Aslan
08-20-2014, 02:48 PM
Let me start by saying, "I'm NOT a coach". But, I did attend a seminar for youth bowling and will be getting my Level I certification (which is super easy to get). I would "like" to use that ability to teach my daughter to bowl and/or maybe coach youth/beginner bowlers.
But, since my current league team has 3 of the 5 players that have very little (if any) bowling experience...and the other player (and 1 sub) haven't bowled in like 3 decades...AND...since we are currently in sole possession of 2nd place, 1 point out of 1st place...I thought it would be good to put on a short 1-hour practice session and just go through the basics with the inexperienced guys.
Well, only 1 guy showed up...so that sucked. But, I didn't let it phase me...and I went ahead with the coaching/practice session:
- The first thing we worked on was the 4-step approach. Especially for THIS guy because he has a really fast, almost running, with some "skips" thrown in.
- I also touched on important basics like timing and keeping shoulders straight, but this guy kinda already had that down pretty good.
- We also worked on "drift" and "posting" shots.
- Then we finished by playing a little game to work on accuracy. We each picked a dot...and we had to watch each other bowl...and you had to lay the ball down BEFORE the dot...and you got rated on how many boards you missed the dot by. If you threw over the dot, that was a penalty. Then, after 5 frames, we changed it a little...same "board", but now you had to project the ball OVER the dot ot it was a penalty. Had we had time, we would have done another 5 frames each where we had to project it or loft it to the arrows with the same scoring system in place. The point of the exercise being to get the student to focus on hitting a target consistently.
All in all...this was the fits time I've coached anything since my college days when I used to teach beginning skating to little kid hockey players. Teaching adults is definitely more of a challenge because their game is not going to totally change. You're essentially trying to stear it in a certain direction. The way I would explain it best is; coaching a young child is like operating a jet ski. It's not always easy to turn...but it can turn in relatively any direction and go the other way relatively quickly. But adults are like a tugboat. They are easier to stear...but you can only expect them to turn slightly in one direction or another.
This guy was a unique challenge, because he throws a "back-up" ball. That is NOT the USBC recommended way to bowl. However, since this was just an informal practice and I'm not a REAL coach...I wasn't going to mess with that. So I had to kinda instruct a right-hander that was sort of lined up more like a left-hander.
Adults are also hard because they are SMARTER! After teaching him about timing and taking a shot, he asked, "If you should release the ball when it is parallel to your slide foot/leg....why do YOU hold onto it so long??" <-----THAT was a good observation. Kids don't tend to see that unless it's more obvious. But he saw that I employ "intentional late" timing. So without confusing the ****out of him, I had to explain that I plant rather than slide and I employ more forward spine tilt and projection and "intentional" late timing.
So, anyways...that was my story of my first time as a "pseudo-coach" and while I obviously don't have the skill set nor credentials to do much more than what I did...it was kinda fun to see this guy clean up his approach and start really getting excited when we were playing the "accuracy game".
But, since my current league team has 3 of the 5 players that have very little (if any) bowling experience...and the other player (and 1 sub) haven't bowled in like 3 decades...AND...since we are currently in sole possession of 2nd place, 1 point out of 1st place...I thought it would be good to put on a short 1-hour practice session and just go through the basics with the inexperienced guys.
Well, only 1 guy showed up...so that sucked. But, I didn't let it phase me...and I went ahead with the coaching/practice session:
- The first thing we worked on was the 4-step approach. Especially for THIS guy because he has a really fast, almost running, with some "skips" thrown in.
- I also touched on important basics like timing and keeping shoulders straight, but this guy kinda already had that down pretty good.
- We also worked on "drift" and "posting" shots.
- Then we finished by playing a little game to work on accuracy. We each picked a dot...and we had to watch each other bowl...and you had to lay the ball down BEFORE the dot...and you got rated on how many boards you missed the dot by. If you threw over the dot, that was a penalty. Then, after 5 frames, we changed it a little...same "board", but now you had to project the ball OVER the dot ot it was a penalty. Had we had time, we would have done another 5 frames each where we had to project it or loft it to the arrows with the same scoring system in place. The point of the exercise being to get the student to focus on hitting a target consistently.
All in all...this was the fits time I've coached anything since my college days when I used to teach beginning skating to little kid hockey players. Teaching adults is definitely more of a challenge because their game is not going to totally change. You're essentially trying to stear it in a certain direction. The way I would explain it best is; coaching a young child is like operating a jet ski. It's not always easy to turn...but it can turn in relatively any direction and go the other way relatively quickly. But adults are like a tugboat. They are easier to stear...but you can only expect them to turn slightly in one direction or another.
This guy was a unique challenge, because he throws a "back-up" ball. That is NOT the USBC recommended way to bowl. However, since this was just an informal practice and I'm not a REAL coach...I wasn't going to mess with that. So I had to kinda instruct a right-hander that was sort of lined up more like a left-hander.
Adults are also hard because they are SMARTER! After teaching him about timing and taking a shot, he asked, "If you should release the ball when it is parallel to your slide foot/leg....why do YOU hold onto it so long??" <-----THAT was a good observation. Kids don't tend to see that unless it's more obvious. But he saw that I employ "intentional late" timing. So without confusing the ****out of him, I had to explain that I plant rather than slide and I employ more forward spine tilt and projection and "intentional" late timing.
So, anyways...that was my story of my first time as a "pseudo-coach" and while I obviously don't have the skill set nor credentials to do much more than what I did...it was kinda fun to see this guy clean up his approach and start really getting excited when we were playing the "accuracy game".