Friday, February 10, 2006

how to suck and then totally redeem myself

whenever i played basketball or play softball, i can usually figure out what i'm doing wrong and correct it on the fly. athletics is nothing more than mechanics and muscle memory. someone who plies their trade will know themselves well enough.

some days, nothing's gonna work, no matter what you do.

at least, for me.

tonight, i sucked at bowling. i'm talking really sucked. the difference, however, is that i don't know what i'm doing with bowling. i don't have proper mechanics, and i don't even pretend to. so it's difficult for me to make changes on the fly because i'm not really sure if i'm changing for the better.

but i did.

you see, as each frame went by, i picked something up by watching other bowlers. and by the end, i kinda figured it out.

okay, i'm posting my discoveries, not really as much for you but for me, so i don't forget them next week. that's why they're in bold.

1. at the beginning, stay bent and compact. get low to the ground. and stay on the opposite side than i normally would (i'm a lefthanded bowler, so begin on the left side).

2. during the approach, think about attacking the pins, but do it deliberately.

3. keep my arm in during the toss.

4. bend so low that i drag my knee on the ground.

5. follow through to the pin.


i'm thinking these work. for me, being compact and simple always brings me back to basics.

and if staying basic results in something like the four straight spares that i ended on, then i'll take it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Addendum: Extend your shoulder away from your body when you throw so that your arm hangs straight down and swings in a straight line. That way, when you throw, you don't arc your arm around your hip--that redirects the ball oddly. (Wow, you spend one year of your life in the MidWest and you pick up all sorts of useless information...)