Have you ever quit?

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pjape
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Have you ever quit?

Post by pjape »

Have any of you ever been in such a slump that you seriously considered quitting, at least temporarily? I had to pre-bowl yesterday afternoon for last night, and after shooting a 491 (with a 130-something first game), I'm ready to tell my captain to find someone else. I feel like I'm a major reason we're in last place.

Last season I ended at 203 (not great, I know!), but as of now, I'm averaging 176 for 18 games. The big problem is, because of my work situation (specifically, lack of hours), I can't afford to practice. And I'm the type of bowler who has to practice constantly just to keep my head above water. That's how it is when you have no natural athletic ability. Good grief, the last time I averaged in the 170's was my first summer of bowling in 1992. And my problem is not equipment or reading lanes. It's all me. I can't hit the broadside of a barn. Every shot is different. Spare shooting is atrocious.

I had some good coaching this summer from a Silver Level coach, but what good is coaching if you can't practice?

So, have any of you been in a similar situation? Did you drop out for a while, or just suck it up and suck?
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Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by MegaMav »

I did, when Mo completely restructured my game.
I even wrote a note on facebook saying goodbye in 2010.
How to give up what you love.
I've been a bowler all my life, except in college.
I've always had a passion for the game, and the people involved in the sport, especially the good eggs in the industry.
It seems my game changes every summer, and I go through the process of relearning how to bowl with a new set up on the approach, release, mental game, everything.

Previous to July, I was about a 210 average bowler on house shots and 180 on sport shots, which is pretty good, but not of high caliber.
I liked the roll the ball more with moderate rotation and less tilt to get the ball to read for me.
I recently went to a bowling clinic over the summer with a top 50 coach in the world, he changed my game significantly.

Less ball manipulation with my hand, more tilt, more rotation, and significantly less revolutions.
I shot the lights out that day on an EASY high friction lane condition.
Any time I go out and bowl open bowling or on a high friction condition I do fairly well overall.

Thats great, now I head out to scratch league and try to do the same thing when there is more lane conditioner and I look like a train wreck out there. I tried scorpion a couple of weeks ago, what a joke, I couldnt even find the headpin, I was all over the place.

After 2 weeks of scratch league, im averaging around 170, YEAH, 170, about 10 pins LESS than my SPORT average from this summer.
Meanwhile, I see many around me shooting 230 and 240. I just dont see it.
I have endured so much with bowling, tried so hard to become a better bowler, bowling a difficult conditions, seeking out coaching.
The blind score in the league is 200, so im going out there and hurting the team each time I bowl. I havent even shot 200 in any of the 6 games. Ive already notified the coach that the team is better off without me bowling, im holding them back.
I never would have thought previous to this season, that i'd be the guy to hold any team back.
I am now.

I wanted to become a better bowler so bad, but I've taken such a huge step backward, to the point where I really cant find the energy or motivation to build myself back up again doing it "the right way".
Many dont want me to give it up, but if I dont feel like doing it anymore, why would I try?

I've always prided myself as being the guy you could turn to, to get you a double in the 10th to win it.
I'm now at the point where I couldnt get a single one if my life depended on it.

This is the end of the line, I've had enough.
Im not a good bowler, and never will be, I'm stepping aside.

Good bye bowling, its been fun.

I was gutted and frustrated but I needed it for the long term, I wasnt very good back then.
Took me a good 8-10 months of practice to get everything integrated. The note above was after about 2 months.
Thats a lot of bad results and poor games in 10 months before I started seeing the returns.
Now I'm a more complete bowler, but it took a long time to improve.
Bowling ISNT NATURAL for the body. Its a cascading effect, if one thing is off it usually leads to another.
Bowling is NOT easy IMO. I've played other sports and been natural at it. Im not natural with bowling.

I recommend posting something for Jim in the coaching session, hes a pro, might be something you dont feel.
I bowled in the mirror in my bedroom on the carpet a lot over the summer to see myself, and im seeing results from that too, but you need to know what you're looking for. Head under the ball the whole way.

