hey, don’t make those same mistakes. And so I think that’s a huge contributor to my success. I think…I’m going to say what I’m going to say, and I already know how it’s going to sound, okay, but I’d like to think I’m a very clever individual, so when…and again, those strategies of bowling, sometimes you do need to be a little bit creative. You have to figure out, do I want to throw it fast, slow, more hook, less hook? What equipment do I want to use? Sometimes I’ll do something that isn’t necessarily what everyone else would do, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but for the most part, I get that pretty right. That creativity on the lanes and creating shot shapes that no one else is thinking of or can do has attributed to a lot of really successful runs in tournaments which then allows me to continue that momentum week to week to week. It all started because of something crazy I did three weeks ago that worked, it led me to win that championship, and now I’m on cloud nine, I walk in with my chest out. But I’m the king of the lanes and when I walk into a place with that mentality, I’m very difficult to beat because now I’m like, I can win from anywhere at any point and I’m creative and I’m incredibly hard work [sic] in these areas of my game, like no one can beat me. And if I walk in there like that, I feel like that’s half the battle of winning. You’ve got to believe it. You’ve got to walk in thinking everyone else is coming second and they’re here chasing you. I love that feeling. I love walking in there thinking everyone’s looking at me to beat me.

Brian
You’ve hit on something that I really find fascinating, one of the the aspects of athletic competition that I think is really a differentiator – clearly it is with you – and that is one’s mindset and approach to competing. I’d like to talk about that, but I want to change it a little bit and talk specifically about pressure and the pressure of a 300 game. I wanted to make sure I asked you about this, because I think most people know what a 300 game is. It’s the highest bowling score that you can get in a game. A bowler gets a 300 game by rolling 12 consecutive strikes. We were comparing bowling to golf a little bit earlier so I’ll do that again for comparison. Bowling a 300 game is like getting a hole in one only it’s a lot harder, and you’ve done that over 100 times. I don’t know if you know the exact number, but over 100 times. I think almost 30 of those came in actual PBA tour events, and in 2023 you became the only bowler in PBA history to roll three televised 300 games. Jason, help us to understand what it feels like. I haven’t had the pleasure; I have several friends who have bowled a 300 game, some have bowled multiple 300 games. But I’ve never been in this situation where I’ve started the game with nine strikes and I step up to the approach in the tenth frame. What’s going through your mind as you get ready to toss the tenth ball, and then the 11th ball and then the final ball of the game? How do you stay mentally focused during those high pressure moments, especially when the lights are on and and it’s not only a tour event, but it’s a televised event?

Jason
I had an epiphany about halfway through my professional career that just changed the way that I approached those moments and my statistics on making the shot since the change has climbed 60%, 70%. There used to be a fear; don’t mess this up, right? Or you are in a pivotal moment, whether it is for 300 or to win a championship and in my head I was hoping for a lucky shot, like, just let them fall. I don’t care how it happens, just let it happen. And that fear of the moment, of the situation, and even of my ability to actually make a shot, would cause me to miss way more than to achieve it. When I did achieve it, there was a sense of relief, like I did it, thank gosh, thank gosh, I did it. This epiphany came in this idea of how grateful I am to experience this, I am lucky to experience this moment. If I look around and I’m in the crowd, every single person would swap with me in a heartbeat to have the opportunity to do what I’m about to do, therefore this is a privilege, and it shouldn’t be something feared, it should be something enjoyed. When that switch flicked on for me, I no longer thought of it as a negative. I thought of it of [it as] this is incredible, make it or not, I wouldn’t give this spot up to anyone else. I want this spot and I want to do what I do. The weight of the pressure didn’t change, I knew it was pressure. I knew that I could win or lose, bowl a perfect game or not, that didn’t change, but the weight felt lighter because I was like, this is cool. Like, look around, there are hundreds of people surrounded over the top of you with cameras and lights. Those cameras are now sending a signal to millions of people who get to watch you do this. Have some fun with it. Enjoy those moments because there’ll be a day where you will look back and wish you could do it all over again. So while you’re sitting here, don’t be fearful of it, embrace it. And my win rate, my shot making, my perfect game moments have all increased in success dramatically. I attribute that change of mentality to that.

