To all that came back this year from a long layoff....

[LOUVIT]

Where did you start with your come back and where are you now/

personally I was a mess 5 months ago after 25+ years not bowling. i was all over the place 5 months ago and using an old ball which wouldn't hook a inch. I learned that things changed. I now have 2 new balls that move a lot and I am at the point that I shoot 130 or 230...lol. I just need to learn to concentrate on my release. I pull the ball a lot buy not keeping my wrist stright through the follow through.

let's help each other...

[panbanger]

Well I came back 4 years ago after 20+ years away. I still feel that I'm new to it, especially after reading some posts here and almost every post at some other forums. PAP, axis tilt, RG, huh? lol! If I hit my spot, I do well - that's what I know so far. For me it's about my release, but really my whole delivery. If my timing is off, I try to put extra muscle on the release and end up pulling it. Then sometimes I overcompensate and baby my whole delivery and the ball goes 10 MPH and hooks too much. What can I say I have to practice more so that ideally my delivery would become second nature.

[panbanger]

Also if you haven't done it yet, you might want to get some video of yourself bowling. Not to post on here necessarily, but just to look at yourself. I bought a mini tripod for my iphone for about 12 bucks on Amazon and have lots of video of me bowling over the past few years. When I look at the video of shortly after I got back in to the sport (when I switched from conventional to fingertip grip) and compare it to more recent stuff, I see definite improvement.

[Tony]

Also if you haven't done it yet, you might want to get some video of yourself bowling. Not to post on here necessarily, but just to look at yourself. I bought a mini tripod for my iphone for about 12 bucks on Amazon and have lots of video of me bowling over the past few years. When I look at the video of shortly after I got back in to the sport (when I switched from conventional to fingertip grip) and compare it to more recent stuff, I see definite improvement.

When I read the title of this thread I thought the OP was talking about the long layoff over summer ! I guess not .. The idea of taking some video is a good one, after all that's exactly what many coaches will do to more easily show you where your form, footwork, release is breaking down and causing problems.

Take a look at some of the coaching sites to see the different angles they look at to evaluate a bowler. Seems like so often we see video only from behind and showing mostly upper body and that just doesn't show the whole picture.

Good luck to all of you folks returned to the sport and presumably starting up here, there are a number of knowledgeable bowlers and coaches around here....but remember not all great players are great coaches and not all great coaches are great players.

[dmet225]

I'm in my 4th season since returning after almost a 20-year layoff. My first six months, I averaged 191 using a couple of balls that a friend gave me. Once I started figuring out what these new balls do, I bought my own and had the guy re-measure my hand. Since then, I've had an average as high as 217 and as low as 205. I buy a new ball about once a year. I've also had 2 300's and a 298 since returning.

To this day, I still know virtually nothing about differential, PAP, RG, etc. I just know what I want my ball to do and the guy in the pro shop will guide me in the right direction.