‘May Masters showed improvements brought by Yap’

Saipan Bowling Association official Ross Zapanta said aside from Robert Talavera reasserting his dominance and Hea Jin Su introducing herself to the local bowling scene, the 24th May Masters Tenpin Bowling Tournament also showed how much bowlers have improved under the tutelage of national coach Sarah Yap.

“I expected Robert to do well but not that well, averaging 227 for 12 games. One thing I can say about Robert is that he’s very good in executing the proper shot. He also said that he got some tips from Sarah during the start of the masters and those tips helped him. But again, tips and coaching would still be nothing if the bowler can’t execute correctly. I think Robert is the best bowler now on Saipan and he would be winning more tournaments this year specially at his home turf, the Saipan Bowling Center,” he said.

Zapanta also had good words to say about the women’s masters champion, the 30-year-old Seoul, South Korea native Su.

“Su was unknown to me before the tournament but it looked like she had formal bowling training before. She has a very nice form and a very smooth delivery. I think she can perform better if she joins more local tournaments,” he said.

Youth bowler Raymond Angeles also surprised everyone with a strong performance in the tournament.

“For Raymond, he was actually doing better in the leagues. He just needs to be more consistent for tournaments with over six games at least. The youth bowlers are in transition now and I did not expect them to fare well in the masters. A lot of new things have been introduced by Sarah including the change in the span (distance between finger holes and thumb hole) of their balls, the steps for their delivery, the lines the ball will roll going to the pocket, etc. It takes time to adjust to those sorts of changes. It needs patience and lots of practice,” he said.

Overall, Zapanta said he is just happy to have the former Malaysian national bowler helping out with the players and improving the state of the sport in the CNMI.

“It was really nice for her to be there during both the women’s and men’s masters coaching her students. I’m sure our bowlers now realize how real coaching works. Coaching also needs dedication and a coach must really be qualified in order to gain the confidence of the student,” he said.

However, Zapanta said he is disappointed with some bowlers who were not only skeptical but even outright critical of those who were taking lessons from Yap.

“It was emphasized that coaching and changes for the bowlers will take time and that the bowlers themselves are very much responsible on the degree of their progress. You need to be patient and you need to practice what the coach is asking you to do. If you don’t like for your average in the leagues to go down or if you don’t like to let your bowling team down because of low scores, then it will be hard to absorb and benefit from coaching,” he said.

He said critics should follow the lead of Kitz Barja. Zapanta said the May Masters all-events champions was at first skeptical, especially when Yap asked him not to use a wrister. “But see how he bowled in the singles, doubles, and team events. He averaged over 200, a thing he has not done before. But then, he was willing to do what it takes,” he said.