BallReviews
General Category => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: xrayjay on April 08, 2015, 12:22:05 PM
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Going off "isallaboutme" reply to the post "Practicing spares. How do you do it?"
It made me think about all those folks I see practicing and looking up at the monitor to see their scores. I never seen league bowlers work on certain aspects of their game.
There are VERY few bowlers who practice differently, doing drills, timing, etc....., but a very good majority of league bowlers go for score when they pracitce. "I practice every week. Last week I shot 266, the other week I shot 700, but don't include the first game. it was warm ups" .... it seems like a good practice session is high scores nowadays....
Shadow bowling (no pins on the deck) for example, is a lost art.
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xrayjay:
I agree 110%. With our current leagues wrapping up and invitations to bowl in summer leagues, I usually turn down the decision to bowl during the summer. That is my practice season. I wish I could practice more in season, and often do when I have a bigger flaw hampering my game.
When practicing I do not look at the score board to see the score, but to only look at the frame number.
About three weeks ago when warm ups started, I made a comment to one of the younger bowlers on not having any pins to hit during the first throw. I said to him "bowling without pins was our 'shadow bowl' and we usually got a discounted price." He looked at me like I had three heads! Many others commented on what I had said remembering those days.
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Absolutely correct, although your statement would be just as true at any time during the 50 years I have been bowling.
For all the technological advancements, a lot less has changed in the game over the past 40 years than most younger people believe. I remember getting in heated arguments with guys in 1976 about the inflated averages from walled up lanes. The only difference was that they considered 210 to be inflated back then.
Also, I have always been a practice guy. People have come up to me when I was practicing and lamented that I am the only guy they know who practices any more. They have been telling me that since 1976 as well.
There are indeed a lot of differences between the game now and in 1976, but very few people understand how much more we know about the game today than back then. When people talk about inflated scoring today, the increased skill level of bowlers over the years never gets credit. I am 67 years old, and if you gave me the same equipment on the same lanes as I had back then I could out average what I did in 1976 even given the what I would be giving up in physical skills ( ball speed, stamina etc ).
Finally, returning to the original topic, I confess that I primarily practice my strike game. Other than tough combinations, spare shooting is relatively easy. Flatten your release slightly, use a plastic or urethane ball at everything other than double wood, and don't throw so hard that it impacts your timing or balance. Most people who are really bad spare shooters are inconsistent on their strike ball as well, they just manage to out carry their mistakes.
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Most of the time when i practice, it is just bowling for fun with friends. We start out bowling against each other competitively, then it turns into off handed bowling, and then between the legs, and then bowling from behind the approach, and then bowling from one lane over... and bowling backwards of course. When I do actually practice though, I go in with an intent without a care for my score.
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bowling behind the approaches?? i hope you're joking...
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I mean standing behind the approaches and lofting to the foul line
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Didn't shadow practicing go with the automatic scoring systems of the 1980s? You would think with all the computerized stuff that we could create a shadow bowling environment, or for that matter set up spare combinations for practice. (You'd still need a lane mechanic for machine breakdowns, etc.)
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It made me think about all those folks I see practicing and looking up at the monitor to see their scores.
Note: While most may be looking at their score, Most modern scorers show your speed. So some like me are checking their speed when looking at the monitor.
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When the big B opened up one of their first original zones in Deer Park, IL, they were using software that had a ton of features. You could set up any pin combination. They also had some 'games' like par bowling. Which is like golf and different pin combinations to knock down in x amount of balls. Then they went away with it a couple of years later. Being able to set up spare combinations was a great idea. Too bad they took it away.
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Practicing is not so much a lost art, as it is a lost work ethic.
One Sunday, a couple of weeks back, while I was practicing with a friend and a couple of his local (I live an hour south of them) bowling friends, I decided to practice my 10 pins and 7 pins, with my plastic ball for a game. I was getting sloppy in league lately.
