Archive for Quick Tips
Quick Tips: Practice Spares on Dry Lanes
Posted by: | CommentsIn an earlier article we discussed practicing spares, and I hope by now you’ve decided to throw hard and straight at them. This tip will take it a step further and encourage practicing your spares on dry lanes. This will help you take your spare game to new levels.
After the lanes have been played on quite a bit (either from open play, or after a league or long tournament block) try practicing your spares. The first thing you’ll usually notice is if you throw the ball “straight” with a polyester ball, the ball will hook more than you are used to. This will make picking off the corner pins increasingly difficult.
So to ensure you are actually throwing the ball straight, get out on those dry lanes and practice, practice, practice. It’s no fun to be in the later part of a league or tournament and find your ball picking up a slight roll and missing that single pin spare.
Quick Bowling Tips: Practicing on House Patterns
Posted by: | CommentsOften times you don’t have access to a bowling center that puts out a difficult condition like a sport shot or something similar. So how exactly can you utilize practice time when all there is to work with is an easy house condition (often referred to as a typical house shot). The answer is 2 simple steps.
Step 1. Figure out where you should be playing the lane to score highest. (Typically this is somewhere in the track area for most bowlers on most house shot oil patterns)
Step 2. Don’t play there! Find a more difficult area of the lane where the shot is less forgiving. Try bowling to the extreme outside of the lane, like the 4 or 5 board. Or move further inside and try anywhere beyond the 15 board, all the way out to the 25th board.
Bowling in a suboptimal part of the lane will reward you when you make a good shot and punish you when you make an errant shot. You may also find you will have to manipulate your release to either increase or decrease the ball reaction. Maybe you’ll have to change the surface on your bowling ball by sanding or polishing, or change balls entirely.
Don’t fool yourself into thinking you are making great shots by tugging the ball in the track area and finding some hold area, or sailing one towards the channel and utilizing the friction of the dry boards to carry your ball back to the pocket. Get out there and practice making good clean shots.
Join a Sport Bowling League
Posted by: | CommentsParticipating in sport bowling tournaments and leagues has really led me to re-evaluate bowling as a sport, as well as reassess my game. It took some time for me to realize I had done so much damage and taken so much for granted growing up and only bowling on easy house conditions. Sport bowling has taken my game to the next level and it can do the same for you.
With the advent of PBA Experience Leagues, sport bowling has been able to reach a good number of bowling centers. First thing to do is check on bowl.com for a league near you, and the next thing to do is call the center and find out how to sign up.
Why should I join a sport bowling league? Bowling in a sport league is more true to the sport, and rewards those who make quality shots. It will force you to reassess certain areas of your game like spare making, mental concentration, targeting, equipment, etc as it tends to exaggerate your problem areas. In short it will make you a better bowler, you’ll appreciate the sport and did I mention it will make you a better bowler?
I’m a Youth bowler, why should I bowl in a sport league? Any bowler in a youth program should start exposing themselves to sport bowling as soon as possible. I see so many kids being subjected to a rude awakening when they go to a sport bowling tournament unprepared. Not to mention the fact that if a youth bowler goes into a collegiate bowling program they are absolutely going to face some difficult sport bowling conditions.
What if my center doesn’t have a sport bowling league? I’d suggest you talk with the higher ups at the bowling alley and see if they’d be willing to support a sport bowling league. If enough bowlers show interest they will be forced to accommodate you. If they are resistant, hopefully you can find another center that is fairly close that is willing to do it.
So what are you waiting for, find a league for the fall and sign up!
