Laughter Relieves Pressure

Wherever you are with a group of people, there are characters who will do "crazy" things to break up the tense situations. You often end up laughing hysterically because the moment suddenly turns humorous.

At the Air Training Command Championships, our practice sessions went very well; but, when the tournament actually started, we began the first game struggling and lost our spirit early on. The ladies team tried to cheer us up to no avail.

Then, we heard laughter from the crowd in the bowling center. As we looked back, our ladies were entertaining the crowd by doing cheerleader routines and making faces - "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil," "booty-flashing chorus line dancers," and "high-stepping, high kicking dancers," among other antics. We couldn't help but laugh, too. This took our minds off the pressure we were putting on ourselves and we shot two very high 5-man team games.

In Thailand, Dave and I went down to the local bowling alley and entered jackpot games with the local Thai bowlers. In U.S. jackpot bowling, we turn off the foul lights; but, it is still sportsman-like to stay behind the foul line. Well, the Thais were consistently going past the foul line by sometimes as much as a full shoe length.

Our reminders to them were treated with shaking heads (as if to say, "yes") and laughter as they continued to pass the foul line. Dave kept getting angrier and more frustrated and when we got to the 10th frame, he looked up and saw that we needed a mark to win (I think it was the four pin).

He picked up his ball, then proceeded to walk down the approach and kept right on walking until he was a few feet from the pin and converted the spare for the victory. I began laughing as well as others in the crowd that had gathered to watch this match between the foreigners and local hustlers.

Our opponents were protesting in Thai and we were counter arguing in English. The audience that had gathered was delighted and having a good laugh watching this slapstick comedy routine. The point was made to stay behind the foul line. After that, the Thais were "psyched-out" and we dominated the next couple of matches when they quit in frustration because they were worried about crossing the foul line and couldn't hit their targets.

A Hui Hou! (See You Again!)