Had A Very Good, Very Bad Series Last Night

[GeoLes]

I bowled league last night and first ball was right on all night. I recently changed my approach and have been honnning it over the last few weeks. It went very well, approach low and relaxed, when I release the ball, I feel above and behind the ball and can see down the ball path all the way to the pins. - Very nice. I also tried various releases at different marks with different balls. A relaxed release for down and in as well as a wraped release for the deep inside mark, both worked on delivering to the pocket. Best resultes came from just outside the third mark. It really felt great!!

Bad news is I missed many simple single and double pin leaves due to decisions on how to appproach the spare and inperfections in flat release. Low scores 136, 149, 165 due to many open frames. It felt great, but I had no scores to reflect the progress. Guess what I will be working on in practice?

I scored the lowest on my team last night. Guess what? I WILL be moving from worst to first quite rapidly.

[75lockwood]

Great Attitude, like with anything else it does take time to a new style, just spend a few nice long practice sessions on spares and what the pins fall as your scores rise!

[GeoLes]

Thanks, I recently stumbled over Michael Fagan's swing and release by accident. Rather than trying to find a good slide-to finish position and constantly tweaking it, I just point left shoulder at the mark, use the body tilt to help the naturaly backswing and bring the ball back close and low through the mark. If feels very natural. Hoping I can keep up the consistency over time.

[GeoLes]

I don't see enough talk on this topic about mental game and focus. I sense that so many bowlers are "strike hungry" and work on the first ball almost exclusively. My wife feels that way. She is disappointed whenever she has a 7 or 10-pin leave. The more she tries to fix it, the bigger her problem becomes. We have a very good coach, "Johhny O", who has basically given her "time out" so she could reset, relax and let the ball go. It usually works. Is this bowling or hockey? Im confused :) .

The main thing is, through this process, I discoverd so many other tools I did not know I had. Varying wrist twist positions from mild break to full wrapped: Cupped, flat, or broken wrist: Deoivery speed: fast slow: Approach position: center, slightly forward, slightly further back. I work these aspects in practice and do not usually shoot for pins until the last couple of frames of pracactice.

Funny, when I first started bowling, experienced bowlers were giving me these tips and I did not understand or know what to do with them. Now they make perfect sense.

[americantrotter]

I think that's the hard part. Everyone needs a chance to learn at their pace. There are certain things I get instinctively and others I just have to grind at. More often, the longer i've been bowling the more a concept makes sense.

[billf]

The mental game is the hardest to help with in writing. Without the chance to exchange comments in real time with inflection, eye contact, etc. it's almost impossible to tell if the recipient is actually grasping what you're attempting to convey.

[UBowling]

Good luck with those changes. The most important thing is to feel right about it and make sure it is comfortable. The more comfortable and relaxed you are the easier it will be to repeat.

As far as the spares go, my suggestion is to learn to throw them straight. It takes the pattern out of play and you can throw them the same way every time no matter where you are. Just takes a lot of practice.

[GeoLes]

Tell that to my body. It keeps trying to reinvent the straight ball.