FUN – DA -MENTALLY Speaking

How many times do you hear the phrase Practice Makes Perfect? I have had this discussion with teammates several times. It is the responsibility of those, whose skills are better than others to pass on their skills no matter how little you may think it may help. Recently as a Jet Staff bowler and writer at tburg.wpengine.com, Positive Access Point has started a ‘back to the basics’ clinics in the local center to help and expose the lack of fundamentals which is painfully obvious in not just our fields new bowlers but in the average 2-6 year bowler as well. The useless amounts of opinions throw at beginning bowlers only enhances a state of confusion and bewilderment, they are unable to cope with lane conditions and patterns when they don’t really know how to correctly throw a ball yet. The lessons are simple in itself, focusing on basic skills that have been lost over the past years by coaches that only want to teach THEIR WAY instead of concentrating on adding basic fundamentals to a bowlers natural talents. Such as wrist position, letting your shoulder access its natural pivot instead of adding to the ball. You’d be surprised how many people stop a swing and throw it out onto the lane loosing all control, it’s a travesty.

So far, two of my students, the first we will call them Jack, at the beginning of our sessions he had an average of 150 and was stuck in a rut. He dropped to an average of 130, his worst game of the night often dropped bellow 99. Within in three lessons and the choice of a proper ball for his level of play, he is now averaging 178 with his highest game at 224. With his willingness to learn, that’s pretty darn good after three weeks of one hour lessons. Jill, student #2, a fairly new bowler who’s average is 120, with lessons over the past two weeks has gained approximately 10 pins in average and has had a high game of 191. With her inability to have additional practices she forgets and each week we have to start over but with her newly acquired high game she is anxious to learn. Improvement is the overall goal.

For all those out there trying to find a coach, find one with limits of not trying to impose their “EXACT WAYS or THEIR GAME” on you and that will work within your game and your natural talents. There are many ways to roll a bowling ball down a lane, each person has a unique way of accomplishing that very thing, you will never see any two pro-bowlers throw exactly the same way. You need to learn the fundamentals your way! This makes the game fun and not seem as though you are working rather than having a good time while scoring well.

If you have a great coach please post about it, we would love to hear from you and what you have learned, it might help someone else.