Purposeful practice

[billf]

How many people practice with a purpose (other than to get better). Do you work on individual things or just bowl for score?

Personally, I usually bowl at least one game just trying to get the corner pins starting with the 7 then the 10. If I start to struggle with a particular spare then I will just try to shoot that spare. It's a little harder due to always having to start with a full rack but can be done.
I also practice different marks and starting positions with appropriate releases.

[JaMau24]

Well I haven't practiced hitting certain pins in a while. I really need to practice throwing a straight ball at spares (like the pros). Especially 10 pins. I'm only picking up like 70% of my 10 pins right now, which is awful for me, because I have high expectations. I want to be at 95% and above on ALL single pin spares someday.

Here is my single pin percentages since December (when I started bowling again).

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w261/astroph/Bowling/SinglePins.jpg

The missed 5 pins were simple just a lack of focus and/or me being frustrated about something and taking the easy pick-up for granted and missing. Always focus on every spare, which sometimes I fail to do, especially when I'm frustrated.

[JerseyJim]

Usually I'll practice spare shooting, then I start experimenting with various adjustments to get a feel for how they might fit into a certain situation. I rarely pay attention to my score.

[Davec13]

Well now that leagues are over for me that is, bowling has slowed down. When we do go out it's more of a couple date night thing and no one else is a bowler. Instead of showing them up I usually will throw all their second balls. You would be amazed at some of the interesting leaves I get to throw at. :D

[peterfa]

Practice is different for every session. Sometimes it's shooting specific pins out of a full rack; other times it's working on my accuracy to a given spot (ie: just hitting my mark regardless of pin result). Then it could be working down-and-in versus deep-inside (problem getting ball out on deep shot). Yes, practice is practice, not always shooting for score. Save that for when it counts.

[Florida Bowler]

Right now I'm just trying to get my form back after a long layoff. In the past, I have worked on corner pins and tried different lines to the pocket. I like the idea of hitting a mark without regard to how the ball finishes.

-DJ

[GeorgiaStroker]

I'm just trying to get my form back too, but I do have a couple of quotes about practice from Steve Felege's Essentials of bowling.

"A practice session is absolutely worthless if you don't learn anything".

"When you're not practicing, someone else is. When you compete against that person, they're going to beat you".

[kev3inp]

I too often try to pick the 10 and the 7 off the rack in practice. I also try to avoid throwing in my comfort zone. I'll play with trying to get to the pocket from each arrow starting from the outside and working in. Sometimes I go just to try different hand positions or finger positions, but that seems to screw me up when it comes to league more than it helps.

[JaMau24]

Getting ready to go now to work on my 10 pin. 2 or 3 games, ALL ten pins. I picked up 8 of 10 in the tourney Saturday, and only 2 of 4 yesterday. I'm tired of it, so I'm gonna work my butt off trying to fix this.

[billf]

Getting ready to go now to work on my 10 pin. 2 or 3 games, ALL ten pins. I picked up 8 of 10 in the tourney Saturday, and only 2 of 4 yesterday. I'm tired of it, so I'm gonna work my butt off trying to fix this.

Do you throw straight at ten pins or hook it?

[JaMau24]

Do you throw straight at ten pins or hook it?

I hook it. Precisely the problem. Whenever I try to throw it straight, it's completely inaccurate, partly because I don't devote a full practice to throwing it straight at the 10 pin, time after time. Today, that is what I did. I threw it 48 times in a row, at the 10 pin, throwing it straight. Started awful, but really begin to get it going my last 25 or so. I'm going to continue to practice to do this, because I want so badly to get that 10 pin every time.

Overall, good practice day.

[billf]

Glad it went well. I have trouble throwing it straight now. That's why I went with plastic. I stand with my right foot at 30 and aim for 18 at the arrows. If I hit between 16 and 20 I can pick it up. When I do miss i get so upset with myself but only for a few seconds. If it happens in the 10th frame then I allow myself to stew a little longer.

[JaMau24]

Glad it went well. I have trouble throwing it straight now. That's why I went with plastic. I stand with my right foot at 30 and aim for 18 at the arrows. If I hit between 16 and 20 I can pick it up. When I do miss i get so upset with myself but only for a few seconds. If it happens in the 10th frame then I allow myself to stew a little longer.

Ya, I can usually pick it up about 75% of the time when I hook it in to the 10 pin, but that just isn't good enough. Plus, I really want to learn to throw it straight at it (So I can become more accurate, and take lane conditions completely out of the equation). It's going to take some time and practice. I've already improved after today. The first 32 times I threw at it today, I only picked it up 12 times. Then, I tinkered with my release, and had a much more controlled arm swing, and I picked it up 15 out of my next 20 throws. Still, not great (or where I want to be), but a HUGE improvement over the first 32 times I threw it. It can only get better with more practice.

