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).



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.

[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?