Wrote a new article about this that should be up soon, but I was at a high school meet last week, and two kids on the same team both had the front 9, neither has ever shot a 300.  The place was packed, mostly with parents, but when the first one got up and threw the 10th shot, the place exploded like he won the lottery.  It was literally like being at Buffalo Wild Wings when Anderson Silva got knocked out, or at a bball game when somebody hits a half court shot to win a game, and yes, that was just for number TEN.  He managed to get number 11, to the same response, and the 12th one was just short of a disaster, he managed to get an 8 count for 298. 

The next kid got up there after watching and hearing it all, and promptly tugged his first shot an arrow left, but juiced it enough that he hit the pocket, still leaving a very flat 10.  They weren't on my daughters team, but I know them both pretty well, was pretty disappointed for them, but I was kinda pissed at all the parents.  There's already enough pressure, I mean they're kids first of all, never shot 300 before, this wasn't practice, wasn't league, wasn't even a weekend tournament, this was a high school league meet with local rival schools full of their buddies, with reporters from the paper, a local news crew, and with the pressure as high as it could possibly get, all the parents decide to heap on as much as possible before they'd even accomplished anything yet?  Yeah, 279 in a league meet is huge, but of course we all know what they were going nuts about. 

The kids may or may not have gotten it done anyway, but I still feel like the parents ruined a couple 300s for them.  Seems to be the norm for parents at any high school sporting event, but I wish they realized they weren't helping, and almost actively worked to prevent the 300s.  Shame. 

Again, if I'd have written a post stating this very same thing, I'd have been crucified for it. 

Any sport has pressure. These kids have to handle it. They need to know it is not the end of world. This is a valuable learning lesson. Some atheletes get it, but most do not. Blaming this on the crowd is wrong and any kid that would blame there poor performance on the crowd is looking for excuses. I understand there are some exceptions; heckling and making noise trying to distract a kid while they are throwing is uncalled for.

Of course there is a lot of people screaming and yelling when basketball player is trying to make a free throw.  This is the mental preparation side of any sport.

My daughter was getting heckled by the oposing team's parents when she was serving in a Junior High School Volleyball tournament. She is trying to focus and throw the ball, and hit it over. As she is trying doing this, parents are yelling "Miss!, Miss!, Miss!". The gymn was small and these peole where very close to her.

The better players of any sport get it and learn to remove the crowd from the situation. Some even learn to feed of the negative energy thrown at them.

In OP case, the crowd was behind the kid. They wanted to see him succeed. Nothing done wrong. 

Its the concept that gets me.  If you're supporting someone, you do anything you can to help them out.  Cheer them on when they need the energy, stay dead silent when they need to concentrate, etc.  Nobody thought, "what can I do to support them best?" they just yelled cause they were excited . .  Not even talking about whether they should have been affected, whether they could handle the pressure, gaining the experience, dealing with crowds, etc.  Just nevermind, I'm being a total woman here. 

If everyone was quiet, you lose that enthusiasm that many high school bowling programs have right now.  Sure, it would have been easier to perform without the pressure, but it wouldn't have been as exciting or as meaningful to the competitors.  I think anyone who's had an honor score has fonder memories of those in tournament with people watching than being the 5th 300 in league that night.

These 2 failed this time.  But if either does succeed in the future, it will be that much sweeter with fans cheering.  Without the cheering fans, I don't see the sport continuing to thrive like it is at many locations.  If it ain't hard, everyone would do it.  Then it wouldn't be special anymore.

And I completely understand that . . my point is really abstract though, and I'll leave it at that.  You are absolutely correct. 

I can't explain it any better than you are wrong to expect people not to cheer in that situation.

I'll have to admit that being on the sidelines watching this as a junior bowler, I probably would have been both a bit nervous myself, and looking at their mechanics to know if they are going to make a good shot or not.

But as a junior bowler back in my day, Ialways remember one piece of advice my coach gave me:

Take. Your. Time.

In short, you don't have to fire #10, come right back, and set up for #11. If you have nerves or wobbly legs, go walk it off. This isn't the PBA, so while the alley may be in a time crunch (setting up for leagues that night), there isn't a shot clock to violate.

The only ones who would be anxious or try to egg you on are the spectators who want to see the next shot thrown. They don't matter; it's your game. Now, I'm not saying to wait 15 minutes and ice yourself down, but a minute or so to invoke calm, slow down the heart rate, etc., would work out just fine. That could have helped the kids out, both physically and mentally.

BL.