hmmm... I'm going to play the Devil's Advocate here, but not to be a jerk.... Just hear me out...
The internet is a tough thing, because none of us can really see what you're doing, how you're doing it, etc. Yeah, we can answer some questions, but others, who knows. So maybe you went to the pro shop and told this guy what you wanted to do and he decided it was bad form.
That being said, for purposes of full disclosure: I have horrible form. I sustained a baseball injury on my right thumb a long time ago, and bowling with my thumb in the hole is unnatural, and gets downright painful after a couple frames. But bowling with bad form will make consistency almost impossible. I bowled a couple times, a couple leagues, and had plenty of people ridicule me for not bowling properly, and explain that until I learn to bowl properly I'd never be any good. People are weird about bowling sometimes....
So I went out and found a USBC certified coach (if you ask someone in your bowling alley, they'll either know of one, or at least be able to point you in the right direction), and took a couple lessons (prices may vary, I went on a somewhat cheap side). I got a good coach, showed him my thumb (just by visually inspecting it, you can tell it's not exactly 100% normal, although it's not freakish either....), explained my issue, and asked for solutions. He worked with me on other things. My approach, my motions, my release. We found a way for me to bowl and release it as close to perfect as anyone with "perfect" form. My average rose dramatically (before the lesson, I was always hovering around 140-145, after the lesson, I almost immediately rose to about a 150-155), and is STILL on the rise (as of last league night, I had a 180-even average).
SO... that being said. You admitted you're new to the sport. There's a better than zero chance, the guy at the pro shop was a stubborn jerk, but just for fun, maybe he knows something about bowling (not necessarily a LOT, but something). You're new. You're OBVIOUSLY interested in getting better. Would it, perhaps, benefit you in the long tun to take at least one lesson, and just see what you can learn? Proper habits from the beginning, probably can't hurt anything!!!
You take care, man, and high scores!
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