Might get somre practice in tomorrow.

[boatman37]

I work 4 10's and am normally off on Fridays and have a bunch of stops to make tomorrow which takes me right past my bowling alley. Might stop for a couple of quick games where there aren't a hundred people watching and I have the time. Got a new Black Widow Gold Tuesday and did ok with it but we were in really tight games so I was afraid to try different lines. My plan is to start out at the foul line to work on my release and follow through. After that I am going to work on my approach to try to get my timing down and also to try to get lower. My knees have been hurting since week 2 (3 weeks ago). I was wearing house shoes and my slide foot was sticking and I ended up twisting my knee so not sure if it hurts from that day or just hurting in general from doing something it isn't use to. Either way I haven't been sliding and have been releasing with my slide leg straight and no bend. Third I want to work on different lines. As a lefty my usual line is left toe on the 3rd dot from left and throw over the first arrow. I did this with my old Brunswick Cobalt Rhino years ago and it was almost automatic. This year I am having trouble hitting that first arrow so figured I would try different lines as it seems really dry outside the 7th or 8th board. I have also moved right and thrown 2nd arrow but want to try moving in a little more. Lanes have been very dry so might try getting more towards the center on release to get into some oil and then get it outside further down (more back end like the pros do). My old Rhino had no backend but rather a sweeping arc the whole length of the lane. Lastly I need to work on spares. I am going to try my Hammer Spike for my 7 pins. Been struggling with anything on the left side, partially because the balls I have been using have too much backend.

Sound like a good game plan? Not at all concerned with scores tomorrow but primarily learning and practicing. I haven't bowled for about 15 years so I have some catching up to do.

EDIT: I will be by myself but will try to get a good recording, including a few shots with tape to get a rev rate

[boatman37]

k. just bowled 3 practice games. didn't follow my plan but that was because i threw the first couple just to see and it felt good and had 3 in a row to start so i just tried adjusting and tried a few different lines. i recorded about every shot but will have to edit it to post anything. i shanked a few shots to the inside but probably 90% of my shots were in the pocket. rolled a 180, 147, and 211 but scores weren't my objective.

[boatman37]

What are you guys using for video editing? I had tape on the ball to get rev rates but everything I have tried is too jerky. It jumps a few frames so I can't get a count

[bowl1820]

What are you guys using for video editing? I had tape on the ball to get rev rates but everything I have tried is too jerky. It jumps a few frames so I can't get a count

First you should check what frame rate your camera is using? You should use the cameras highest Frame Per Second (FPS) setting, this helps avoid motion blur and gives you better slow motion playback.

Most video cameras shoot at 30fps (30 fps is the minimum you should use), your video should be exported at the same rate. The more FPS you have the smoother the video will be.

As for software pretty much any video player which has a frame counter display and lets you step through frames one at a time will work for figuring revs.

For playing videos I use Potplayer it does fine for counting frames, for actual editing I use the open source program SHOTCUT https://shotcut.org/

[boatman37]

I used my iphone 6S plus. no idea what the framerate was...lol. I will play around with it later

[Phonetek]

You could try taking the video off your phone, putting it on a thumb drive. If you have a smart TV you can watch it right off that and the video app you can use slow motion on. Mine, I have to hit play then pause then >> once and it's slow motion. Otherwise on a PC you can find all kinds of video players. VLC Media player does slow motion and you can slow it down in large or small increments. Just a suggestion.

[boatman37]

Well I timed my shots. Seems to be about 2.20 to 2.30 seconds per shot, which seems to be about 18.2 MPH? The lane sensor usually reads about 16.5 to 17.2 MPH but I think that is at the pins? As close as I can count I see about 10 revolutions going down the lane. If I had to guess I would have said I am about 300 RPM? From what I have calculated it looks like closer to 360?

Still trying to figure out how to post pics and videos.

[boatman37]

Here is one of my better shots. You can see how my form isn't great but it's the way I have been doing it.

https://youtu.be/WgCCxqR6Lm8

[boatman37]

Here are some more clips. Don't have much of my actual approach. I was by myself and did the best I could to place my phone in a good spot to get as much as I could:


https://youtu.be/6iG8ZPK8g8k

[boatman37]

Can only do 1 video per post...ughhhh


[video=youtube_share;7Uj0mYZsyGg]https://youtu.be/7Uj0mYZsyGg

[boatman37]

and one more:


https://youtu.be/PTn52BT-XZI[/VIDEO]

[bowl1820]

Your falling off the shot a lot (The hop left), your balance is off.

Avoid Falling Off Your Shot with Proper Bowling Balance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXPxQEVBhy0

[bowl1820]

Tips for Bowling: Achieving a Balanced Finish Position | USBC Bowling Academy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQO--leUZR0

[boatman37]

Thanks. Makes sense. I think it is partially me being overweight and not very flexible and that I can't extend my right arm out to help with my balance. Going to go back through the videos to see what I did differently on my good shots

EDIT: also noticed that i was stopping a good 18-24" before the foul line. I moved up about a foot for my starting point

[Phonetek]

Thanks. Makes sense. I think it is partially me being overweight and not very flexible and that I can't extend my right arm out to help with my balance. Going to go back through the videos to see what I did differently on my good shots

EDIT: also noticed that i was stopping a good 18-24" before the foul line. I moved up about a foot for my starting point


Being overweight really it's much of a factor in bowling. Flexibility helps though. One of the great things about this game is in general every body type can do it short, tall, fat, skinny and even people in wheel chairs. (Sounds like an old Armour Hot Dogs commercial) Now being morbidly obese in the extreme may cause problems but they usually have trouble getting upright let alone bowling but your not even remotely close to anything like that.
Once you are able to get your timing down, you will be balanced and you'll be able to post your shot. After that happens, everything will fall into place. The first time you do it, you will feel the difference. Before long it will come natural.

[boatman37]

Just went back and watched them again. Looks like I hopped in almost every shot and even the ones I didn't hop I still sidestepped. Probably explains why my knee has been sore. 265 lbs coming down on my one knee about 50 times a night has to have an effect. Another thing is I would like to slow my ball down a little but am having a hard time. Shoulder and elbow probably would appreciate that too...lol

[Phonetek]

It's amazing the things you do that you don't realize until you see yourself on video isn't it?

[boatman37]

It's amazing the things you do that you don't realize until you see yourself on video isn't it?

Yeah really. If you would have asked me I would have said I hopped a couple of times. Never realized it was EVERY time. Definitely a balance issue. A fellow bowler said a few weeks ago that I was rolling my left shoulder over or something.

[classygranny]

I, by no means, have any right to comment on this post - not being coach material; but the things I would question based on my knowledge of reading and from my own coaches over the years:

Appears the ball may be too light for you. I don't recall reading the weight you are using. Seems to be some muscling the ball involved. If you can pick the ball up with your fingers, stand in your stance for that long, I would think a coach would question the weight, or at least what appears to be a lack of a relaxed arm. Could help the elbow/shoulder discomfort.

The hop is definitely an issue, and falling off the shot will sometimes create some elbow/shoulder discomfort and tiredness.

Someone on here once posted something about humming while you deliver the approach to tell if you are truly using too much muscle. I tried it right after that, cause I thought there was no way I could be muscling my ball, but yep....I certainly was. And if I had listened to my elbow and shoulder, I would have known that on my own.

Good luck in getting where you want to be.

[Eddy]

Being overweight really it's much of a factor in bowling.

Very true. There's a guy in my league with a huge beer gut averaging 222. My guess is, if he lost weight quickly, it would affect his game in a negative way at least temporarily.

[Phonetek]

Very true. There's a guy in my league with a huge beer gut averaging 222. My guess is, if he lost weight quickly, it would affect his game in a negative way at least temporarily.

I was recently watching an old PBA from the 80's with my son on Youtube and Mark Roth was a pretty big dude in the early days then he lost a ton of weight pretty quickly. I remember Chris Shankel saying because of the weight loss Mark lost some speed and revs. Judging how is career went, it didn't seem to hurt all that much but it did have an effect on his game. LOL

[boatman37]

I had always used a 16 lb ball but now hearing nobody uses a 16 lb'er anymore I bought a 15. I have a Storm Sync 16 pounder that I used a few times this year and throw it about 1 MPH slower than the 15 pounder. I am 6'0 265 lbs so doesn't take much to overpower a bowling ball.

As for Mark Roth, he ran our local center right around the time I dropped out in 2002. Even being big into bowling I had no idea who he was. With no internet or youtube there were only a few bowlers I had ever heard of. A local bowler/businessman bought our local bowling alley and somehow got with Mark Roth and they made a deal for Mark to run it. They had a new sign made up that said Mark Roths Hall of Fame Lanes or some iteration of that. I ran/coached the local youth league and was there every Saturday and talked to him frequently. He gave me a few tips and I watched him bowl a few games but even after somebody told me he was a pro bowler I still didn't realize his impact on the game or how 'famous' he really was. Seemed like a nice guy for the 6 months or so that I knew him. Something happened with the deal and Mark left and went back to New Jersey and the bowling alley closed down shortly after that.