My Grand Experiment

[J Anderson]

Attachment 535

This is a picture of the former me. Taken back in early 90's. If you are very observant you can see why the bowling center no longer exists.

I don't know, to my eye it looks like 8 of the ten lanes in the picture are in use, and the others could be.

[panbanger]

I don't see any lights for "cosmic bowling" and it may just be cropped out but I dont see any electronic scoring monitors. Is that why it closed?

[Mike White]

I think the center had closed before "cosmic" became common.

I guess it's hard to see on the pic I sent, but I'm on lane 53, of a 60 lane center that didn't have auto scoring.
They decided it was more reasonable to close the center than retrofit all 60 lanes.

[Mike White]

Well my experiment has officially started. I went bowling this afternoon and I learned a few things.

I have a long road back.

I felt like the guy in the video here teaching a "5" step approach.

I would slide/stick so far back from the foul line even with another whole step to catch my self, I wouldn't foul.

The only good thing I found was no matter how crappy my approach was, if I kinda got the ball headed in slightly the right direction I had a better than 50% chance of striking.

My first game was 160, that was with 70 in the 7th frame.
My timing was so bad, I could look at the 8 board, and hit 20. No those tended not to carry... anything.
When I finally got my body to let the ball go between 15 and 5, I threw the last 5 in a row.

2nd game was better, a 6 bagger gave me a score of 221.

And somewhere near the beginning of the 3rd game my tank was empty for a whopping 137 game.

All things considered, I threw a total of 0 shots that felt correct.

[billf]

When you were done, did you clean up the pile of rust you left on the approach?

[Mike White]

I woke up this morning and every muscle in my body is screaming... "What the hell did you do to us?"

[got_a_300]

I woke up this morning and every muscle in my body is screaming... "What the hell did you do to us?"

LOL!!!!!! I know what you mean that is the way I start everyday
myself and it's especially bad if I go bowling the night before as
they really scream out at me twice as bad.

[Mike White]

IMG_0021.JPG

Looks like there is a slight hiccup in my path.

I don't think the slide/stick problem I mentioned above is completely my fault.

The shoes I selected are Dexter Pro Am II.
I chose them because the non-sliding shoe looked like it would have great traction.
Unfortunately the sliding shoe was not on display.

The picture is the bottom of the shoes I used for 3 games.

Notice the black area at the front of the sliding shoe.
That is the same material that the heel is made of and
when it makes contact with the approach, it's not going to slide.

So if/when my timing is off and I put too much weight forward,
the shoe will stick and instantly stop.
Not what you want to happen when you are already leaning too far forward.

I'm planning on calling Dexter on Monday and see what can be done.

[The German Shepherd]

This sounds agonizingly familiar. I started getting back into the game last October and I STILL fight my mechanics, though sometimes its worse than others. I was also surprised at how sore I was after a few games. You WILL get through this. Keep at it...

Jay

[Mike White]

I called Dexter and talked to some low level person who didn't seem to know their return policy because she said she would have to communicate with management about the situation and get back to me.

If I read the policy correctly, if I'm willing to pay the approx $7 shipping I can send them back for a full refund as long as they are less than 30 days old and not found defective. If they are found defective they waive the 30 day limit, and I wouldn't have to pay shipping.

So the question is, is it worth $7 for me to convince them it is defective. I'm thinking I'll give it a $2 effort at most.

Meanwhile I ordered a pair of Linds Classics online ($99) so my experiment is on hold until the shoes arrive.