Went to see the Coach today .....why didn't I do this before now!

[Tony]

The area where I live in is also home to one of the Gold level coaches, Richard Shockley, and today I had my first session with him. What a great guy and an unbelievable source of bowling knowledge!
After talking to me for a few minutes he had me bowl a few frames and determined several things that I needed to improve in order to reach my goal of averaging 200 this season. A few small changes in foot position, hand position, follow through and posture and I feel an incredible difference in the way the ball rolls down the lane, I am amazed at how great of a difference it made to make these small changes !
I can't say enough how helpful this has been, and it's only the first session!

[John Anderson]

I think that's something a lot of people wonder after they see a coach. Glad to hear you are happy with the results so far. I'm sure you will continue to be happy with them in the future as well.

[rv driver]

My high school band director always told us, "Practice doesn't make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect. If you practice your mistakes, you will learn them." A good coach can give you an outside perspective and help you shed your mistakes so you don't end up perfecting them, instead of your game. Good for you!

[foreverincamo]

Shockley is awesome. I watch his videos on YouTube.

[Tony]

Shockley is awesome. I watch his videos on YouTube.

He is even more awesome in person, I feel very fortunate to have access to someone with his level of expertise and coaching ability to help me improve my game. He goes over everything starting with equipment and fit of the bowling balls.
I can already see the improvement in my game with one session!
I even convinced one of my teammates to set up a session... I can't wait to see if he can convince the most resistant to change guy in the world to change his game. Seriously, this guy still has a rotary phone in his kitchen !

[Amyers]

He is even more awesome in person, I feel very fortunate to have access to someone with his level of expertise and coaching ability to help me improve my game. He goes over everything starting with equipment and fit of the bowling balls.
I can already see the improvement in my game with one session!
I even convinced one of my teammates to set up a session... I can't wait to see if he can convince the most resistant to change guy in the world to change his game. Seriously, this guy still has a rotary phone in his kitchen !

Hey don't poach my teammates

[Tony]

My high school band director always told us, "Practice doesn't make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect. If you practice your mistakes, you will learn them." A good coach can give you an outside perspective and help you shed your mistakes so you don't end up perfecting them, instead of your game. Good for you!

He examines every aspect of the game and pointed out a major flaw after the first throw I made, a bad habit I never even realized I had, bending my torso forward on release of the ball...now after realizing it I can see that it's a very common issue by watching other bowlers and seeing a great number of them doing it.
The good part was that up until release my posture and form were quite good.

[Tony]

Hey don't poach my teammates

He is a great guy but more set in his ways than anyone I've ever known, we tried to convince him a few months ago to go out to a popular pizza joint with a bunch of friends for a special occasion, he declined saying it's chicken night ! He also has a fish night and a wing night and will not deviate from that schedule for anything.....SMH

[J Anderson]

He is a great guy but more set in his ways than anyone I've ever known, we tried to convince him a few months ago to go out to a popular pizza joint with a bunch of friends for a special occasion, he declined saying it's chicken night ! He also has a fish night and a wing night and will not deviate from that schedule for anything.....SMH

Is he related to Wade Boggs?

[Aslan]

The trick with coaching comes later.

Yes, the first lesson you take...or even the first lesson with a new coach...it's exciting to fix little things you never realized or other people didn't think of.

However, if you keep going, to him or someone else...every 2-8 weeks or whatever...there are going to be many more things...some of which will likely cause your scores to go down in the short term. Kinda a 3 steps forward, one step back kinda deal. A lot of bowlers tend to stop going to coaches once that happens. But I've found that for certain things, that needs to happen. There are just certain things that take time and practice to fix...and during that time...scores go down a little.

I've been struggling with footwork since I first started throwing the ball back in 2013. Almost everyone on the website has commented on my videos about my giant/akward first step. But fixing that first step...has been very, very difficult and we've (the coach and I) tried multiple different ways to get rid of it. And it does mess with my game and scoring a bit because screwing around with that first step tends to cause timing issues until I eventually get it under control.

Mudpuppy Cliff Notes: The first lesson is easy. The trick is continuing to take lessons when the improvement isn't easy.

