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Thread: Went to see the Coach today .....why didn't I do this before now!

  1. #11
    Ringer GeoLes's Avatar
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    I totally get it. I saw my coach Tuesday and told him I had been having problems with consistency lately. He straigtened out my posture during setup. I have been gradually increasing the shoulder drop over time to the point where my hip becomes slighly misaligned. He moved my ball hand further out. I did not realize that I was holding it so close to the center of my body. He had me extend my arm towards him and felt the tense shoulder muscle on top (even without the ball in hand) and said, when I setup to close inside, I push outward, tighten my shoulder and bring it foreard to get the ball to my mark. He did the same thing from the correct setup position and much less shoulder tension.

    NoW that I think of it. I have been having trouble with my right deltoid and the outside of the bicep, especially when I extend the arm at shoulder height. Who knew? (yes, my coack knew)

    Indeed it is "the little foxes that spoil the vines"
    Last edited by GeoLes; 08-13-2015 at 10:44 AM.
    I live by three simples rules:

    1. Don't ever ask about my business
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  2. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by Aslan View Post
    The trick with coaching comes later.

    Yes, the first lesson you take...or even the first lesson with a new coach...it's exciting to fix little things you never realized or other people didn't think of.

    However, if you keep going, to him or someone else...every 2-8 weeks or whatever...there are going to be many more things...some of which will likely cause your scores to go down in the short term. Kinda a 3 steps forward, one step back kinda deal. A lot of bowlers tend to stop going to coaches once that happens. But I've found that for certain things, that needs to happen. There are just certain things that take time and practice to fix...and during that time...scores go down a little.

    I've been struggling with footwork since I first started throwing the ball back in 2013. Almost everyone on the website has commented on my videos about my giant/akward first step. But fixing that first step...has been very, very difficult and we've (the coach and I) tried multiple different ways to get rid of it. And it does mess with my game and scoring a bit because screwing around with that first step tends to cause timing issues until I eventually get it under control.

    Mudpuppy Cliff Notes: The first lesson is easy. The trick is continuing to take lessons when the improvement isn't easy.

    It's a huge issue for bowling coaches as well. What is the biggest reason people stop going to a coach or revert back to old habits? Because the new habits don't work immediately. And bowlers are extremely impatient as a group.

    SideNote: What did you end up having to pay and how long was the lesson? Gold coaches can be pricey, just wondering.
    I can certainly see your point about the first sessions being "easy", the coach finds the big ticket items and the student improves and is happy. I am certainly going to have to work at making the changes stick by practicing enough to cause them to become habit and not backslide and get sloppy.
    I imagine some learned habits like the big step are very difficult to change. We will see how it goes as we progress through the next sessions, I purchased a package of 4 sessions for 195.00 and it says each session is one hour although the first one lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes.
    After these sessions are up I will assess where I am at, if I am feeling good about my game and have pushed my average up in the 200 range I will probably take a break from coaching lessons for a while.

  3. #13
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    Good luck always keep a open mind, coaches are a great tool.

  4. #14

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    Went back for a second session, lasted close to two hours and I was getting tired.
    Worked on spare shooting and where to line up and what ball to throw.

    Having been a one ball player for many years I was used to hooking my ball at spares and am learning that in most situations that is not the high percentage shot. Worked a lot on 10 pins since they come up so often.

    The coach was throwing a house ball down and setting up different spare shots, he was absolutely amazing at lofting down a house ball and leaving me a 10 pin to shoot at, he actually did it 5 shots in a row at one point.

    I was having some trouble hitting my mark on the 10 pins and he took some video and discovered that on the third step I was stepping in front of my left foot and blocking myself from walking straight to the line. once I straightened that out I hit 5 - 10 pins in a row.

    Using the plastic ball for many of the spare shots takes the oil out of the picture and increases my chance to make the shot.

  5. #15

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    I've watched many of his videos on YouTube. The biggest thing I got from him is how little you have to turn your wrist to hook these modern balls. A slight rotation is all you need. And NEVER rotate the thumb past vertical (12pm on clock)

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