All the best.
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Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by EricHartwell »

I did not quit but I took almost 4 years off from bowling. Not because I was not frustrated but to coach softball and rehab some injuries. I kept my mind in the game with my involvement here in BowlingChat. My physical game was already in a down turn. Taking time off did the physical game no good at all. When I returned to the game last year my average as minus 20. I used to pride myself in my form and balance. That was gone. I felt very unbalanced, my accuracy was terrible and spare shooting really suffered.

So what I am trying to say is taking time off may help your mental game but the physical game will not get any better unless you have an excercise program tuned to the bowling game. Even then nothing beats actually rolling a ball down the lane.
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Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by pjape »

EricHartwell wrote:So what I am trying to say is taking time off may help your mental game but the physical game will not get any better unless you have an excercise program tuned to the bowling game. Even then nothing beats actually rolling a ball down the lane.
I agree 100%. And that's why I'm thinking about bowing out for a while. If I can EVER get full time work, then hopefully I'll have the funds to practice at least once a week. I wish I was like Holman or Mallott and bowl well with little to any practice, but I can't do that. Neither could Hangegard or Ozio, who were practice fanatics.

I miss my early years of bowling. My first two summers the house I bowled at had a deal that if you bowled on a summer league, you had unlimited free practice all summer. That's what took me from a 141 average the end of the 1992 season to the 190's and a 298 game the summer of 1993. They had to lose money with me. Once I bowled 29 straight games (and I could move the next morning)!

Yep, nothing beats actually rolling a ball down the lane. Over and over and over again.
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Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by MegaMav »

Best advice I can give you is, cut back but dont quit.
Bowl once or twice a month just to keep the rhythm.
I took 1 month off after bowling well in sport league, big mistake, it took me a month+ to get back to myself again.
You're not bowling good, I get it. We're also having an extremely warm fall and it wreaks havoc on lane topography.
I've seen nothing but frustration locally and its given me satisfaction actually because I gave up league this year to bowl more tournaments.

Bad start for proprietors, its beautiful out, they're running the A/C, topography is a mess and bowlers are pissed.
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Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by krava »

This is a pretty long reply. I know Exactly how you feel and been though the same feelings and thoughts. I have wrote down sort of a play by play process of what I was thinking and when. (also no time to re read to correct mistakes)

The topic is too "broad". Is the question have you ever quit because you don't feel that you are any good any more? That is probably what you mean. I quit when I was 18 because I was suppose to turn pro but 183 average or whatever in 1991 just wasn't good enough to even get a card. So went to college to get a degree. I took 10-14 years off came back for fun and then quit a year or two later because no time and didn't really care for it. Then I took another 10 years or whatever off came back to where I am now. Quit then because of the same thing, no time and really didn't care for it all that much.

Now lets get to the real question which is probably Have you ever quit because you felt you weren't good any more or you reached your limit etc. I finally figured out how to bowl correctly (the release) that was sort of correctly back in Jan 2017. Then 2-3 months ago I learned that my targeting system was completely wrong. The point there is that there is most of the time, something that you thought you knew that you didn't know. I might have said this incorrectly. 1 point targeting can have you throw the ball at so many different angles it is pitiful.

Learning the right release got my average up from 190 or so in Jan to 211 at the end of the year. Since the release is new and I know more things, I was expecting my average to be atleast 225 right now. I got into 3 leagues to improve etc. In 3 leagues bowling twice in most of them, I didn't get 600 once. Then last week, I shot 450 or so Monday night and then I told the guy that I quit that league because I didn't want to drag them down. (I wasn't a permanent member of the team anyway as someone was suppose to replace me in October and I was just a "temp") Wednesday night shot 436. I had a 122 and also 133 in those leagues. I haven't seen such scores in who knows when (excecpt nationals). I was thinking well damn do I need just to give it up or what. But then I look at the bowling center as a "whole" and see that almost everybody's average is down and I think to myself something is going on and this isn't normal. There is a guy there that bowled this week that has a 225 avage and is the best in the bowling center. He shot 547 or something with a 150 game for the last game. He has bowled 2 300s back to back in a game.

My average on Wednesday this week was 172 I believe. I haven't seen my average that low since the 1980s. I don't really shoot sub 170 games unless something is pretty wrong. So I said I have had enough of this and I am going to figure out what is going on and how to fix it.

