General Annoyances with High Rev ballers...a mini rant/observation

[epiepenburg]

We have a couple of thumbless bowlers in our Thursday
night league one has a 200+ average and the other might
have a 120-130 average but he can bowl so much better as
a two hander but he wants to stick with the thumbless one
handed style.

Now as for the game of bowling changing over the years it
has to change or become stagnant and die off as it has died
off way too much the way it is now without change the game
of bowling would be dead and gone.

I bowl in two leagues with a team mate who is a thumbless bowler. He throws a plastic ball. He carry a around a 200-205 average between both leagues. I will say there are some nights where he can be off, but he is fairly consistent.

[Hobbit]

It can be frustrating when u are struggling, and other bowlers using different styles seem to have that "hot" hand.. But like the tide it comes and goes..

The key, to bowling IMHO, is consistency... It always has been, regardless of revs, speed and style.. You have to get it in the right spot, have to read the lanes, and be consistent in your approach and release.. If u can't do ALL these things, u will struggle forever sadly
Personally, I'm doing ok, but know that there are small things in my game that hold me back, that difference is prob 20 plus pins!

Case in point, I bowled 7 games a few days ago, walked away with 202 ave for practise, hadn't bowled for couple of weeks, anyway just to paint the picture here...Tracked my games using an IPhone app where I put in each frame, and it gives me the data on completion of my bowling.. I struck 45%, spared 33% and open frames were like 11% from memory.. There's the news!!! ....So what have I learnt from just one practise session:: I need to work at spares, and improving the quality of my first ball to avoid splits also...This is what I am going to be working on.

On a side note here, that same night, I had beside me on the lanes an elderly Asian bowler beside, we exchanged a few polite glances.. anyway, he was the SMOOTHEST bowler I have ever seen.. His wife was watching him, upon finishing bowling I said to the guys wifes that your husband is a great bowler.. He just used one ball, leftie, slow stroker, and bowled every game over 200 bar one! Anyway, the wife said he's 74yrs and represents Japan in masters tournaments.. Averages beyond 225... The most easily repeatable technique I have seen, little wonder he is still bowling strong and well into his 70's..

My point Aslan, sorry for being so long winded here, but u described yourself as something similar, slow stroker, u know what, if that suits u, stick with it, and u are improving.. I am a slowish 2 handed med revs stroker if that is at all humanly possibly , it works for me (most times!).. Work with what u have, and improve it, identify weakness in your game, and make them strengths?? Just a thought

This guy just had the ball in the right spot, frame to frame, crankers might get that fortunate break of the dishwasher pin exploding experience on pin deck, but are prone to leaving some nasty splits.. He beat me by 20 plus pins on most games, it all came down to consistency.. This guy had truck loads of it!!

[Aslan]

I bowl in two leagues with a team mate who is a thumbless bowler. He throws a plastic ball. He carry a around a 200-205 average between both leagues. I will say there are some nights where he can be off, but he is fairly consistent.

It's possible. Just rare. I bowled in a Thursday league last season and one of the better bowlers was a thumbless bowler…averaged 190-205. So it's possible.

Work with what u have, and improve it, identify weakness in your game, and make them strengths?? Just a thought

My coach mentioned that and I know I heard that from other coaches as well. I was being taught something that the coach normally doesn't teach students…for a variety of reasons…but because I have a tendency to loft…and trying not to loft is causing me some difficulties…but me lofting the "wrong" way is 'bad'…the coach worked with me on the technique. And the coach echoed what you kind've eluded to…that the key to good coaching is taking what a person is comfortable doing and is a strength…and then maximizing that while fixing some other issues that are critical to performance.

The only counter to that argument…depends on what your ultimate goals are. If you're ultimate goal is to be a 160-180 average house bowler on a THS playing in 1-2 leagues a week…you have it made! Because with a little coaching and some practice…you've reached your goal!! But if your goals are more lofty…if you have bigger dreams…you may have to make some real changes to what you do to get to that level. Thats why you see PBA pros often getting coaching and changing their games. Why do they do that? They are in the PBA and could average 224 in any house league. But see…they have goals that are bigger than that. And the bigger the goals…the more you may have to work and even alter your game to something you might 'not' be good at naturally.

[Hobbit]

Aslan, u are right re pros taking coaching/instruction.. Tiger Woods still has coaching, Nadal/Joker/Murray all have a coach, obviously there is a reason!!

re goals, that is the way to go, bowling is fantastic for establishing goals.. In fact I can't imagine bowling without having a couple of goals, both short to long term goals in place..

re pros bowling 224 in most to any league, probably bit higher than that I'm guessing.. Closer to 240 or thereabouts

[J Anderson]

Aslan, u are right re pros taking coaching/instruction.. Tiger Woods still has coaching, Nadal/Joker/Murray all have a coach, obviously there is a reason!!

re goals, that is the way to go, bowling is fantastic for establishing goals.. In fact I can't imagine bowling without having a couple of goals, both short to long term goals in place..

re pros bowling 224 in most to any league, probably bit higher than that I'm guessing.. Closer to 240 or thereabouts

Even for a pro it's hard to average much more than 230 for a whole season even on a THS. Admittedly, Jeff Carter holds the USBC season average record at 261.7 and Mike Scroggins is second at 256.8, but those are really off the scale.

[epiepenburg]

Aslan, u are right re pros taking coaching/instruction.. Tiger Woods still has coaching, Nadal/Joker/Murray all have a coach, obviously there is a reason!!

re goals, that is the way to go, bowling is fantastic for establishing goals.. In fact I can't imagine bowling without having a couple of goals, both short to long term goals in place..

re pros bowling 224 in most to any league, probably bit higher than that I'm guessing.. Closer to 240 or thereabouts

I would agree probably 240 average or better. In one of my leagues there are three guys who are all on the same team and are sponsered by bowling companies (DV8, Brunswick, and Motiv), two of the guys average in the 230's. They pretty much throw 700 series every week. One guy has had two 299's and a 298 this year. One night he went 298-299-238. Pretty hard to compete with these guys, thankfully our handicaps are based off of 90% of 240.

[Aslan]

Pretty hard to compete with these guys, thankfully our handicaps are based off of 90% of 240.

I'm pretty sure they must LOVE that!

[vdubtx]

All of my bowling friends that are on regional tour average 240+ on house shots.

[epiepenburg]

I'm pretty sure they must LOVE that!

Handicap was raised this year because of them joining the league. It's their first year in the league.

These guys all show up with 6 or 7 balls each night.

[vdubtx]

In our leagues that some of the regionals bowl in they actually get negative handicap. Ours is 90% of 230, so if they are 240 average they are giving pins back. Some got mad and quit the first week after that rule got pushed through a vote.