Practice intelligently.



First, practice to correct fundamental mistakes. When you are doing something wrong and yet are not quite sure what it is, go back to your fundamentals to learn what you are doing incorrectly. Second, practice spare shooting. As a rule, beginners are weak on spares. The next time you bowl, make a list of the spares you miss. Then, on your next practice date, have the pinboy set up those same spare shots and shoot at them exclusively. You might have the boy put up twenty shots and call it a game. In doing so, you will really make planned progress.

Have someone regularly check your game.

You can develop flaws without realizing it, as even the experts do from time to time. Probably some expert or veteran bowler can straighten you out before you wind up with a habit-forming fault. You may be hopping, bringing up your right leg too far at the foul line, turning sideways, getting too high on your backswing, or side- arming. This may happen while you are concentrating on something else. Before you know it, the bad habit may have gone on so long that it is difficult to break.

Don't become discouraged.

I have seen blind bowlers, paraplegics, and other handicapped persons succeed at the game despite almost insurmountable odds, because they kept plugging at it doggedly. So can you. I couldn't end this chapter without taking the opportunity to pay tribute to the man who, more than anyone else helped me along the pathway to success. I mean Louis P. Petersen, founder of the famed Petersen Classic in Chicago, in whose alleys I began my tenpin career as a pinsetter and for whose advice and help I shall always be grateful.

Hints to Advanced Bowlers

The general style of the advanced bowler is already set. His steps, timing, backswing and delivery have been incorporated into a pattern that is difficult to change. It might be well to point out right here that any change in one's style almost automatically means a temporary drop in average. For instance, if you decide to change your footwork, you might as well face the fact that you will lose points while correcting yourself. The important thing to remember, if and when you are satisfied in your own mind that you are doing something fundamentally wrong, is that by correcting the fault you will bring your average up higher than it was. The best time to do these corrections work or practice is in the summertime, when your experiments will not be at the expense of your teammates. During this period, you have three or four months to work out those kinks and to incorporate into your style the correct methods you failed to use previously.

One fault leads to another.

It is an axiom of bowling that one key fault can cause two or three other faults. Suppose a bowler takes his first step too fast. That is the key fault, but it also results in poor timing, too fast footwork, and being off balance at the foul line. Another key fault might be allowing the right shoulder to be pulled back and out of line, which brings on such other faults as improperly facing the pins, finishing sideways at the foul line and a poor follow-through. The key fault of lunging at the foul line ruins timing, makes the release jerky, and may cause the bowler to hop.

The above tips given I hope will help you to play the game of bowling. The most important thing to play the game is to keep on practicing before you take part in any competition. So starts practicing the game by keeping some of the guides given here.