9/14 Thursday I noticed that my shots were all over the place. I couldn't hit the 2nd arrow to save my life. I mean I was tested with 10 balls and everaged 9.9 and I can't even hit 10 once? The problem I found out I had was the basics. I wasn't clearing my body with the ball and then having the swing go around and then end up throwing right and hitting 6 board or so. I didn't have someone tell me that, I know from experience that if I keep throwing a ball to the right of the target a lot my swing is messed up. To correct it, I bent down several inches and tilted a bit to the right and then the ball had a very nice path and I didn't miss after I did that. . I ended up with 560-570 or something series I believe. Also during that night, my wrist was really hurting so I didn't put much on the ball at all and noticed that my ball was rolling better and not jumping like before. I had like the perfect swing after lowering and tilting. That gave me some confidence seeing I had control of the ball once again. I only used a 15lb ball and hit the pocket pretty good but didn't carry that night.

Move on to 9/27. This is the 172 average league. I got there and was determined to do really well. I had control of my ball and I was going to give the pins everything I had. I also wanted to use a heavier ball and a more continuous ball to give me the best hit possible (storm timeless). Long story short 1st game was hitting the pocket and not missing spares and 6 7th frame X X. Next ball was light pocket hit left 7 pin and then missed. Next ball pocket hit left 10 pin missed. Missed the mark hit 8 instead of 10 and then ended up with a bad 4 8 10 or something and missed and ended up with 176 but had 144 in the 7th frame. I thought about it and yes I made stupid mistakes but I was crushing the pocket and I wasn't going to give up. I think my foot slipped a bit on the 2 9 pin spares and threw my body to one side or something and caused me to miss slightly on each. Next game 258, Next game 246 or something which included a split. For the first time I watched my ball at the exit point each time to see where it was and I was in the general area 8-10 board each time. I kept leaving 7's and 10s. I ended up with 675 which was 211 pins higher then I got the week before. I also forgot to mention that the last game on Thursday I hit the pocket each time and never missed. I missed in the 248 game and pulled once left and split.

So now Thursday 8/28 I came in there ready to tear the place up. 1st ball light hit and left 7 pin. Missed the spare due to my thumb sticking on the ball and hit the gutter quick. That is the first time I have stuck in that ball since I put that tackey white tape in. I have about 40 or so attempts with it. Anyway last night, I hit my breakpoint pretty well and just kept leaving 7's and 10's here and there. I had 1 split and only split because I rushed the shot trying to show someone something. I got every 10 pin but missed several 7's. I missed my 2nd 7 pin and then adjusted to were I shoot the 4 pin (1 board to the right). After I adjusted I missed the 7 pin again because it was a perfect 4 pin shot. The 1st 7 pin I probably missed my mark to the left a board causing me to hit the gutter. So anyway a long story short, I ended up with 575 after several stupid missed 7 pins and not having very good carry at all. I also had a blister on my foot that could have caused issues because I feel it every time I walked.

Anyway I have to look back to see what I did wrong which you need to also. On Wednesday, even though I did good, I don't think I paid attention to what board I hit at the arrows any other time then when I missed to the right once. You have to pay attention to what is going wrong and then go from there.

So in this thread you didn't say anything about not taking advice so I will give you some advice now. I believe in this thread, you said you can't hit the side of a barn or something. To me that means you can't hit your mark. The reason you can't hit your mark has got to be there is something wrong with your swing. (this is considering you think your timing is correct and your not ahead or behind the ball at the line). I would think your not clearing your body with the ball would be my best guess. I had the same issue a few weeks ago and also had that issue a time or two this week. (yesterday needed 1 pin to tie the game 12th frame, I was aiming at 10 and hit 6 or something and the ball went out 2. I was thinking before the shot don't gutter which I Haven't ever right handed in league. I know that I didn't clear my body with the ball on that shot).

Your 2nd problem Missing ton of spares. 2 possible issues. #1 Your trying to hook your ball at spares when your not used to such strong backend lanes. I saw tons of people that hook at spares miss easy spares and throwing their hands up not knowing what is going on because the ball hooked passed where they thought it would go. #2 your missing your mark at where you usually aim to throw your spares. I am guessing you hook your ball at spares and that is why your missing so many. I can't tell you how to fix that problem, you probably have to move your target over some from where you usually do. If you are missing your mark at where you throw at spares then you are having a swing issue again.