Brian
The way you describe it, approaching it with gratitude and really taking in the moment with full appreciation makes it sound almost like you’re real relaxed in that situation. You can’t possibly be relaxed; are you?

Jason
No, relaxed is not the right word. The moment is still there. I’m present. I understand I could win this major championship or I could lose it. I know this shot matters a lot. The difference is when you go up to throw your shot, if you go up there with fear you aren’t going to make as good a shot as if you go up there with some type of…I don’t want to say I’m happy, it’s not oh, well, look at me, I’m jovial and this is…I’m still very locked in. But there is a difference in the mentality of fear, to acceptance and gratitude and embracing this moment, win or lose. Like, make a shot that you know how to make, that attitude towards the shot is now different. When I said before where I was hoping for the best, now I almost pre-see it; I’m so confident in that moment I’m not hoping to do the best – I know I’m going to make a shot and when it comes off my hand, I know that out of one hundred of these shots a very high percentage of them will be very well executed. Then we let the bowling god decide, is it going to strike, is it not? Are the pins going to bounce around the way that you think they are? But prior to me letting go of the ball there is…and I often, if you watch video of me you’ll see in those moments, I take a second to just look around and be really aware of how awesome this moment is. You don’t want to miss them because millions of people watch it, and then usually you get the comments, ah, this guy’s trash, he can’t handle the pressure afterwards. But when you get that shot as an athlete at the highest level there is no better feeling than saying I was required to do something in a very intense moment and I prevailed. This is why I do what I do for this moment. And it is a moment that I will, like you said, I will be forever grateful to have, and I do not wish to take them for granted ever, ever, ever. I know how hard it is to be in that position.

Brian
So in that sense it seems a little bit like – I’m thinking of basketball guys like Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan was always like this, Steph Curry – when there are two or three seconds left and they’re down by a point or two points, they want to get the ball. They want the inbound pass to go to them so that they have the opportunity to take that last shot. Does it feel a little bit like that? I heard you say that you were…with your skill level and where you are in your career you’ve totally prepared for that and you said that you actually expect to be in that position. So that’s a difference between you and probably a lot of professional bowlers, but certainly bowlers at large, that they don’t expect to be in the position where they’ve made the first ten strikes and they’re now rolling the 11th, or they’ve made the first 11 and they’re rolling for a 300 game. Is the 11th strike, in many respects, the same as maybe the third or the fourth, in that you’re so dialed in and your delivery is so consistent every time that it doesn’t really matter whether it’s the second frame or the sixth frame or the tenth frame?

Jason
The action needs to be very similar, but the moment is different. Let’s take your analogy for basketball. Kobe Bryant pulls up for a jump shot. He’s practiced that a billion times. He knows how high he has to jump. He understands where the ball needs to be above. He said when he makes his action, he knows the power he needs to generate in order for that to go in and also the trajectory of the ball. He’s done it a billion times, and therefore the action is now second nature to him doing that with three seconds left on the clock, with a championship on the line. The action is the same. It’s just, can I allow my body and my brain to get out of the way and allow that shot to happen naturally, without those things that I mentioned earlier; fear, possible idea of failure…because that’s also if you have the ball in your hand part of you is thinking if I miss this and fail, I’m the reason for that failure. Same in bowling, it’s I’ve got the ball in my hand, if I miss this, I don’t bowl 300 or I don’t win the championship; my fault. So you have to be okay with that. The greatest shooters or the greatest athletes – which, over time, you realize they’re the ones that want the ball in their hand in the final moments – they have accepted it’s going to be okay for me, maybe not my fan base and the team, but for me, it’s okay to miss because the reward of getting it is worth more to me than the possibility of missing. Again, the same thing for me, I want the ball in my hand. Maybe there is a slight…I don’t know, the competitiveness to me…possibly even like a slight arrogance, to where it’s I want the reward so much that I’m willing to accept what happens if I fail. Some people don’t like that, they don’t want to fail, or they don’t want the repercussions of failure; fans turning on you, team mates turning on you, embarrassment. There are lot of things that can come when you miss, so they weigh that up with yeah, but all the good things that if I get it [or] no, I’m not willing to take that risk, I don’t want to risk these things; I’m going to pass the ball or I wish someone else would roll the ball for me in this moment. That’s where I think they’re getting that epiphany, like, I’m okay with it. I’m okay. Say what you’re going to say if I miss, but if I make it, you better be ready to hear what I’m going to say about it.

