Sometimes during practice it happens that everything falls into place...All of a sudden one get into a good finishing position, the timing is perfect, the release is smooth and powerful, incredible revolutions on the ball...can't miss...spectators start to gather behind the lane...it feels so great.

But then the next session it's all gone gone gone...It may take a week, month or more before I can find that shot again (I practice 4 to 6 hours per week on the lane + a couple of hours in the living room).

Are there any tricks one can use to speed up the learning process? To record that feeling so that the shot wouldn't get so deeply lost?? It's frustrating to spend most of the time trying to find the shot that once was there...one start to think that maybe it was all just luck.

It's more than "recording that feeling". What's happening is that something is going wrong when you've lost that feeling. What's going wrong? No one here is going to be able to tell you. What you're going to have to figure out is what is getting out of wack. Is it your feet? Your arm swing? Timing? Are you muscleing the ball? Dropping it? Turning it early? Breaking your arm?

Are you working with anyone who' watching your game to help you figure out what's going on? All the practice in the world isn't going to help if you don't know what you're trying to fix. Once you can start to isolate the things in your game that go wrong, you'll start to recognize when that happens and be able to regin them in faster.

There's no way to speed up that process, other than knowing that things will get out of wack and that you're going to have to have someone help you identify what they are.

When someone tells you that you've dropped the ball, you'll start to register the feeling you had at that release with dropping the ball. When someone tells you that you were late, you'll start to register the feeling you had at the line with being late. When someone tells you that you went around the ball, you'll register the feeling of that release with going around the ball.

Then once you develop ways to quickly correct these things, you'll be on the road to quickly fixing your mistakes. But it's not a quick process. It takes time to feel and understand what you're doing and to deal with it.

SkidRoll
I am bowling joel. I know what you are going through. I have been bowling at a 187 clip for the
last month. Sunday morning i had 554 which was the
2nd lowest series in a month. The first was on
wedns league when I had 494. I did'nt lose the
feeling I just missed placed it. Sunday I got it
back but not all the way. I missed two ten pins
with my spare ball and couple of regular others
with my strike ball. It all came down to concentration. This wedns I will get it back as
I know what I did wrong. :p
Your ok just keep at it. bowling joel

Thank you Lefty and Joel,

My problem is somewhere between my ears and I shouldn't have posted this topic at all. I was just so frustrated after having a good period when I bowled at a 200..220 average for a couple of weeks and then lost it all in one night. Now I have been at 150 for weeks...just where I was when I started bowling.
I try and try and nothing seems to work, instead it gets worse and worse the harder I try to find and fix the problem(s). Finally I get discouraged enough and quit bowling until I can't stay away from the lanes anymore and everything starts all over again...
Sorry about being a complainer, need to let out some steam. Maybe I should switch to a much easier sport...like golf

Skid Roll
Whatever you do do not quit something you like to do. Old Chinese probverb never bite off more then
you can chew, also new journey long or short starts
with first step. An American once said sometimes less is more. Do not get uptight, try to work out
the problem instead of compounding it. If you carried 200 average for two weeks or months go back
in your mind and try to find out what you did right.
Don't give up as that's the easy way out. bowling joel

I had a similar problem recently. I ave around 190 most of the time. Then two weeks in a row shot 453!!? I hadn't shot that low in quite some time and needless to say I was quite frustated.
What I ended up finding out was that I was trying TOO HARD. Your body already knows how to bowl as is shown by the early 200+ average. What I have been concentrating on is nothing. I step on the approach line up and let the ball go.
This simple approach has worked wonders for my bowling. You can read Dr. Dean Hinitz article about the competitive cycle. This is really the same thing in many ways.
Give it a try. Hope this helps.

Skid Roll,

All athletes suffer setbacks from time-to-time.

"It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up."
- Vince Lombardi

It's actually ironic that you mentioned golf, because I have a golf analogy. A friend of mine ALWAYS mis-clubs his shots. For example since he has hit his 5-iron 200 yards in the past, he believes that he should hit his 5-iron 200 yards every time. But in reality, he can only hit his 5-iron 175-180 yards on a consistent basis. My friend should not judge his length off his best days, he should judge them from his average days.

The same thing in bowling. For example: right now I'm in the midst of a hot-streak. For the past month I've averaged around 230. But am I a 230 average bowler? NO WAY! A couple of months ago, while I was fighting an non-bowling related injury (I'm an aspiring triathlete), I was only averaging around 185. Am I that "bad"? NO WAY! My true skill level lies somewhere between the 185 and 230.

I don't know where your true skill level lies, only you can be the best judge of that. Just don't be overly concerned when you're struggling or get too cocky when your hot, because all things - both good and bad eventually end.

I hope that this helps.

Marty

That is right on, Marty. Right now I am averaging about 199, normally I average between 210 and 215. I am in a slump right now, too. Waiting to come back out of it. I got frustrated and down on myself, that is when I posted on here. I got some great advice, so, SkidRoll, you came to the right place. I can concentrate more now on finding my mark faster rather than getting mad and prolonging my anguish. Don't worry, it'll come back, man...

Everything that everyone has said so far is right on...you are just a little out of sync.

No open tenths mentioned Dean Hinitz's Competitive Cycle. That is probably where your problem lies. I have it memorized...or at least the simple form of it, and it helps me tremendously.

1) Decide what you plan to do, and be sure to "make up your mind"
2) Commit totally to your plan...no doubts. Even if it doesnt result in a strike, you WILL learn something from it. Let your body do what you trained it to do...keep your mind out of the equation.
3) Have your emotional reaction to it. Get mad, happy, scream...whatever. Get it out of your system.
4) Reset yourself...forget what just happened, and consider that task done. Move back to step one.

Essentially, you go through this process once on strikes, twice on spares...resetting yourself before the spare conversion.

It really helps to keep you on stable ground mentally...

John

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="VERDANA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,TAHOMA">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="VERDANA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,TAHOMA">Originally posted by mdmjdm:
Everything that everyone has said so far is right on...you are just a little out of sync.

No open tenths mentioned Dean Hinitz's Competitive Cycle. That is probably where your problem lies. I have it memorized...or at least the simple form of it, and it helps me tremendously.

1) Decide what you plan to do, and be sure to "make up your mind"
2) Commit totally to your plan...no doubts. Even if it doesnt result in a strike, you WILL learn something from it. Let your body do what you trained it to do...keep your mind out of the equation.
3) Have your emotional reaction to it. Get mad, happy, scream...whatever. Get it out of your system.
4) Reset yourself...forget what just happened, and consider that task done. Move back to step one.

Essentially, you go through this process once on strikes, twice on spares...resetting yourself before the spare conversion.

It really helps to keep you on stable ground mentally...

John </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="VERDANA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,TAHOMA">I tried applying this last night, and found that I had more success. Being back bowling for only 3 months (after not bowling for at least 5 years), having my own bowling balls, it seemed I had hit a bit of a brick wall for a bit, not being able to get over 160. Last night, out of 8 games, I had 4 over 160, one being 176. I feel that I could be closing in on the precious 200 game.....been so close (197, 195, 195, 193) in the past.

I had been letting bad shots get to me, and then overcompensating on the next one.