Had another coaching session yesterday afternoon even though I've been dealing with a nasty cold all week. Bowling 5 games while working on two things really helped put my game into perspective and hopefully I'll be able to open up the lane better as a result. My coach noted that in my comfortable style I used to prefer starting from the heel first, then moving forward which caused me to be leaning too far forward by the second step. We were able to put in a trigger mechanism so that I now start heel first, and everything went much more smoothly in my approach. Secondly, to be able to open up the lane and get more revolutions on the ball, learning to stay up the back until my bowling hand reaches 4 inches beyond my sliding leg, then lifting counterclockwise with the fingers (as I'm a lefty) to get more power on the ball. When I'm using the down and in release, to look even longer (probably 6 inches or so beyond) and then using the same finger release. I couldn't believe how I was able to move the ball from 15 to 2 with ease now....and this will come in handy for some of the tournaments I see.

I will let you know how this works out in tournament/league competition- since seeing my coach a little over a month ago my Monday average has stayed at 226 and my Tuesday average has improved 2 pins to 185, while I've been averaging 221 so far through 3 tournaments in 3 months.

Matt