Guest Author - Gary King

I am sure that all of us have experienced days when we bowl when nothing seems to work and everything seems to go wrong. You leave a pin or pins after the first ball and you have a lot of trouble picking up your spares. No matter what you do, you simply cannot seem to get the pins down like you normally do.

I had a night like that last week when things went wrong and nothing seems to work. It is very frustrating and can be very perturbing. But, it happens, even to the best of bowlers, and just like us, they have to deal with it.

So, how DO you deal with days like that? I am not sure there is any set system you can use for situations like that, except to do the best you can and know that it does not happen all the time or, if you are lucky, does not happen very often.

I have worked on dealing with situations like I have described above and I can tell you what I do when bad days happen to me. They do not happen that often and I am glad of that. But, if they did happen more than they do, I would deal with them like I do now.

You probably have your own way of doing things when it comes to shooting spares, or you use a certain place to stand, etc., when it comes to rolling your first, and if necessary, your second shot. So, when things are not going well, you need to focus very intently on what you normally do. Intensify your focus so that you make sure you do what you do right. If your first ball is not doing exactly what you want it to or it is not as accurate as it normally is, just focus more intently and make sure you follow through. If you use a spot for your first ball, focus on that spot as if you were aiming a laser beam at it.

Bowling can be a very frustrating sport and sometimes we even have to get creative in order to get things to work better. By creative, I mean to adjust your shot (a little to the right of your spot, short of your spot, stand one-half inch forward of where you normally stand, etc.). I don’t know about you, but when you want to make a change and need to make a change, DO IT! I have a bad habit of getting very stubborn sometimes when it comes to making a change. When I see my ball hooking too much and I know I need to either speed up my delivery or roll the ball farther down the lane, my body many times seems to resist the change. I think that is because we adjust to a certain condition and we roll the ball a certain way, and our bodies learn to do it exactly the way we tell our bodies to. So trying to change can create some problems. We may not like to admit that, but that seems to be fact.

I have analyzed how, as a Bowling Host, I can help other people to learn to bowl better and what would I want to know if the shoe were on the other foot? What kind of questions would I ask a Bowling Host? What would I want to do first to improve my bowling? How do I pick up certain pins? What exactly would inserts do for my ball? Would it be better to use inserts or not? If I want a new ball, what kind of ball should I get, especially to help me become a better bowler? If I am pin bowling, how can I change and start using spots and become a spot bowler? There are a thousand questions you can ask and I am not sure you can get the answers which not only work for your situation but answers which you feel you can really adopt for your game.

I decided to start a system of teaching others to bowl where we find out what is and is not working for your game and go from there. If we try something new and you find it works, let me know, so others can benefit from it. If we try something and it does not work, let me know that also and we will go from there. I will improve the way I work on my newsletters and make them better and more constructive so all of you benefit from what we get in them.

I am very thankful to Lisa, the site owner, for being patient with me. I may be a fairly good bowler and average pretty high, but we are all human, and we all make human mistakes. I need to FOCUS my attention on this Bowling Site here at Bella OnLine, just like I focus on my game, and improve the site, the way I improve my game. And that is exactly what I am going to do.

I have renewed my dedication to bowling, to improve my game even more and I intend on bowling some more 300 games. But it will take more than just carrying my equipment to the centers and rolling the ball. It will take dedication, work, practice, and a lot of patience. But, that is what is required and I will work at it. Those of you who would like to roll a 300 game who feel you can never do it, CAN DO IT, believe it or not. But first, you have to believe you CAN do it.

This is a new year and a new beginning and let us make 2006 the year YOU roll a 300 game and/or the highest series you ever rolled in your life. Think positive and make it happen. You CAN do it.

When things go wrong, turn them around and make them right! You, like me, need to always remember one thing: the person, any person, who ever rolled a 300 game, did not have that ability when they were first born and in their crib! They learned, at some time or another, to bowl, and then one day they rolled their first 300 game. Some people may seem to have a natural skill for this game of bowling, but they still have to work on it.

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will, you need to remember one thing: for every positive, there is a negative; for every wrong, there is a right, etc. Hang in there, good bowling, and adopt a policy today that no matter how bad things are going, keep a smile on your face. After all, bowling is still a game!

The two links provided for this article can help you with your bowling.