It's a huge issue for bowling coaches as well. What is the biggest reason people stop going to a coach or revert back to old habits? Because the new habits don't work immediately. And bowlers are extremely impatient as a group.

SideNote: What did you end up having to pay and how long was the lesson? Gold coaches can be pricey, just wondering.

[GeoLes]

I totally get it. I saw my coach Tuesday and told him I had been having problems with consistency lately. He straigtened out my posture during setup. I have been gradually increasing the shoulder drop over time to the point where my hip becomes slighly misaligned. He moved my ball hand further out. I did not realize that I was holding it so close to the center of my body. He had me extend my arm towards him and felt the tense shoulder muscle on top (even without the ball in hand) and said, when I setup to close inside, I push outward, tighten my shoulder and bring it foreard to get the ball to my mark. He did the same thing from the correct setup position and much less shoulder tension.

NoW that I think of it. I have been having trouble with my right deltoid and the outside of the bicep, especially when I extend the arm at shoulder height. Who knew? (yes, my coack knew)

Indeed it is "the little foxes that spoil the vines"

[Tony]

The trick with coaching comes later.

Yes, the first lesson you take...or even the first lesson with a new coach...it's exciting to fix little things you never realized or other people didn't think of.

However, if you keep going, to him or someone else...every 2-8 weeks or whatever...there are going to be many more things...some of which will likely cause your scores to go down in the short term. Kinda a 3 steps forward, one step back kinda deal. A lot of bowlers tend to stop going to coaches once that happens. But I've found that for certain things, that needs to happen. There are just certain things that take time and practice to fix...and during that time...scores go down a little.

I've been struggling with footwork since I first started throwing the ball back in 2013. Almost everyone on the website has commented on my videos about my giant/akward first step. But fixing that first step...has been very, very difficult and we've (the coach and I) tried multiple different ways to get rid of it. And it does mess with my game and scoring a bit because screwing around with that first step tends to cause timing issues until I eventually get it under control.

Mudpuppy Cliff Notes: The first lesson is easy. The trick is continuing to take lessons when the improvement isn't easy.

It's a huge issue for bowling coaches as well. What is the biggest reason people stop going to a coach or revert back to old habits? Because the new habits don't work immediately. And bowlers are extremely impatient as a group.

SideNote: What did you end up having to pay and how long was the lesson? Gold coaches can be pricey, just wondering.

I can certainly see your point about the first sessions being "easy", the coach finds the big ticket items and the student improves and is happy. I am certainly going to have to work at making the changes stick by practicing enough to cause them to become habit and not backslide and get sloppy.
I imagine some learned habits like the big step are very difficult to change. We will see how it goes as we progress through the next sessions, I purchased a package of 4 sessions for 195.00 and it says each session is one hour although the first one lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes.
After these sessions are up I will assess where I am at, if I am feeling good about my game and have pushed my average up in the 200 range I will probably take a break from coaching lessons for a while.

[manke]

Good luck always keep a open mind, coaches are a great tool.

[Tony]

Went back for a second session, lasted close to two hours and I was getting tired.
Worked on spare shooting and where to line up and what ball to throw.

Having been a one ball player for many years I was used to hooking my ball at spares and am learning that in most situations that is not the high percentage shot. Worked a lot on 10 pins since they come up so often.

The coach was throwing a house ball down and setting up different spare shots, he was absolutely amazing at lofting down a house ball and leaving me a 10 pin to shoot at, he actually did it 5 shots in a row at one point.

I was having some trouble hitting my mark on the 10 pins and he took some video and discovered that on the third step I was stepping in front of my left foot and blocking myself from walking straight to the line. once I straightened that out I hit 5 - 10 pins in a row.

Using the plastic ball for many of the spare shots takes the oil out of the picture and increases my chance to make the shot.

[NewToBowling]

I've watched many of his videos on YouTube. The biggest thing I got from him is how little you have to turn your wrist to hook these modern balls. A slight rotation is all you need. And NEVER rotate the thumb past vertical (12pm on clock)