The answer isn't to quit or take time off unless you have some kind of heath issue or soreness or something that won't go away. The answer is figure out what is going wrong and simpliy things. 1st Am I hitting the mark. 2nd how is my ball reacting. You had 190 average last year so you know what you are doing. I don't believe in bowling slumps or atleast big slumps. When you are averaging a lot less then what your used to something is going on wrong.


So here are my questions:

#1 Are you hitting your mark. (Yes then move to #2) IF No then
a) Do you feel you have good timing If Yes then move to b If No
You got to fix the timing, ahead of the ball or behind the ball can make you pull etc
b) Do you feel that you are clearing your body with the ball? If no
Try to squat down 2 inches in the stance and just move your torso just a tad to the right
keep walking like that all the way through the shot and see how that feels.
c) If your missing the mark are you missing on the left and right side or just 1 side?
Missing left usually means your pulling the ball and have timing issue while right side is
a swing issue with the body not clearing the ball and the ball path having to be rerouted.
d) You are standing the proper number of boards from where your target is that your used to. Changing that can throw things around a bit missing at the arrows.

#2 Do you feel that your ball is "rolling good" and you have control of it all the way to the pins.
A) Do you feel that once your ball gets past the oil, you have no control and it jumps?
A) If yes then you have to take some kind of hand out of it or you have to get a less reacting ball in the backends. I was about to go down to a BTU but then realized I was trying "hit up on it" like I am so used to doing before these new machines came in.
B) Is the ball missing left most of the time but not "over hooking?" If your ball is missing left
most of the time, then make sure that the ball is hitting the correct exit board at the end of the pattern. I believe that your ball is hooking early and your missing your breakpoint board by a few boards and it is going left. I used to play the 8 board most of the time in my Thursday league. I can't play there because the ball starts hooking too early now.

You got to watch the exit point the pl-31 (atleast at the start of the game). Make sure that your ball is in that area. If it isn't then it is your fault for not getting it there.

My last suggestion is to get someone to take a video of you throwing your normal strike ball. From what I think you throw the ball straight down 8 or 10 or whatever. Take a back video shot so people can see if you are actually clearing your body with the ball or not. The swing needs to be nice and relaxed and drop straight down. You probably already know this but I even tell myself the same things in my head to keep making me remember.

Also you have to figure out if you are distracted somehow. IS your head in the game? Are you stressed about this or that. You got to be thinking when you are there and watching. I know first hand if my head is not in the game then I won't do well at all. Then there are other issues such is anything wrong physically. Wedneday I had a sprained bowling wrist, mild sprained right ankle, mild hyperextended bowling index finger, pretty sore chest and still bowled well. A sprained wrist and your cupping your hand, can really effect your game also. Wednesday I didn't feel any pain in my wrist while bowling or after. It just hurts to turn my wrist in a circle or even try to take a cap off any bottle, even a 20oz drink.

If you made it this far, I am not here just quoting stuff from books. I am telling you stuff from experience. Everything I have wrote is from experience. You need to have faith in your game. I missed too many sprares this week but I am not worried about it. I made mistakes I know what happened. I would still bet $20 I can make any single pin spare 3 times in a row even the 7 pin. I still believe I can get 900 on this house shot thing if I get good enough carry. You just need 1 good enough series to get you back in the game giving you the confidence back. I know that you said that you don't have time to practice, but if you find time to practice see if you can go to a different bowling center that doesn't have those extreme backends and make sure they are oiled and practice I am telling you a big problem is that new since of those clean backends you aren't used to. You just have to figure out how to play them correctly like I had to.

I don't have time to go back and re read any of this so could be lots of typo's and mistakes. I really didn't have time to write this. It is 8:48pm. I have to drive 20 min to this sorry gym I hate. I have 1 hour 15 min of weights, 15 min abs, 10 min back (4 sets 12 hyper extensions), 1 hour elipical or some type of hard machine, 30-45 min walk to do before I am done. I wrote this because I know EXACTLY how you feel. I also felt like calling the guy in Nebraska and cancelling 2018 Nationals which I agreed to (which still lots of time to get out of), because of these weeks of such horrible scores. The fact is I haven't bowled one time on the national pattern with my new 3 point targeting system yet. So I am going to quit without even trying, I can't do that. My current goal for nationals is #1 place high in double's again since I will be in 2nd division there. #2 beat Megamav's all events score. I don't have much chance with anything else. You can't quit. Are you still playing the lanes the same way you were playing them before these machines came in? If you are you can't keep doing that.

