My name's Michael and I enjoyed reading the forums so figured I'd join. Looks like a great place to learn.

I've always liked bowling, but just recently began bowling more 'seriously'. Me and a buddy of mine would go to the lanes when we were younger and bowl with OLD plastic balls that had been handed down to us. We were both pretty decent having come into the game totally on our own, no instruction or anything, but we never got into league/tournament/school bowling. I stopped bowling altogether in college, and after I graduated in 2011 I was invited to bowl as a frequent sub in my first league with some work folks. Kept using that old plastic ball and averaged 144 in 36 games my first league.

I was approached toward the end of the season and asked why I was using a plastic ball to which I replied "What do you mean a plastic ball?" I'd never heard of different ball types etc. When I say I had no instruction or knowledge of the game growing up, I mean NONE. I promptly bought my first reactive ball (Track 508A about 1 year ago) and saw my average increase to 162 over 42 games in winter 2012 (I was actually bowling with a torn ACL for most of this season).

Unfortunately I had ACL surgery in late 2012, and I went away to work for most of 2013 and could only escape to a local AMF house every few weeks to get some practice in. I'm now back to bowling my regular league, and am having a great time learning the game. I have a 180 average over 20 games so far, hoping to get more consistent and see that number keep rising!

Hey IronMike...hoping you'll be interested in our virtual league this winter, and if you don't know what that is, you should check out the sign-up thread, which will contain a link to our FAQ page.