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Author Topic: bowling slump  (Read 3608 times)

pegleg42090

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bowling slump
« on: November 01, 2008, 11:58:23 AM »
I've been in quite the slump lately... and I can't find my way out of it. My book average is 210, and right now my average is at approx. 190 after about 6 weeks into league. Granted, I do know that the bad weeks do come, but I feel like every week I go to bowl that I struggle to carry. I've tried moving my feet, hand positions, and ball changes - some do show positive effects sometimes while others just don't help at all and leave me baffled. Example: Today in league I left 8 nine counts in the first of three games (7 and 10 pins only), and probably had about 8-10 strikes during the series. I can remember this kind of slump starting to bother me around the middle of summer, so this is a all of the sudden type of thing. I firmly believe that it's mostly mental because I can't really find any alarming changes in my game after looking at myself bowling via video camera. Therefore, I have come to these forums for possibly some guidance to the situation. There are some times where I just feel that maybe a good amount of time away from bowling would be ideal for me, yet not exactly ideal to my league teammates.

 

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Re: bowling slump
« Reply #1 on: November 01, 2008, 09:04:37 PM »
Sometimes in order to break a slump we need to simplify things. All too often we try to manipulate ball reaction too much, which causes us to pick up bad habits, and before we know it we're in Slumpville.

My advice is to move to to a part of the lane where you don't need to "create" much hook, and get back to basics. Smooth out the arm swing, take a few revs off, and just LET THE BALL HOOK, INSTEAD OF MAKING IT HOOK. Good luck.


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pegleg42090

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Re: bowling slump
« Reply #2 on: November 01, 2008, 09:16:10 PM »
Thanks to both of you. I'll take your advice into consideration.

se7en

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Re: bowling slump
« Reply #3 on: November 03, 2008, 08:05:45 AM »
What notclay said. I was in a very long slump and recently moved right and started coming up the back of the ball more with a very relaxed arm swing. Shot 650 and had a clean set (8/8 on ten pins too).

I was able to slowly gravitate left while still maintaining the same swing and release to get away from the ball rolling out too early when I missed right a little bit. In a nice comfort zone with the most margin of error.


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dpunky

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Re: bowling slump
« Reply #4 on: November 03, 2008, 12:47:03 PM »
I agree with notclay on this one.  I experienced this slump a week ago.  I realized when I practiced on Saturday that I was putting too much lift on the ball, causing the ball to flip on the backend and go high.  When I went back to basics and freed up my arm swing and let the ball do all the work, I was able to hit my shots and maintain a high average.  I could maintain this average on my 12 game set.
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slimjuggalo2002

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Re: bowling slump
« Reply #5 on: November 03, 2008, 12:55:38 PM »
I experienced a similar slump last year and throughout the summer. Most everything felt right except for that fact that I could not carry and could never get into the honor score range.

I realized way too late that I was coming around the side of the ball way too early.  On the PBA this week Pederson remarked about the pros ability to stay on the inside of the ball.  This creates awesome carry power and I was missing in dearly.  In the last few weeks I have gotten back to this release and my carry percent has gone way up.

I dont know if this is your problem or not, but I did not consider it until a habit (bad) formed.  Good Luck!
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