I am not a firm believer in I play the lanes the way the lanes want me to play them. When I start I throw the ball and see what options I have. Damn this took so long it had me time out. I am glad I copied to the clipboard first.
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Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by pjape »

Krava, thanks for your reply. Maybe I'll read it all tomorrow, but I just got home from a three hour orchestra rehearsal, it's late, and I don't feel like reading that much right now. ;)

I know enough about the game, and MY game that I know exactly what I'm doing wrong. I usually don't miss too much at the arrows, but I'm out to lunch at the breakpoint. Basically what happens with me is I get into the swing late, then I grab it, then it bumps out to the right at the top of the swing. This causes me to muscle it on the downswing, and it turns into more of a right to left swing. I might only miss a board at the arrows, but I can't get it to the right. When this happens (and it's usually accompanied by lunging at the foul line), my ball reads way too early and goes high. I throw it dead straight with a plastic ball at spares, but when this happens on spare shots, I will miss left and wiff the spare. 95% of the time, when I miss, it's left.

As I stated, the solution is practice, but when you don't have the money to practice, you don't.

BTW, knowing myself, I probably won't quit my league. I love the game and the night out too much.
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Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by TonyPR »

Don't quit... I wish there was a bowling center operating right now here in Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria struck us (pun intended). I understand what you are going through and that you feel you are letting your team down, talk to them about your thoughts on quitting and I am sure that if they are real friends none will support your decision.

About practice, it sounds like you need to work on your push away. Like Mega said, find a mirror and practice starting the ball on time and keeping the ball under your head (head under ball may take some advanced gymnastics skills)... use something like a slightly deflated volleyball at first. You can bowl 20 games a day but if you are doing the motion incorrectly that is what you will learn, always choose quality over quantity, remember practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent.

Don't quit... ever...
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Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by krava »

See atleast you know what is wrong with what you are doing. Most people don't know what is wrong with what they are doing. A ton of what I wrote was trying to identify the problem. You know what the problem is all you have to do is fix it. I believe that you were doing it fine last year and now your doing this. You can definetely get back to doing it right. It doesn't sound like a major problem and I have no idea how to fix so no advice but there are others that can help you with that.

I have a little issue controling the breakpoint. Sometimes I look at the bottom center of the 6 pin and then sometimes I find myself looking at 10 at the breakpoint instead of 8 because that is easier to see. For some stupid reason I can't take my eyes off of 10. I think to myself ok I am looking at 10 I know I am I will just walk up and then somehow fix it at the foul line and push a little right to adjust. What happens when I do that? I end up at 10 at the breakpoint instead of 8. I know that is the most stupid thing ever and doesn't happen to me much. I like freeze and can't look at 8 for whatever the reason. The only good news is that whatever I look at, I usually hit at the breakpoint unless I throw it wrong (not clearning body etc).

I wish I didn't quit back in 1991, i quit because I felt i wasn't good enough and what was the use. I had the same thought back 2 weeks ago shooting those back to back 400s. Then I think I got way too much invested in this. You have alot of time and years invested in it and I wouldn't quit if I were you.
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Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by RobMautner »

For those of you who didn't read my last article in BTM (Lessons Learned), I have been forced to quit bowling competitively by degenerative bone disease that has devastated my spine all the way from my head to my tailbone.

Even though bowling causes me to experience a lot of physical pain, I decided to continue to bowl in a couple of recreational leagues using a plastic spare ball with a lot of surface to make up for my lack of ball speed. Lo and behold, I'm finding that I'm really enjoying bowling for the first time in a very, very long time. I average around 170, and when I can occasionally roll a 200 game, you'd think that I had just won the lottery. The point is, that bowling is supposed to be fun. It's so easy to become obsessed with scores, winning, bowling balls, layouts, and all of the other superfluous gibberish that takes away from the fun of the game, that we forget about the fun.

