My first time "coaching"...

[Aslan]

Let me start by saying, "I'm NOT a coach". But, I did attend a seminar for youth bowling and will be getting my Level I certification (which is super easy to get). I would "like" to use that ability to teach my daughter to bowl and/or maybe coach youth/beginner bowlers.

But, since my current league team has 3 of the 5 players that have very little (if any) bowling experience...and the other player (and 1 sub) haven't bowled in like 3 decades...AND...since we are currently in sole possession of 2nd place, 1 point out of 1st place...I thought it would be good to put on a short 1-hour practice session and just go through the basics with the inexperienced guys.

Well, only 1 guy showed up...so that sucked. But, I didn't let it phase me...and I went ahead with the coaching/practice session:

- The first thing we worked on was the 4-step approach. Especially for THIS guy because he has a really fast, almost running, with some "skips" thrown in.
- I also touched on important basics like timing and keeping shoulders straight, but this guy kinda already had that down pretty good.
- We also worked on "drift" and "posting" shots.
- Then we finished by playing a little game to work on accuracy. We each picked a dot...and we had to watch each other bowl...and you had to lay the ball down BEFORE the dot...and you got rated on how many boards you missed the dot by. If you threw over the dot, that was a penalty. Then, after 5 frames, we changed it a little...same "board", but now you had to project the ball OVER the dot ot it was a penalty. Had we had time, we would have done another 5 frames each where we had to project it or loft it to the arrows with the same scoring system in place. The point of the exercise being to get the student to focus on hitting a target consistently.

All in all...this was the fits time I've coached anything since my college days when I used to teach beginning skating to little kid hockey players. Teaching adults is definitely more of a challenge because their game is not going to totally change. You're essentially trying to stear it in a certain direction. The way I would explain it best is; coaching a young child is like operating a jet ski. It's not always easy to turn...but it can turn in relatively any direction and go the other way relatively quickly. But adults are like a tugboat. They are easier to stear...but you can only expect them to turn slightly in one direction or another.

This guy was a unique challenge, because he throws a "back-up" ball. That is NOT the USBC recommended way to bowl. However, since this was just an informal practice and I'm not a REAL coach...I wasn't going to mess with that. So I had to kinda instruct a right-hander that was sort of lined up more like a left-hander.

Adults are also hard because they are SMARTER! After teaching him about timing and taking a shot, he asked, "If you should release the ball when it is parallel to your slide foot/leg....why do YOU hold onto it so long??" <-----THAT was a good observation. Kids don't tend to see that unless it's more obvious. But he saw that I employ "intentional late" timing. So without confusing the ****out of him, I had to explain that I plant rather than slide and I employ more forward spine tilt and projection and "intentional" late timing.

So, anyways...that was my story of my first time as a "pseudo-coach" and while I obviously don't have the skill set nor credentials to do much more than what I did...it was kinda fun to see this guy clean up his approach and start really getting excited when we were playing the "accuracy game".

[Shaneshu87]

awesome! i have put together league practice times and kinda coach it but i just really do the organization and offer beer to the first person to go around the world lol, that gets them pretty excited

[Shaneshu87]

Let me start by saying, "I'm NOT a coach". But, I did attend a seminar....

i was expecting the "but i did sleep at a holiday inn last night..."

[fortheloveofbowling]

All credit and respect to you for trying to help a new bowler out.

[Mudpuppy]

Kudos for your efforts Aslan. If nothing else you got him thinking about his game in an attempt to improve it. Maybe he does maybe he doesn't. Ultimately you can take what you learned from the session to help you in coaching the kids or other people later on. Too bad you don't live closer - I need someone to teach me skating. It's brutal. Trying to learn skating at this late stage in life is not easy especially when I just stumble onto the ice and try to figure it out on my own.

[Shaneshu87]

Kudos for your efforts Aslan. If nothing else you got him thinking about his game in an attempt to improve it. Maybe he does maybe he doesn't. Ultimately you can take what you learned from the session to help you in coaching the kids or other people later on. Too bad you don't live closer - I need someone to teach me skating. It's brutal. Trying to learn skating at this late stage in life is not easy especially when I just stumble onto the ice and try to figure it out on my own.

lol living in Michigan you could use that as a mode of transportation

[Amyers]

Congrats man there's nothing better than trying to help people develop a love for the game

[Aslan]

Well, these comments are far more positive than what I anticipated.

I figured the "actual" coaches on here would scold me for making the attempt given my obviously horrible skill set. Maybe thats being discussed on the "other" site.

Well, thanks all. Not giving up my day job. I do enjoy coaching. It's fun to see people "get it" and how much more fun they have when suddenly they can "bowl" and score above 130. But at this point I'm more of a "need of coaching" than a "coach".

[manke]

Aslan maybe you need to follow your own advice. You seem to know what to do but your not following your own advice alot of the times woth the scores you post. I think you would get alot better if you practice slower and not try to speed bowl. People develope alot of bad habits when they do that.

[Mudpuppy]

lol living in Michigan you could use that as a mode of transportation

You know that's right, lol