I started bowling about 15 years ago but some big changes in my life at the time meant I stopped after about a year and never really developed good form, despite many hours each week on the lanes (lack of coaching and direction and an Internet in its infancy still).

So I picked up a ball again last year for my first season in league since that time. Starting with a spare ball and conventional drilling I've progressed and made many changes, having now had a few 600+ games in league this year as well as an increasing number of games with no open frames.

It's been slow (I think not in reality but seems it to me) going and the many changes I've had to make have meant very variable scores. With all the changes there's not been much time for muscle memory to settle in and as many find, concentrating too hard on a new element you've introduced can mean you make mistakes in other areas of your game too - not least of which is missing the mark as you've lost focus a little.

Thankfully though, a combination of coaching, reading, videos and practice and I think I'm finally there. I still have a couple of things to...get used to such as a stronger wrist position I recently introduced etc.

I'll continue to make little tweaks to 'progress' and am more than aware that a well qualified coach will find many areas to work on. However, all the big difficult stuff has been accomplished, not least of which was ditching the wrist support.

I'm posting since it all finally felt good last night. I made some mistakes and the score was far from my best but...on most balls it all 'felt right'. It hasn't truly done this since I picked up a ball again.

So for those starting out just stick with it. Unless you have uber amounts of natural talent it's not going to be quick but with the right advice, patience and practice it can be done.

Now that I've finally stopped the big changes I can hopefully settle down, get some consistency and get that average closer to the 200+ I want (more would be good but a healthy dose of realism for now is no bad thing)