With all that said, don't quit. Try to repurpose yourself and learn to have fun again. You might just find that it will also help you to improve.
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Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by 44boyd »

Krava, do you ever adjust your target at the front arrows to help you get out to 8? As I move in to play 12-15 at the arrows out to 8 at the breakpoint I still "aim" my eyes at the second arrow at the front so for my swing to project it out to where I want it at the break point. This is what helps me get my body open to swing it instead of being squared up at the line.
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Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by pjape »

TonyPR wrote:Don't quit... I wish there was a bowling center operating right now here in Puerto Rico after hurricane Maria struck us (pun intended). I understand what you are going through and that you feel you are letting your team down, talk to them about your thoughts on quitting and I am sure that if they are real friends none will support your decision.

About practice, it sounds like you need to work on your push away. Like Mega said, find a mirror and practice starting the ball on time and keeping the ball under your head (head under ball may take some advanced gymnastics skills)... use something like a slightly deflated volleyball at first. You can bowl 20 games a day but if you are doing the motion incorrectly that is what you will learn, always choose quality over quantity, remember practice doesn't make perfect, practice makes permanent.

Don't quit... ever...
Thanks Tony for giving me a reality check (both in bowling and in life!). Now, I'd like to know when you snuck into my bowling center and watched me bowl. :lol: You are so right; my pushaway is my biggest issue. I have a mirror on my bedroom door where I can watch myself. I do this, but not nearly as much as I should be doing. Boredom is not an excuse! I also can hook up my old camcorder directly to my TV and VCR (yes, I still have a VCR!) and watch myself live or tape myself and watch one frame at a time.

So, I'm setting myself a challenge to spend 30 minutes a day practicing my pushaway, and then see how much better the bowling is next Thursday. I'll report back next Thursday night.
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Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by LittleTiger »

As a side comment, I want to say that it is nice to see that I'm not only one who has had hard times with bowling :shock:

I needed to be a couple of months away from because of a knee injury and it has been hard to accept that even I can now bowl again it will still take time to get back to the same level where I was earlier.
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Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by pjape »

Last night confirmed my decision to not quit. I FINALLY bowled pretty well. 673 is not that fantastic a series, but I made more good shots, less bad ones, and I missed zero spares the entire evening. I only had one open frame, a 6-7-10 halfway through game one.

The best thing is I have fuller knowledge what my Achilles heel is; and that's making sure when I push away I make absolutely sure to have, as Mark Baker puts it, a quiet shoulder, as well as making sure I do not have any spine tilt until later in the approach.

When I don't do this, I tend to grab during the downswing, it leads to late timing, and many times I lunge at the foul line. This all results in the ball reading way too early, and many times it will be two three boards left of target.

I still need to improve on my quest for a freer swing. During the last few frames of game three, I got freer, and I noticed my ball speed picked up over a mile an hour. That helped me close with five in a row, which was encouraging, as many of the guys have their low game in game three. It's not unusual to see series like 279, 247, 179. This shows that many bowlers aren't as skilled in making the adjustments when they break down (or else don't want to leave their comfort zone).

The best part was we actually won two points for the first time this year. Hopefully we'll be able to get out of last place ASAP! :lol:
SomyP
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Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by SomyP »

I thought about quitting plenty of times due to a nagging elbow. But ultimately I made myself a part time bowler. Fortunately for me I am one of the lucky ones who can be competitive and get away with limited practice. But I wasn't always that way. I used to be a practice machine and at one point because I was a local alley rat I bowled 35 straight games in a day, went to work and still was able to move just fine the next day. Mind you I was 19 and being a part time student, part time employee, who still felt like he could compete with anyone bowling was easy to find time for cause it's all I cared about.

Now that life is more busy for me, it's hard to find time to practice if I wanted to. But since I workout consistently and subconsciously mimic bowling movements in my every day life, my body has not forgot how to bowl. The only thing I struggle with is ball speed and accuracy, but slowing down normally fixes that issue.