Brian
I think part of it too is extreme confidence, right? You talked about arrogance and arrogance might be a part of it, but it’s extreme confidence in your ability to deliver, whether it’s the last second basketball shot or the 12th strike, you know that you can do it and you truly believe that you can do it. I think that certainly helps you when you’re in that position. You want to be in that position. You’ve thrown 11 strikes to put yourself in the position of throwing that 12th strike.

Jason
One hundred percent, and on top of that, that confidence and arrogance, something that I think gets overlooked a lot in sports – and maybe even in business to be honest – when you’re in a negotiating room and you’re up against somebody who’s displaying that confidence is not only does that confidence/arrogance at some point benefit the person who is displaying it but it can also create a negative impact to a competitor. If I walk out onto the lane and my competitor sees me sweating, nervous, drinking water, shaking everywhere, that’s a positive thing for him. It will help him. But if I walk out there and I claim to own this place, I claim to own these lanes, and that my competitor has no chance – again risk/reward – I have to handle the fact that if he beats me, he’s going to throw it in my face. But if I walk out there displaying that, it’s going to make him feel less comfortable than if I were the opposite. Same way why we always hear the stories about Michael and Kobe, like, we hated playing Michael and Kobe because they struck fear into our team. That’s because of how they walked onto the court. It was their court every time. And I say the same, even with like LeBron James, he’s making a run down the lane and to the hoop, people get out of his way. He’s created this aura around him so to those players that we mentioned earlier, it’s hard to play against him, and I wanted that same aura from me. One of the best moments of my career, from a competitor’s perspective amongst my peers, was when they called it the Belmo Effect, that when you play against him, you’re not playing the same game as you do someone else. There is this effect that happens – not for me, it’s the same game for me – but the fact that it causes that effect on my opponents. I’m almost certain there have been many championships that I’ve won where before we even threw a ball, I’d won. It was just a matter of time and the score going up on the board because they didn’t like the moment. They were scared at the moment. And yeah, I want to continue to put that effect into my competitors, because why not? It’s fun.

Brian
Well, it’s intimidation. What I hear you say is you’re not intentionally trying to intimidate your opponent, but you do understand that you are intimidating your opponent, and you’re okay with that, and maybe actually smiling a little bit because of it.

Jason
I think so, yeah, I mean, bowling intimidation is hard to achieve because we can’t do it with size and stature like an NFL linebacker can do to a quarterback or you can’t stand above someone who’s shorter and say, I’m going to break you, and then literally have fear in the eyes of the smaller person. But for us, it’s a winning factor. That’s how you intimidate your other player; do I think I’m going to win this more than you think you’re going to win this? And if that is higher on my end, that’s a great start to winning the championship. It’s very difficult to feel like you’re going to lose and beat someone who feels like they’re going to win. A lot of things have to go your way for that to happen. Luck needs to be on your side and I choose to not accept that I’m going to base my career on some lucky breaks. No, I’m going to win because I’m going to throw the ball at my target the way that I want to throw it, over and over and over and over, and do it better than everyone else, and if that makes them uncomfortable seeing that I’m about to do that, that’s not my problem.

Brian
Jason, you you live in Australia, which is a long way, obviously, from America, and the bowling season is very demanding, probably more so because you live in Australia. You’re on the road for at least six months a year, I’m guessing. How do you balance your time on the tour with your personal life, especially being away from your wife and children as much as you are?

