just shut up and bowl

[panbanger]

Went bowling today and threw about 6 games. The first 4 were nothing to brag about, around 160-175 for all of them. Each time I got a couple strikes going, I would start thinking to myself "okay what were you doing that last shot? How high was your backswing? Where was your wrist positioned?" etc.

Then I would come up with the 6-7-10 split. I swear I got about 5 of those in my first 2 games. Almost converted it one time too! By the 5th game I was getting frustrated and just walked up and threw the ball a few times. No thinking about this board, that board, that arrow blah blah. Threw a 213! Next game threw a 191 and I was getting kinda tired near the end.

Said to myself hey maybe the key to thinking about this is not to overthink it! Granted this is only my 4th session bowling with a modern ball and fingertip grips, but it really felt like a sort of breakthrough for me. Let the ball do most of the work, ya know?

Has anybody else experienced similar?

[got_a_300]

Has anybody else experienced similar?

Oh yeah many, many times the worst thing you can do is over think your
game. I found that if I'm bowling league I'll think what I want to do before
I get up on the approach. Then after I get up to bowl I just let it come to me
naturally without thinking too much about what I'm doing during my approach.

If you start thinking about this and that during your approach you are just asking
for a bad shot it is best to do your thinking down in the bowlers pit area. Once up
on the lanes just let yourself go and just focus on your mark and the rest will more
than likely just come to you naturally.

[billf]

Sure have. I use practice to work on whatever I want to that day. I don't worry or care about the score. Being as the lanes are usually super dry compared to a league or tournament scoring on them is kind of pointless anyway. I think during practice and try to go blank and execute during games that matter.

[JaMau24]

Speaking of 6-7-10 splits... I picked one up yesterday... and I picked up a 4-9 split shortly after that.

[beerframe]

I constantly over think bowling and it drives my scores down, but when i'm just loose, bowling with a group oddly enough, my game shines through and something clicks in, that's when the 190-200 games drop and i'm killing it. Otherwise I find myself burned out and maxing out 150 frustrated because I can't shoot second arrow to save my life or something to the sort that makes me nuts. I reckon i need to master my mental game and the physical play will just follow suite.

[J Anderson]

I constantly over think bowling and it drives my scores down, but when i'm just loose, bowling with a group oddly enough, my game shines through and something clicks in, that's when the 190-200 games drop and i'm killing it. Otherwise I find myself burned out and maxing out 150 frustrated because I can't shoot second arrow to save my life or something to the sort that makes me nuts. I reckon i need to master my mental game and the physical play will just follow suite.

Generally speaking, you practice until the physical part becomes automatic. Once you get your ball and find your starting position you should be on autopilot. After you release the ball, go into observation mode. After the frame, you can think about what you observed, decide on any adjustments.

[panbanger]

Generally speaking, you practice until the physical part becomes automatic. Once you get your ball and find your starting position you should be on autopilot. After you release the ball, go into observation mode. After the frame, you can think about what you observed, decide on any adjustments.

This makes sense! I found that I was doing automatically (most of the time) the things that I had been working on in the previous games.

[panbanger]

Speaking of 6-7-10 splits... I picked one up yesterday... and I picked up a 4-9 split shortly after that.

Congrats! I went bowling with my girlfriend on the 4th of July and managed to pick up the 4-10 split. I expected the cosmic bowling lights to come on in some kind of salute to me, but instead I just got the standard "you picked up a split" cartoon animation on the score monitor.