Practice is great, and I feel everyone should do it when they can. It helps to build in muscle memory.
Phonetek
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Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by Phonetek »

I know this post is a few months old but I'm new here so I'm reading through. I can't say I ever quit out of frustration but sometimes taking time off does fix some things. When I was younger I was so frustrated that I had too much top spin or I'd overcompensate and get the thumb hole thump, not that pretty 3/4 roll. I would practice and practice and it seemed no matter what I did I couldn't fix it. Yeah, I got quite upset with myself. It so happened that when my leagues ended that year I had a busy summer. Instead of spending most of my time in the bowling alley like every other summer I didn't go at all. Right before league started in the fall I went to practice and low and behold for no apparent reason I noticed that beautiful 3/4 roll oil line on my ball. I guess because I wasn't even thinking about it when I started practice. I guess it was mind over matter after all. Sometimes you just try too hard and it mentally screws you up. I don't know, I can't explain it. Unless I was abducted by aliens and they altered my wrist without my knowledge over the summer. I haven't ever had a problem since, perfect 3/4 roll every time no matter what. That season I shot my first 300 plus 2 more, go figure.
Daryl
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THS Average: 226
Positive Axis Point: 5 13/16 x 5/16 up
Speed: 15.38 at foul line
Rev Rate: 390
Axis Tilt: 18
Axis Rotation: 55
Location: Augusta, Georgia

Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by Daryl »

I have taken some time off from bowling league myself. About three years now. I just bowl with some friends from time to time. I do my practicing in the yard with balls that I do not use on the lanes to keep in practice. I did not stop because of bad bowling. I averaged 228, and I do not consider myself a good bowler by any means. I stopped bowling because of the sick easy lane conditions. I wanted to bowl sport league, but there are none in my area. I stopped because I am tired of the usbc politics that degrade our sport. So I do not want to support their nonsense any more unless a sport league is available. I did bowl my last year of bowling in a 9 pin league to get away from the usbc sanction fees. But for now I bowl just occasionally, and until sport leagues are available I will just open bowl with friend once in awhile.
Right Handed Stats:
RPM (off hand) 390
Speed (off hand) 15.3 mph
Axis Tilt; 18 degrees
Axis Rotation: 55 degrees
PAP: 5 13/16" x 5/16" up
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MegaMav
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THS Average: 225
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Positive Axis Point: 5.5 Over & 1 Up
Speed: 16.0 MPH - Camera
Rev Rate: 375
Axis Tilt: 14
Axis Rotation: 45
Heavy Oil Ball: Radical - Informer
Medium Oil Ball: Brunswick - Fearless
Light Oil Ball: Radical - Bonus Pearl
Preferred Company: Radical Bowling Technologies
Location: Malta, NY

Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by MegaMav »

Daryl wrote:So I do not want to support their nonsense any more unless a sport league is available.
Good on ya.

I am running an unsanctioned challenge league.
USBC wont get a dime from me unless I have to give in.
TomaHawk
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Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by TomaHawk »

MegaMav wrote:
Good on ya.

I am running an unsanctioned challenge league.
USBC wont get a dime from me unless I have to give in.
Not to change the topic, how many participants are in the league?

On topic, over my bowling career, I have made decisions not to bowl for years at a time. Mostly, because of physical changes I wanted to make in my game. But also, some of the teams I bowled on would incur changes to our roster. Always been a team orientated player, it was difficult to replace a person on the team. The team chemistry just wasn't there.
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MegaMav
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Posts: 4694
Joined: April 27th, 2007, 5:00 am
THS Average: 225
Sport Average: 200
Positive Axis Point: 5.5 Over & 1 Up
Speed: 16.0 MPH - Camera
Rev Rate: 375
Axis Tilt: 14
Axis Rotation: 45
Heavy Oil Ball: Radical - Informer
Medium Oil Ball: Brunswick - Fearless
Light Oil Ball: Radical - Bonus Pearl
Preferred Company: Radical Bowling Technologies
Location: Malta, NY

Re: Have you ever quit?

Post by MegaMav »

TomaHawk wrote:Not to change the topic, how many participants are in the league?
Attendance isnt required, but the last 2 weeks we've gotten 10 and 9.
Here is the website for rules and more details: http://www.cdclbowling.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
IMO, this is the direction the sport is going, a la carte bowling.
Proprietors will fight it because they want to lock people in to sure fire money, but people dont want the commitment.
This brings youth and adult together as well.
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