Jason
That is the hardest part of my job, the selfishness to want to do what I love and what I feel like I was born to do, what gives me a lot of joy, that selfishness to leave to go do that for half a year, mixed with the guilt of wishing I was home and being with my kids and being with my wife, especially when bad news happens or really great news. The day to day stuff we get by, it hits me hardest when someone does something great or something bad happens and you can’t be there to be part of it. A huge reason why I think I’ve been as successful as I have been is because my community and my family around me is incredibly understanding, supportive. I think they’re also really sympathetic to me, because it’s hard for them for me to be away. But I think they know it’s really hard for me also and so they never – none of my kids, my wife, no one ever – say, don’t go, please stay. I think at some point I was like, it’s kind of disappointing, I kind of wanted my kids to say, don’t go, but understanding the reason they say go and do what you’ve got to do, because they know it’s even harder for me to go if I feel like I’m getting pulled to stay. I’m so, so blessed to have the love and support from those around me. It’s a challenge, though, every day that I’m away because I love being a dad so much. I love being a dad. I love being a husband. I love my family, my extended family. I’m very close with everyone back here at home, and so it is a daily struggle when you have a large extended family and everyone’s doing fun things together, or even just a catch up for coffee and they post it on social media. It’s like, I could have used a nice coffee with the cousins, or something like that, would have been really nice. So I’m constantly fighting it, but again, when I walk onto the lanes, I have to have the maturity to leave it all behind. The only thing that matters to me when I pick up a ball [is] this shot, that’s it, not anything else, not the fact that my family might be sick, none of that can pop into my head. Otherwise, why waste my time there? I might as well go home and be there in those moments, because I’m wasting the moment I have in front of me. I’m just not allowing myself to bowl to my potential because of distractions. Now, when the tournament is over or I leave the bowling center, it’s the only thing on my mind, my family. So I think that’s how I deal with it, turning it on and off, and just trying my absolute best to still be a good dad and husband while I’m away. It’s the only way I know how to really deal with it, because it never gets easier.

Brian
How are you able to compartmentalize that? How do you stay so mentally focused during the matches during the week when, I can see your competitors, they know that they’re going to go home after the weekend’s over but for you, you’re going to be gone months and like you said, if one of your kids is sick, or if there’s something, maybe a play that one of your kids is in, or some kind of big event that you’re missing, how are you able to stay so laser focused mentally?

Jason
Again, I think I look at it as what happens if I don’t? Am I going to perform? And my answer, I believe, is, no, I do not think I will perform as well. While I’m away, I’m missing the moment at home, therefore I better make the moment that I’m in while away count, otherwise, like I said, why be here if I don’t think I can make these moments count – then go home. I think that selfishness to achieve the things that I want to achieve, it allows me to understand not only am I achieving the selfish part of me, but there is a reward, financial reward, I am providing for those at home. There is understanding that the moment was worth it. Yes, I missed that, but I’m coming home with the trophy. Selfish, completely, but worth it. I did what I set out to do, and so the days in which I…and probably part of the reason why I never give up is I can’t imagine, especially now, walking out of the bowling center thinking I gave up; I didn’t even think of a new strategy, I was going through the motions. I can’t even think of a time I would do that, because my time away from home is so precious, I choose not to disrespect it by wasting my time in the United States or wherever I am in the world.

Brian
I love how you use that as leverage, that since you are away, you’re committed to maximizing your time away, to maximizing the results that you create, to maximizing your performance. I can see where that would provide great leverage. Belmo, you’ve been at the top of your sport for a very long time. You were rookie of the year when you arrived on the scene in 2008-2009. You’re one of only eight bowlers in PBA tour history to achieve 30 wins, and you’ve won the PBA Player of the Year Award seven times. How do you maintain such a high level of consistency and excellence over the years, and how do you stay motivated to compete at that level year after year after year?

