how much practice is apprpriate? How much is too much?

[explorer05]

Personally practice should be determined by you. When start getting tired I would stop. You don't want to over do it to the point that you start getting fast and you start getting bad habits. The only thing I practice is my release and timing. I will find a line and work on just those with all the I use so that I am always confident in my equipment. Plus I get to know that ball and what it will and will not do especially if you get new equipment.

[augoat]

I'm a fairly beginning bowler, but like anything else in life practice quantity is outweighed by practice quality. This is good advice I learned from a guitar teacher while starting out. Be sure to identify something to work on and stick to it. Be sure this si something that needs work, too. If you are already good at something, it's fine to keep that tuned up, but focus on the parts of your game that aren't good or that you don't like practicing. For guitar, don't spend all of your practice time working on things you already are good at doing. Warm up and close with something that you can do well, but dive into the weaknesses. You can't fix everything at once, and people are inclined to drift towards what they are already good at. People like seeing immediate results. Another good example is golf. You see or know someone that can probably blast dozens and dozens of great long balls with their driver, but can't putt or chip or they have another big hole in their game. You see this guy at the range and he spends an hour with his driver and long clubs and 15 minutes on his short game. It's non-sensical. He's probably as good as he is going to get at hitting long balls, but he toils away to get only slightly better there while overlooking a huge hole or holes in his game. He never really reaches full potential. Anyway, just my $0.02 on practice time.

tl;dr
Use your time wisely. Focuse on one or two things in a session and work/focus on those. As for actual time per session, if you are to the point where you lose focus or physically start breaking down, it's time to pack it up. Bad practice leads to bad performance.

[rv driver]

You can ignore the first 1000 words...ABOVE is what matters.

I don't do drills or focus JUST on spare shots...but I DO make changes, some uncomfortable, to my game to try and get to that next level. I DO get coaching and input and study stuff online and read articles. Not to confuse myself...and I have to filter out a LOT. But simple repetitive practice is only going to help you in the beginning...getting a spare system down...maybe rolling the ball and releasing consistently. Once you kinda got the basics down...you need someone to take an honest, 3rd party look at what you're doing and the things you need to fix. And the higher the level of coach or pro that can do that...the better.

I'm not saying you shouldn't ask a pal or even one of these fine online gentlemen...or even internet Gods per se...but a silver or gold level coach...a PBA pro...or a actual bowling instructor...is almost always going to trump a bronze level coach. And a bronze level coach is going to almost always trump "Billy Bob" on lane 32 or the Pro Shop guy or your friend that once threw a 194 game.

You gotta step outside that comfort zone from time to time though if ya want to really advance. It's why when you look at averages in your local USBC Yearbook...you see the same bowlers with virtually identical averages every single season. I just looked at a list of potential competitors I might have to face in a tournament in January or February. Out of 21 bowlers, only 2 (me and one other guy) actually had a significant increase in average over last year. And only 1 had a significant decrease. That means 18 of 21 are just treading water.

A music teacher of mine once said, "Practice doesn't make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect. Don't practice your mistakes -- you'll only learn your mistakes."

[Blomer]

I bowl,in two leagues, Monday's and Wednesday's. I usually try to get in one other day to practice, typically 5 games. Sometimes when I. Stressed with work or just bored I'll put in another day.

[Amyers]

I bowl two leagues Friday and Sunday. I almost always practice on Wednesday and sometimes on Saturday or Sunday before leagues. I would say on average I bowl 10-15 games a week.

[epiepenburg]

I bowl two leagues, my Wednesday league is every week, my Friday league is every other week. I honestly wish I was in one more league. I might practice one time a week other than league. If I do it's usually just 3 or 4 games. The problem with my house is practice is always going to be on burned up lanes. So to go practice, it's really just working on timing and spare shooting.