Team USA Camp 2017

This year, Team USA camp at the International Training and Research Center (ITRC) was definitely a different experience for me. I went to camp, but without any bowling balls. Being too far along in my pregnancy, I still wanted to attend camp and be there for my teammates, but I knew I wouldn't be able to sustain the long hours of workouts and practice on the lanes.

I was happy to still participate, being an extra set of eyes for lane play strategy and the competitions. I also was able to learn a lot this week, not only through the classroom material, but also through having the different perspective of intensely watching and helping my teammates as they trained.

Even though camp involved long hours and tons of on-lane work, we also still managed to have a little fun off the lanes during our picture day.

I have to say that our ladies worked their butts off! They bowled more than we've ever bowled at Camp and also had the unique experience to work with a variety of World Class Coaches.

This year, we had the addition of some of the best coaches in the world helping our Team USA Head Coach Rod Ross. Our additional coaches included: Junior Team USA Head Coach Bryan O'Keefe, Del Warren, Bill Spigner and Andy Diercks.

Since I also do a lot of coaching, it was nice to observe how the different coaches would tackle fixing physical game issues for the players and/or seeing the differences in interactions, etc. So I was able to learn a lot from a coaching perspective as well.

HUGE congratulations to Kelly Kulick, Stefanie Johnson, Shannon Pluhowsky, Shannon O'Keefe, Danielle McEwan and Josie Barnes who were selected to represent Team USA in the World Championships that will be contested at the South Point Bowling Plaza in Las Vegas, Nev. from Nov. 24-Dec. 4. I know you'll all do our Team and Country proud!!! Go USA!

For the full story regarding the 2017 World Championships, click here.