Around the 3rd or 4th frame I hear my friend explaining to them what I was doing. This surprised me because, while these guys were younger than my friend and I, they were still in their late 40s and early 50s. Still they had never seen anyone do this before. Of course, even though they all average in the 200s, they regularly miss 10 pins and the like.
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I mean standing behind the approaches and lofting to the foul line
I'd kick you and your friends out for this crap. I bet if you bust out a foul light you laugh and laugh, but if the machine eats up your ball, you cry and moan.
Don't behave like an idiot.
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Let me put it this way, the person who runs the bowling alley is doing it with us. And if we were to bust out a light, we would pay for it to be fixed. And he knows it. The owners don't care. They watch us and laugh. Come to think of it, I am not sure this alley even has working foul line lights... As for equipment being torn up, a lot of people don't even bowl in this house because it is famous for tearing up equipment. If I cared about my equipment staying in pristine condition, I wouldn't even be bowling here
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The owners don't care??? That's pretty stupid. If I owned a business I'd take of it as best as I can, it helps put food on the table. just close the damn place...
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There are seriously buckets hanging from the ceiling to catch water. My team and I couldn't bowl one league night a few weeks ago because the roof over 1 and 2 leaked too badly. They aren't putting any money into it because they want to sell it, but they are asking too much for anyone to buy it. They had one of my teammates up on the roof tarring it to try to keep water out a few weeks ago
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Practice is somewhat of a lost art and a lot of that begin when they put automatic scorers in.
When we had paper sheets I would simply make a big X on each frame bowled.
Rick Steelsmith was practicing one night on the end lane with the scorers on.
He had bowling for a while and then his wife showed up with their young son. He had his son throw (roll) a ball that went in the gutter. He had attracted a small crowd to watch and they all groaned. He asked me what that was all about. I told him that he had the first 11 and that the kid rolled the gutter on the 12th. I guess they all wanted to see a 300 shot. :)
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For me when I go to practice I have slowly developed a routine that has worked well.
First game I start slow as warm up and throw plastic up the gutter to work on the outside line. After a few frames of getting lose I throw at 10 pins first before throwing my strike ball. I do this for the whole first game.
Second game I move in to second arrow and work on throwing that part of the lane with some of my midline equipment. Focus on timing, and a good release.
Third game I go to something more aggressive and work on playing 4th arrow or deeper which is closer to my A game. I continue to focus on good timing, and a good release. I try and focus on my target area and making good shots.
Usually I only bowl three games. If I bowl a fourth I work on what ever I may have struggled with during the three previous games. Either the, line or timing and release, or accuracy.....or all of the above if it was that bad.
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I usually just practice spare shooting in summers, using the full rack and throwing it at a given pin i.e. 7 or 6 then shot the spare as if I left it on a normal first shot. That is about it.
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I am going to heavily practice my spares this summer. Is there a good way to practice left side spares? Something like try to come into the pocket light on the first ball to leave left side spares to shoot at. Would that even work?
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I am going to heavily practice my spares this summer. Is there a good way to practice left side spares? Something like try to come into the pocket light on the first ball to leave left side spares to shoot at. Would that even work?
Why not just throw the first ball at the 7 or 4? You will know if you hit it or not, then you can either throw at the 6 or 10 or whatever is left standing.
You can also try standing at different locations to see what is easier for you. I used to stand far right and throw over the 2nd arrow (RH) to shoot the left side pins but this year I experimented with standing left of center and aiming at 5th arrow to take the heavy oil in center out of play. Still a work in progress but I think it will be better.
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I try to pactice at least once a week, first a couple of shots to get loose, then get on my timming, after that foul line drills for around 10 minutes, I'm working on staying behind the ball to create a heavy roll so im practicing that a lot.
2nd drill is the 1 step approach and then my ful approach, all of this drills for 10 minutes each, then spend around 15 minutes trying to hit the corner pins until I get 10 7s in a row or 10s in a row, this is just my basic routine when I practice, if I want to practice 4th arrow or any other type of game, after practicing corner pins I will try to get my timming back to the mark Ill try to play during practice, plus I dont watch my score when Im practicing