[striker12]

when i go up i get them to get it up where i do a full game of just throwing at 10 pins then next game 7 pins and then 3rd 6 pins, because those are my most single spares i miss my msot one is the 7 pin i get the 5 pin 70% of the time but same reason as jamau this with was in from (march-april ).

thats for all my single pin spares i rarly leave up just single pins but if it is going to be its manly the 6 pin but the one i have msot probly with is 7pins i try to hook and i miss to the right sometimes and if i throw streght at it i miss to the left always.

but if it coems to 2nd rolls i leave up alot of 10s and i barly make then but thats with other pins up too have up 39 10 pins only knock down 14 of them in 2 months and 6 pins jsut as bad 44 elft up 21 knocked down just under half, the rest of the pins i get over 50% of them down and my highest the 5 pins 76% when there other pins up.

[striker12]

when it come to my first rolls my percentages are.

1pin-70% 169/240
2pin-74% 178/240
3pin-75% 181/240
4pin-82% 197/240
5pin-80% 194/240
6pin-81% 196/240
7pin-91% 219/240
8pin-85% 204/240
9pin-84% 203/240
10pin-83% 201/240

seems like i knock the back pins down more then the front pins lol

[TheSheibs]

I usually go for highest game possible to start with. Once I hit what I beleive is the high game for the day, I spend two or three games trying different things. Ball position, start position, speed of the ball. I would say work on getting spares but that is something I always practice doing. I also make sure to practice my strike ball. As I get tired, I tend to make mistakes when I throw the ball. So I tend to take that time to work on hitting my mark with a good follow through. I figure if I can hit my mark when I'm tired, I should have no problem doing it when I'm rested.

[J Anderson]

I usually go for highest game possible to start with. Once I hit what I beleive is the high game for the day, I spend two or three games trying different things. Ball position, start position, speed of the ball. I would say work on getting spares but that is something I always practice doing. I also make sure to practice my strike ball. As I get tired, I tend to make mistakes when I throw the ball. So I tend to take that time to work on hitting my mark with a good follow through. I figure if I can hit my mark when I'm tired, I should have no problem doing it when I'm rested.

I take the opposite tack. I start practice with corner pins, sometimes the 7 followed by the 10 on the second ball, sometimes the 7 or the 10 followed by trying to make the spare. Then I might try for the 7 in the first frame, the 4pin in the second, 2 pin in the third and so on. Then having done the drudgery part I'll work on different lines to the pocket. That way I reward myself with some strikes.

[LTNINGFan]

I think what I need to do (and if one of you more experienced folks want to chime in, go ahead) after I get my new Track 300T, is to start working on learning the hook and where to stand :) Then I'll work on my corner pins...

[billf]

Another Joe Slowinski article http://bowlingknowledge.info/images/stories/slowinskinov11.pdf

[swingset]

Every practice is different, but I usually start out doing a video to look for mistakes or form issues. Then I roll a couple games just to shoot normally, sometimes that leads me to tackle specific things.

Otherwise, I'll usually switch to my plastic ball and throw a down/in for a first ball. That helps me to work on the straight aim with the plastic and makes for lots of spare shooting so it serves two purposes.

Then after I do that a while I go back to my strike ball to practice carry-down and erratic lane condition shooting...as I've usually messed up an already questionable lane. It really helps at the end as I'm loose and comfortable to watch the ball and adjust, gives you a good lesson in how to read a lane and how your position and swing affects it.

[TheSheibs]

I've started to get into the habit of trying to figure out the lane conditions as fast as possible with the fewest throws as well. I noticed that is one of my weaknesses. I have been averaging about 7-8 frames before I figure it out and make the necessary adjustments. So the first game I spend looking at how much my ball hooks and if it doesn't have a big hook, I have started to move to the left(I'm left handed) at least one dot. Once that is done if it curves too much I start moving back to the right one board at a time. Last practice session it took me three games before I did this due to having a good curve during those games before the lane conditions broke down. Then I just worked on consistency and high games. I think this is my new practice session routine.

[martinezsam2495]

Well I haven't practiced hitting certain pins in a while. I really need to practice throwing a straight ball at spares (like the pros). Especially 10 pins. I'm only picking up like 70% of my 10 pins right now, which is awful for me, because I have high expectations. I want to be at 95% and above on ALL single pin spares someday.

Here is my single pin percentages since December (when I started bowling again).

http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w261/astroph/Bowling/SinglePins.jpg
what app is that?

The missed 5 pins were simple just a lack of focus and/or me being frustrated about something and taking the easy pick-up for granted and missing. Always focus on every spare, which sometimes I fail to do, especially when I'm frustrated.

what app is that?

[billf]

At the Bronze Coach Certification Seminar in Indianapolis, Indiana. The instructor, former women's PBA player and Gold certified coach Pat Costello, really hammered on purposeful practice tonight. This class is filled with some amazing coaches whose brains I plan to pick including former PBA touring pro Marty Miller, 3 time All-American at and current coach of UMES Kristina Frahm. Yes, that's the national championship team. She won as a player her senior year then stepped up and won the following year as the head coach. I'm actually surprised how many high school and college coaches are just now taking this class. There is one college coach who earned his level 1 in 2001 and is just now taking his bronze seminar. It's quite a varied group of people from all over the country with one very common interest; a passion for bowling and sharing that passion with others through teaching.

[Hampe]

That sounds awesome Bill.....you're making me jealous :)