Greetings from Minneapples!

[Grimthrow]

Hey everyone!

Interesting story, I'll try to keep it short. Couple years ago I bought a banjo, I love it, so much fun. A few months after I bought it I was talking to my mom about it and she said my gramps (her dad) always wanted one of his sons to play banjo. I thought that was pretty cool.

Recently I've had this strange urge to start bowling, not just to go out and bowl, but actually learn the game with my own ball and shoes. Well it turns out that the same grandpa was an excellent bowler, had many trophies. I didn't know him very well, but I found it pretty sweet that we had those things in common.

So anyway today I went to the pro-shop at my local alley, and got sized up for my first custom ball. Nothing super fancy, around the $125 range, and I'll be starting my bowling adventure on Monday.

[littlelegs]

Welcome to the boards! Hope you love the sport as much as everyone here does. Let us know how it goes and of course...any questions then ask away :)

[tumblebug1949]

Hi Grimthrow,

Nice story and having another good bowler in your family history can't hurt. Welcome to the forum. I think you will find the others here quite helpful. Generally if they can't give you an answer to your question, they can send you to a site that can.

Every time I think of Minneapples, this time of year, I get a cold chill.I assume you are talking about that city way up north.

I see you started with your local pro shop. That is usually the best way to start.

Good luck
Tom

[Grimthrow]

Thanks you two, yeah it's actually not cold here at all right now. Weird winter so far.

Indeed, the guy at the pro shop was a huge help. I looked him up and he's won plenty of local tournaments.

[got_a_300]

Welcome to the forums Grimthrow sounds like you are taking the right first steps to becoming
a great bowler yourself by going to the Pro shop first. If you have any questions be sure to
post them here in the forums and someone will be able to help you as we have some of the
best bowlers and coaches around here in the forums that will be glad to answer your questions
and be willing to help you out.

[littlelegs]

Thanks you two, yeah it's actually not cold here at all right now. Weird winter so far.


We're due to climb back into the low 40's tomorrow with a (probably rain) storm on the horizon for next week. Very strange winter that's killing the snowmobile tourism in Maine this year and the ski areas are suffering too.

[bdpeters]

welcome to the forum I will be looking forward to hearing from you. it seems that everyone is having a strange winter. Here in Utah we had the driest December on record and the first few days of 2012 have been pretty nice daytime temps. got a small snow storm coming this weekend but I doubt it will amount to much.

Bri

[Grimthrow]

Bowled my first 3 games with the new ball today. I still have no hook but the Pro Shop owner gave me some tips. I was apparently over-rotating my wrist, like instead of just doing a 90 degree with my hand, I'm doing closer to a complete 180. Also he told me to the right of the second arrow because they really oil the area in the middle, and I need to work on keeping my speed down to like 12 to 13 mph for right now.

Sound like O.K. advice?

He said my technique was better then most beginners so I was happy about that. I averaged around 140 each game. I plan on going once a day because it's a dollar a game before 11am....and I work at 4pm :)
My spares were going pretty nicely actually, I was just having a tough time finding the pocket, not having much of a hook didn't help.

The weather is still crazy nice here. I jogged today in a t-shirt. Extremely rare for this time.

[J Anderson]

Hi Grimthrow
In my family, my dad was the bowler and my wife's grandfather played the banjo. My dad and I were lucky to be able to bowl together on the same team for about 30 years. A few years back My wife and I inherited the banjo and I started taking lessons last year. So far its as much work as it is fun.

[Grimthrow]

Haha! Interesting!

I'm kind of a self taught banjo player. I learned the basics from a Pete Werenick DVD and just brought those basic rolls into new chords and created my own songs. I don't like learning other songs because I get too agitated if it isn't perfect. Creating my own songs keeps everything fresh and I may not be learning as fast as other players but at least I'm learning something new every day. It helps that I have a couple friends that are learning acoutistic guitar at the same level. We just jam together. They play backup chords to my songs and I play backup to their's.

Try to mix things up a little bit and just see what different chords sound like with different rolls. Another thing I do that is fun is just play a basic back up roll to a band like the Avett Brothers, something fun and simple. It will start to get fun :D

[Grimthrow]

This is a great song to just strum or do a basic roll too. It's slow and just allows me to listen and figure out what chords sound good with which parts of the song. Just find a basic roll that works, get the rhythm down and then switch through the basic chords you know to try to fit the song.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqZZlL0l5Uk&ob=av2e

[StormGirl]

Welcome to the boards. That is quite an interesting story. Good luck with your bowling, and should you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask!