For the coaches/experienced bowlers...how would you coach...

[classygranny]

Just one comment on the 4 step approach. Take a few minutes and watch her start to walk a few times. Like when she starts for the door, just kidding....walking to the restroom, to the snack bar, or the settee area to the approach. Assuming she is right handed...if she starts off with her left foot most of the time (or all of the time) then you would be best served to start with a 5 step approach. We as human beings, being creatures of habit, tend to start our walk out on the same foot most of the time. Letting that be the natural progression on the bowling approach will simplify some of the footwork. She would then need to start the feet prior to the ball, rather than together.

[Blacksox1]

Just one comment on the 4 step approach. Take a few minutes and watch her start to walk a few times. Like when she starts for the door, just kidding....walking to the restroom, to the snack bar, or the settee area to the approach. Assuming she is right handed...if she starts off with her left foot most of the time (or all of the time) then you would be best served to start with a 5 step approach. We as human beings, being creatures of habit, tend to start our walk out on the same foot most of the time. Letting that be the natural progression on the bowling approach will simplify some of the footwork. She would then need to start the feet prior to the ball, rather than together.

classygranny makes a very good point. One that I did not consider, but will remember.

In teaching, do not work on too many new items at once. Work at the pace of the student and be patient.

[Tony]

I will NOT.

I had a much funnier/wittier response but I fear it may have been a bit "racy" for this family oriented website.

Besides, I have a rule against dating 2-handed bowlers...unless they're really hot. Kinda like my "no cats" rule.

So wouldn't the logical first step be to find out if she has a cat, likes cats , wants a cat or maybe a herd of cats ?

[Tony]

Where to start when coaching is determining what her biggest problem is, (aside from the problem of having much older guys hitting on her )
One buddy of mine who is a small guy with a 3 step approach went to a gold coach and we figured he would suggest a 4 or 5 step approach since his ball speed is about 8mph, but the coach being way more perceptive than the average guy realized soon after he spoke with him that he would not be able to easily adapt to such a change instead kept the 3 step and had him raise his starting position to gain more speed.
So keep in mind changing her approach may or may not be a good idea depending on the type of person she is.

Last of all don't feel too bad if you can't radically improve her game in a short period of time, the buddy of mine has a lower average now than when he went to the coach....of course he only took one lesson, because the coach only changed a few things he took it as everything else was just awesome, sounds good but when you avg 135 , everything is probably not awesome.
Good Luck, maybe she'll introduce you to her cat !

[Amyers]

Footwork and timing are the basics and keep it at that. Maybe some very basic work on targeting. Take it slow don't let your frustration show. Good Luck

[JasonNJ]

Coaching beginners can be tough and it really depends on the person on how coachable they are. I have a women on my Weds Night Mixed league she is bowling with a 8 lb house ball with a 100 avg. I've been trying to give her some tips with timing and her arm swing so she at least gets her ball going straight in the middle of the lane. She'll then throw some shots completely ignoring the things I said and comes back to me and tells me what I told her to do isn't working and that she is going to bowl normal. So I just gave up, now I just say good try and give her a high five.

[Aslan]

So I just gave up, now I just say good try and give her a high five.

Yeah. I had a gal on my Wednesday team last season...same thing.

"What am I doing wrong!?"
"Try to stand with your left foot on center and just throw over the 3rd arrow from the right."

She then proceeds to go right back to standing 25-30 and throwing the ball cross lane and getting a 10-pin for a -/1 frame.

So after a couple times of that...now I just say, "Good job. Remember to follow-through." no matter what she does.

[Jessiewoodard57]

I had my Radical Score plugged and re-drilled for my Daughter in law. She had practiced with the ball on dryer lanes and did well with it. I was coaching her as where to start and release the ball but I could not get her to listen (this was during league play) when a woman from another team came over to our pair and told to her ignore me and bowl the way you want. Now mind you this woman does not know the first thing in the world about throwing a hook! I got mad told the woman off and told my daughter in law I was done helping. She continued to line up wrong and throw the ball so far left she was hitting 7 pins all night. Finally I said lanes have changed go back you your first blood and then she returned to hitting the pocket. I called the woman over after league and explained since she threw a straight ball she had no idea what we where trying to correct. I explained that the ball my daughter in law was throwing use to be my ball therefore I knew how it reacted. She said well she was getting mad at you that's why I said something. I told to ask her what she was mad at and my daughter told her it was herself for not hitting the mark and the woman for jumping in and mouthing off making thing worst. Some people!

[Amyers]

My youngest daughter bowls competitively (tournaments and competitions) my oldest daughter does not.

I've had people complain because I'm "getting on to her" when she's up by 50 pins against their kid. it's hard to tell another parent "well my kids actually a 100 pins better than your and she's just goofing off" diplomatically.

I've has parents complain that I treat her league as competitive? Lets see I pay a weekly fee in the expectation that my kid is better than yours and I expect her to win scholarship money. Yeah that's competitive. I don't try and force that on any of the other kids and wouldn't unless they expressed that desire.

I've also had other parents remark because I get onto my youngest but let my eldest make the same mistakes over and over. I treat their bowling completely differently my eldest is there to have fun and make friends. My youngest dreams of competing at the higher levels of bowling. Why would I treat them the same when they have different goals? If I treated my oldest and got onto her the way I do my youngest she wouldn't have fun and most likely would quit. If I let me youngest get away with half effort or ignoring her when she wants help she would quickly become frustrated.

People tend to look at the world through their own narrow views.

[billf]

Very advance but with a funny story

I put a dime on a board at the arrows. Instructions; hit the dime and the pocket. Once she was able to do this 90% of the time I added a quarter at the breakpoint. This was obviously much harder. So here is this tiny teen blowing the snot out of the pins and getting mad as heck. She kept missing the quarter on strikes and not hitting the pocket when she hit the quarter.
At one point she went GRRR and the tips of her ears were turning red. I knew she was mad and why. One of the house shot heroes came over and asked why she was so mad about striking.
"I missed at the breakpoint" she said
"So what, you still struck so what does it matter?"
"Averaging 230 on a house shot doesn't mean squat if I can't average 230 plus on a sport shot. I'm not here to bowl in fun leagues I'm here to try and become the best. In competition you take any strike you can get but in practice the point is to get it right. My alignment is off, I know it and it ticks me off that I haven't figured out the correct alignment for this pattern yet."

Now this jerk keeps running his mouth for a good half hour about what a waste of time it was and being "just a girl" she would never get anywhere. She got fed up, took a 20 out of her wallet and asked if he wanted to bowl. When she started to say what the pattern was he interrupted and said it didn't matter. She beat him 242-173.
Two weeks later we get there and he is practicing, with a piece of tape at the arrows lol