I have a family member who has been to a few different USBC certified "coaches" for lessons. Some charged by the 1/2 hour, some were on staff at the local bowling center and offered coaching for free. Their average went down each time...and has not come back up to where it was before they ever started going to "coaches" to begin with. They wanted to go to a coach to get even better, but that backfired horribly. Now they are on the verge of quitting the sport altogether. They are experiencing the same issues of practicing with no sense of purpose or feeling of growth in their game, being miserable at leagues, fellow bowlers making comments about "what happened to your game? you used to be so consistent?" and generally just feeling like they no longer know how to bowl at the level they once did.
My personal opinion is that any good coach will work with you to improve within your own personal style (let's face it, everyone bowls a little bit differently.) If a coach wants you to start over again from scratch, that is not an effective coach. A coach should watch you bowl to establish a baseline, and then tweak things within your current game/style to help you improve. I also don't think it should take years to see improvement. 6-8 months perhaps, but two years with no personal sense of accomplishment is a huge problem. If you like your current coach, and feel as though the time spent with them has been beneficial, then explain to them your immediate goals (modern release, for example) and focus on one thing at a time. Trying to tweak too many things simultaneously will just be detrimental.
Bookmarks