My timing is awful most of this year so far.  Occasionally it clicks and I'm good for 7-8 frames, but most of the time doubles are very infrequent and turkeys and beyond rare.

Had knee surgery in April (more than just meniscus, but less than replacement) and although I am physically sound now except for some lingering stiffness, I am having constant brain cramps this year, and am starting to wonder if while I was under the anesthesia they removed the part of my brain that helps with muscle coordination.

 

Some of it is walking too fast and there are admittedly numerous flaws in my delivery, but they were there before the surgery and I was never this awful.  How awful?  Like 30 pins down from last year's average. And no...  I am not sand-bagging, cause it's not on purpose. It's very frustrating.

A friend at work has given me a DVD by Norm Duke, and there is at least one section on timing, but I haven't had a chance to view it yet and this Thursday night is league already and I'm hoping there's something I can try right away that might get me back on track, until I can watch the DVD. 

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

View Norm's section on timing.  It is good!  Key and will answer your questions!

I believe he states that once you are in sync early in the approach it is hard to walk too fast!

Check it out.

Regards,

Luckylefty

I think you should take 10 minutes to watch that portion of the video.  It's broken up into segments, so just click on it. Very good video!

Thank you MI 2 AZ, and everyone who replied/posted.

I think I'm on the road to recovery after last night, though unfortunately was a case of "closing the barn door after the horses got out", as league play was a total disaster. Stayed after and at first I was just practicing the same bad delivery, but eventually started trying differnt things.

Tried slowing down (same delivery), more lift at the release (without slowing down), starting closer to the foul line and finishing in same place, ending up closer to the foul line (after starting at the same position), walking straighter, throwing caution to the wind and just flinging it, getting more loft on it, etc... etc...  etc...

And finally.... in game # 8 of practice, I changed or adjusted about 5 things, but was first time ----possibly since last year---that I was doing them all at the same time, and suddenly I was more confident in my shots and was hitting them with some decent consistency. What I did was:

1) Started from a position a little closer to the pins.  Usually am just in front of the first set of dots on the approach (closest to the scoring area) and I moved to half-way between the two sets of dots.  About a 6-8 inch move?

2) Dramatically slowed down my walking, at least for the earlier steps.

3) Slowed down my arm swing (or at least relaxed it)

4) Waited to the last possible moment before releasing the ball to apply some lift (I have a tendency to turn my wrist way too early).

5) Emphasized the lift at the line instead of the force with which I was swinging through the ball. More of a swinging than pushing the ball onto the lane.

Results were 2 solid games of 222 and 220, with the 220 being a clean game, and even when I am not in a slump, I don't always bowl consecutive + 200 games.

That might not impress some of the better bowlers here, but for a reference point, I was averaging 190-200 last year and this year am at 165.  Have been totally out of sync and lost. Felt like baseball player who had been hitting nothing but singles and bloopers and now I was hitting solid line drives and home runs again. I was even picking up splits I haven't converted since at least last year.  A 6-7-10, for one.  And ALMOST a 4-6 (clean shot between the gutter and the 6, but it didn't connect with the 4 anyway).

Moreover, am not referring to actual scores, or comparing league play to practice.  I have been universally awful in every situation. Dropping the ball and then yanking on the next shot as I tried to compensate.

Last night... in practice games #8 and 9, I finally was enjoying throwing the ball, and throwing it with some authority. 

So far only skimmed the links provided here, but even then the most important words that jumped off the page were the ones dealing with slowing down.  I sped up again last night after I felt I had my stroke down, but it was different. It wasn't an undisciplined attempt to throw the ball hard enough to compensate for my lost coordination/timing. I was just returning to my comfortable speed, but AFTER I had slowed down enough to correct (or at least change) some aspects of my delivery.

Even though I feel like I solved the mystery last night, I am going to read through everything to try to solidify in my brain and remember so my practice session will carryover into league.

Thanks.