If you could work on one area of your game what would it be?

[JasonNJ]

Having a bad third game is very common among house bowlers who either can't bring themselves to making large enough lateral moves, or sticking with very aggressive balls for too long, or both. Where does your comfort zone end? How far left can you go before you feel like you can't get the ball back to the pocket?

So what does it mean when your 3rd game avg is the highest? I just looked at my league secretary stats and I'm averaging 187 first games, 177 2nd games and 200 for 3rd games.

[AlexNC]

I have an appointment for lesson #2 tonight and my coach seems to be big on me telling him what I want to work on. It got me thinking if you were going to work on one aspect of your game what would it be?

I would want to work on my timing, which seams to be causing some accuracy issues of late.

[J Anderson]

So what does it mean when your 3rd game avg is the highest? I just looked at my league secretary stats and I'm averaging 187 first games, 177 2nd games and 200 for 3rd games.

Most likely you're late adjusting to the transition in the second game, causing the ten pin drop from the first game. By the third game you've probably burned off any excess energy and are just trusting your swing.

[Amyers]

Well the largest portion of my lesson was moving farther back on the approach and when to make adjustments. Between the higher starting ball position and the farther back starting position the ball did seem to be traveling noticeably faster. No speed monitors in that house so I will have to wait to see how much actual progress was made. I have been very impressed with his help of moving me around and changing things with out completely throwing my timing off. In the past when I have tried to make these type of changes it's destroyed my timing and my entire game has fallen apart. That doesn't seem to be happening.

Someone asked about spine tilt and that probably is a factor I tend to be very straight up and down and rather stiff during my delivery. In the past I have always tried to have as few moving parts as possible. While I do believe this promotes accuracy it may be part of the cause of the low speed. Definitely something to investigate in a future lesson.

Had some people ask about videos. There are some older ones posted on here if you really want to take a look but I've changed a decent amount again since I posted last. I've been helped by some of the comments people have made on here before (RobM, MWhite, and some others). The issue has become that for me at this point it takes someone besides me to watch and make sure I'm not making new issues as I correct old ones.

Thank you everyone who commented you really did help me decide what to focus on.

[J Anderson]

I have an appointment for lesson #2 tonight and my coach seems to be big on me telling him what I want to work on. It got me thinking if you were going to work on one aspect of your game what would it be?

I'm tempted to say the same as Rob, getting more ball speed. The trouble is that with my current three step approach more speed tends to lead to less accuracy and/or poor timing.

Instead I think I should work on what Dean Hintz calls "observation without judgement". While I'm pretty good about watching my ball from the point it enters my field of vision until it hits the pins, I tend to lose sight of it on contact and seldom see where it exits the pin deck. I also tend to stop watching shots that I know are way off target.

[Aslan]

Developing more ball speed. It seems like every center in which I bowl, the lanes are dominated by the higher speed bowlers.

There are times I wish I could donate 2mph to you. I think it would help both our games!

Well the largest portion of my lesson was moving farther back on the approach

I've had multiple coaches tell me the same thing about ball speed. If you want "faster", move back in the approach. If you want "slower", move up in the approach. The theory behind that is, your body will adjust to the distance automatically. Your mind knows where you need to end up...so without even trying, your feet will speed up or slow down accordingly.

But you're absolutely right that approach changes will cause timing issues that you then need to tweak/fix.

This has been a tough thing for me to learn and has taken a couple years...because I have a tendency to use a very big first step (as many on here pointed out early on). So if I move up to slow down, then take a huge first step...I have to practically tip toe like Fred Flinstone to avoid fouling. But if I move way back....sometimes I really mess up my timing because if my feet don't adjust enough....my swing changes to compensate...then timing issues.

But speed is 80% feet, 10% power, and 10% build. At least that's how I'd characterize it. And if you watch most of the high level pros, they start so far back on the approach that their heel is virtually hanging off the back of the approach. That's how those tiny guys like Norm Duke and Pete Weber generate the ball speed and power that they do. They aren't tall, and they aren't bodybuilders. They just move very fast, have perfect slides, and transfer that momentum into the shot with near perfect timing and a consistent release. Add in a single-pin spare conversion % of over 95%...and you're a Hall of Famer. When you watch the PBA50 (which I enjoy more), you see much slower speeds, lower strike rates, more importance on spare shooting, etc...