Jason
Success is a drug. It’s an addiction. When you get it and you feel it, you want nothing more than to feel it again. So the moments in my career…because it hasn’t all been this trajectory. There are seasons which you have a dip and there are moments where you do feel deflated and you mentally are fried out, there are those moments. But more than anything, the feeling of being a champion, of being at the top is electrifying. Therefore, if I feel like I’m not getting that hit of that thrill of having people say he’s the best in the world, or that he’s one of the greatest of all, if I don’t get that, then I need to work harder, because I like that. I do like that feeling of success and that’s a huge motivator for me. Yes, the financial side of it, obviously, the more successful I get, the more money I make, the better I can provide for my family, sure, but the real goal is to stand in front of everyone and say, I’m better than all of you. This is what I train for, this moment. I dedicated myself, I’ve sacrificed so much. The feeling you get when it pays off at the end is addicting. So I want to do it as much as I possibly can, and when I don’t do it, I’m annoyed, and I want to work on myself to be able to feel that moment again. I actually think – and I’m already looking at it – it will be a very difficult time for me when age catches up to me and I’m no longer as dominant, and I’m finding that I’m not even near winning anymore. That’s going to be a very difficult transition to me, because I just haven’t accepted that my whole career. But I know at some point it happens to us all. I thought for a moment I was going to be the first one to defeat Father Time. I actually thought I was going to stay young forever, but that didn’t happen. So he wins again. I’m already talking to my wife about how am I going to transition from this super focused, highly competitive, successful person and transition into someone who’s not that? I’ve had experience in talking with other athletes and even just seeing from the outside, looking in on how some have handled it well, some have handled it poorly, and trying to learn from those experiences through others, to be like, okay, well, when it’s my time, hopefully I have been able to put myself in a head-space that allows me to get through it a little better. But I’d like to think I’m a fair way from that, but I do know it’s coming, so I guess I’ll just continue to work as hard as I possibly can, and hopefully that time comes much, much later.

Brian
I think you’re right, you have a number of years before that is going to become a possibility. I just believe that with your intentionality and your focus, that you will – when the time comes – shift that focus and that intentionality and your excellence into other areas. Jason, as you know, our show is called LifeExcellence. I wonder, what does excellence mean to you?

Jason
Yeah, such a good question. I will tell you that over time, the word excellence has changed for me. The older I get, the more mature I am, and then seeing it from different perspectives, as now I’m a father. What do I deem excellent from myself, from my family; if I were to wrap it all into a neat bow, is you’ve just got to give it everything you’ve got, whatever it is. That’s excellence to me. If you are truly in it one hundred percent and then you leave it whenever it’s done, and you say, I gave it everything – not just you say you gave it everything, like truly feel like you gave it everything – if I can see that through my kids or through myself, that’s excellence. I hope it’s enough to have success, but at least excellence for me, is that’s the attitude you need to have. Because I do think success comes with that attitude. It really does. Very rarely do I see someone meander through life with no motivation, with no dedication, and be wildly successful in things that they do. I mean, there are some outliers, I suppose, especially in the sporting world where there are people who are just gifted, but that person who gives it everything they’ve got is even more successful than they would have been prior. So give it everything you’ve got. See what happens, lift your head up high knowing that, yeah, you gave it all.

Brian
That’s great. You certainly have achieved excellence in bowling, and I’m sure in other areas of your life as well. Jason, this has been awesome. I’ve really appreciated it. It’s great to meet and get to know you, and I’m truly grateful for your time on the show today.

Jason
Mate, no worries at all. It has been a pleasure as well, and hopefully our paths cross next time I’m in Detroit and we can maybe hang out at the Detroit Athletic Club together, that’d be great.

Brian
I look forward to that. Thanks again. And to our audience, thanks for tuning in to LifeExcellence. Please support the show by subscribing, sharing it with others, posting about today’s show with Belmo, Jason Belmonte, on social media, and leaving a rating and review. You can learn more about me at brianbartes.com Until next time, dream big dreams and make each day your masterpiece.