QuestionGary,
I have been bowling for nearly 20 years now. I began as a kid. As I have gotten older I have been transitioning from a stroker style to a cranker. I beat the ball to the lane and I usually come out of the ball smooth. I stand close if not on the left Dot and roll towards the 3rd to 2nd arrow depending on conditions and my ball breaks about the five or six board. I have issues maintaining consistency in this area. I uses to be much more consistent when I was younger. I don't get as quite many Rotations as many crankers and I have a hard time staying consistent keeping ball speed up. I was wondering if you have any advice where i might try to improve consistency? The bigger problem Is battling other bowlers lines. Everybody on my teams ball seems to break at about the same point on the lane. So we are killing each others line and it always hurts our last game. Any advice on how to adjust to avoid this issue?
Thanks
Joey
Answer
True Bowler Adjustment
Hi Joey, I had to dissect a few things and all I can say is: "Tell me how well I do!" You sound a lot like a tweener now. Even though you have late timing you are great at waiting on the ball to swing through and give it good hand at release.
You don't use the arrows as your primary target, however you do look through them with "good vision," to the boards down lane! You have a few concerns of inconsistency. I gather from your written thoughts that you may have a small issue with balance at the line, and possibly your slide leg strength may have diminished a little, maybe with some drift.
Less activity will do that to a bowler after 20 years, even if you are only 30 to 35 years old. The ball hooking early is "a problem," but lots of reasons besides overall slow speed could affect your shot. As always, how you release the ball, the ball itself, the lane conditions and length of oil. "Loss of leg strength" often kills a lot of consistency with bowlers because they go from a very strong solid balance(even on one leg) at delivery competing in 3 leagues a week), down to one and "maybe" a substitute additional league for an extra 3 games every other week. It's a subtle loss of balance strength, but significant enough to make you prepare for recovery "immediately" after your release. With that, you don't get to devote all your energies toward delivering the ball.
Concerning your team performance, or third game blues. It's great if everyone's bowling ball is breaking about the same point on the lanes, however you have to know "what are the bowling balls doing" in third game? Going longer? (Carry down finally) Hooking wayyy too much? (front end and mid lane are really dry now), or are all the bowling balls doing there own thing, meaning each bowler is just all over the place?
As far as any team event, doubles, 3,4, or 5 man teams, "team talk" is crucial to success! It takes individual leadership to remind a player that their ball is coming in high on one lane. That bowler needs to recognized they are too high on that lane also. "You are your team mates eyes." In my book True Bowler Adjustments, I try to remind players to make the ball "wet" somehow when the ball is hooking too early and coming up too high, or to find a way to make the ball "drier" if it is not hooking enough to the head pin!
Members of your team have to establish a rapport with each other because the goal is to stop "tanking" the third game and win all the points!
In short, see if you are falling off your shot a little, check your release, have a ball for that third game that goes longer or checks up sooner, Get a game plan with your team and hash out who has a good eye for reading what is happening with the reaction in the third game and do some problem solving, i.e. changing to a different release, moving to a better spot on the approach, or speeding up or slowing down to stay in the pocket! The is no "EYE" in the word "team" Joey, however "eye" or "eyes" is the potential solution to your blues! "See" what the bowling balls are doing in the third game! Something tell me you are going to keep a close eye on this one for sure!
-Gary
Las Vegas, NV
www.TrueBowlerAdjustments.com (it's a great book!)