That's why Parker Bohn is such a stud. He rolls into the PBA50 and at times has been unstoppable because he has all the skill and experience of those PBA50 guys but the speed of a 21-year old...not to mention the inherent lefty advantage.

[Amyers]

There are times I wish I could donate 2mph to you. I think it would help both our games!


I've had multiple coaches tell me the same thing about ball speed. If you want "faster", move back in the approach. If you want "slower", move up in the approach. The theory behind that is, your body will adjust to the distance automatically. Your mind knows where you need to end up...so without even trying, your feet will speed up or slow down accordingly.

But you're absolutely right that approach changes will cause timing issues that you then need to tweak/fix.

This has been a tough thing for me to learn and has taken a couple years...because I have a tendency to use a very big first step (as many on here pointed out early on). So if I move up to slow down, then take a huge first step...I have to practically tip toe like Fred Flinstone to avoid fouling. But if I move way back....sometimes I really mess up my timing because if my feet don't adjust enough....my swing changes to compensate...then timing issues.

But speed is 80% feet, 10% power, and 10% build. At least that's how I'd characterize it. And if you watch most of the high level pros, they start so far back on the approach that their heel is virtually hanging off the back of the approach. That's how those tiny guys like Norm Duke and Pete Weber generate the ball speed and power that they do. They aren't tall, and they aren't bodybuilders. They just move very fast, have perfect slides, and transfer that momentum into the shot with near perfect timing and a consistent release. Add in a single-pin spare conversion % of over 95%...and you're a Hall of Famer. When you watch the PBA50 (which I enjoy more), you see much slower speeds, lower strike rates, more importance on spare shooting, etc...

That's why Parker Bohn is such a stud. He rolls into the PBA50 and at times has been unstoppable because he has all the skill and experience of those PBA50 guys but the speed of a 21-year old...not to mention the inherent lefty advantage.

I agree you two less and me two more we would both be better off. So far my timing has faired well with the changes but we will see if that continues.

[Mark O]

I think I would have to say my footwork. I tend to drift to the right, especially when I have to move in and it really restricts my ability to actually play deeper.

[fokai73]

Having a bad third game is very common among house bowlers who either can't bring themselves to making large enough lateral moves, or sticking with very aggressive balls for too long, or both. Where does your comfort zone end? How far left can you go before you feel like you can't get the ball back to the pocket?

It's crazy, my highest averages (8 to 10 years ago) was when I played 18-25 at the arrows. These days I rarely go past the 4th and ball down. For some reason or another, I don't trust my game anymore playing pasted the 4th arrow. Ever since I started playing straighter for the last 8 years, visually playing inside, it's not the same like before. I was comfortable playing inside and in front of the ball return. Not anymore. Even Ball returns that are closer to the foul line on the approach, bug me when going for my 10 pin. The rails rub against my knee lol.

When I do ball down, it's off of a medium high RG ball. I haven't used premium equipment, or aggressive ball for THS leagues in a long while. My vivid was the last one I've owned and used for my sport league couple of years ago. In my bag I have a medium/benchmark ball and a urethane.

Anyway, this trend has to stop. I have leagues tonight and I'll see what I can do to over come this mental block. I'm just a few sticks from 220's again, but if I continue to suck like this, that's not going to happen - getting to 220 and beyond. I just make the wrong choices when I have a good first two games. Not every third game sucks. Only when I know I'll have a big set.

[RobLV1]

It's crazy, my highest averages (8 to 10 years ago) was when I played 18-25 at the arrows. These days I rarely go past the 4th and ball down. For some reason or another, I don't trust my game anymore playing pasted the 4th arrow. Ever since I started playing straighter for the last 8 years, visually playing inside, it's not the same like before. I was comfortable playing inside and in front of the ball return. Not anymore. Even Ball returns that are closer to the foul line on the approach, bug me when going for my 10 pin. The rails rub against my knee lol.

When I do ball down, it's off of a medium high RG ball. I haven't used premium equipment, or aggressive ball for THS leagues in a long while. My vivid was the last one I've owned and used for my sport league couple of years ago. In my bag I have a medium/benchmark ball and a urethane.

Anyway, this trend has to stop. I have leagues tonight and I'll see what I can do to over come this mental block. I'm just a few sticks from 220's again, but if I continue to suck like this, that's not going to happen - getting to 220 and beyond. I just make the wrong choices when I have a good first two games. Not every third game sucks. Only when I know I'll have a big set.

Have you checked your footwork? Do you tend to drift to the right when you get too far inside?