quote:

---

To all whom it may concern,

I have had the pleasure of spending a couple of days on the lanes with Rick as well as countless hours on the phone. Through these conversations I have discovered that Rick has a profound ability to simplify what seems difficult. He does this through various analogies that you would not consider to be bowling related, but when he is done talking a light goes off in your head and it all makes total sense. His knowledge of cause and effect is quite extensive much of which is due to his analytical thought patterns, he is truly one of the wisest and most logical thinking people I have ever met. I feel that some of his best traits are that he looks at things from multiple prospectives and bases many of his teachings on common sense and human nature. For example while he was helping me on the lane he saw that I had thrown a few balls near perfect for what we were trying to accomplish. He came up to me and in affect said to slow down mentally cause human nature makes us want to do more and more, I thought to myself he is reading my mind, I was thinking "hey I threw a few really good shots lets see if I can do a little more and still execute". His methods to coaching are to work with what comes naturally and use those tendencies to achieve the most from your game without trying to turn you into one of the cookie cutter styles. I have terrible foot work in that my steps are quite short and abbreviated but he didn't even mention it on lane cause he saw that I am consistent with it and it works for me in my overall timing.
The main things that he wanted me to key on were:
1. A new address position that allows for a more relaxed hand and forearm due to placing more weight in my non bowling hand.
2. WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, turn. He noticed that when I turned the ball early which is often that I subconsciously knew that I was turning early and would stop my rotation to prevent overturn. When I do this my release angle is constant but it is more of a suitcase type of release cause I don't come around the ball any more after my thumb exits which causes my track to get very close to or thump the thumb. This stop of rotation also causes tension in my hand and forearm which slows down my release.
3. Just be myself don't try to do more than comes natural, stop thinking so much and just feel it.

Rick has also been a big help when asking for a comparison between balls whether they were Track products or other as well as suggestions for layout based on what I wanted the ball to do in relation to another ball that I already had. Each time the result was spot on.

---