...that friday night all-night disco bowling could be so helpful? me and my buddy went to the local house tonight for three hours of bowling for a flat $18. we bowled the first two hours without the scoring machine on, so that i could work on some mechanics (namely, changing axis rotation and spare shooting; i practiced throwing my plastic ball at all of my single pin spares and a few 4-7s and 6-10s), and i am quite impressed with my progress tonight. i used to play a large axis rotation angle (essentially, spread my index finger very wide and tucked the pinky), but tonight i played both my index and pinky both close to the finger holes (for a very small rotation angle) and also both finger spread a little bit from the finger holes (for a medium rotation angle), and it worked wonders. i felt for a while like i couldn't miss the pocket, and when i did i knew exactly why i did and i fixed it immediately (most of the time i had pulled it a little bit and the next ball i fell back into form). Also, i used a finger placement that gave no rotation angle (index in close, pinky spread) for my spares, which also helped to keep the plastic dead straight, and i only missed 3 or 4 out of about 20 or 25 single pin and 4-7/6-10 spares. at 12:25, we turned the scoring on, and i started with a turkey in the beginning of the first. missed a ten pin, then spared the next 5 frames, left a 3-6-10 in the tenth and the ball slipped off of my hand during the downswing and i only covered the 3 and the 10. the next game, i started with the front 6, then left a four pin on a ball that i missed inside about half a board at the arrows, then finished with the back 5 for a 279. all in all, i believe that this is probably the most productive practice session i've had in a long time. hopefully this is exactly what i needed to break out of the slump i've been in in league play. i bowl tomorrow morning, hopefully i'll be able to report on my league play tomorrow afternoon.

Sounds like a productive practice session. At the same time you were working on all those mechanically skills you were also learning how to bowl with distractions with the music, lack of real lighting, other people that aren't real bowlers and so on as well as learning to trust your swing.

ok, so at the league today i was playing the same line as last night with the same ball (the ace) which seemed to work for most of the time. the biggest problem was missing the arrow. whenever i missed the mark, the ball didn't hit the pocket. simple enough, i think. my scores improved as the games progressed; 163, 178, 199. after we were done, my buddy who coaches the bantams said to me, "you know you were still bowling on the tournament pattern, right?" so, that explained why the ball was very unforgiving (usually i can get a little bit of forgiveness on a THS if i miss a little either way), so i think bowling an average of 11 per game over the year's average on a shot that wasn't THS was pretty good.

One of the things that cosmic bowling is good for is that it changes your perception of the lane. Cosmic bowling has the lights off and sometimes there is dry ice vapor so you can barely see the lane, so your brain will disconnect the auto pilot and let you steer the ship. This allows your armswing to free up and hit the target you are aiming at because you can barely see it. Because you can barely see the arrows, you tend to concentrate harder, that and the brain letting your arm swing without trying to force the ball to the target allows you to actually hit what you are aiming at.

If you want to try this for yourself, you don't need cosmic bowling with smoke and lasers, all you need to do is to close your eyes just before you release the ball in your approach.

What about wearing sunglasses?

I've had to wear sunglasses while bowling before. I wear prescription glasses and sometimes normal glasses break at the worse of times, so I've had to use my prescription sunglasses for everything until my new glasses were done including bowling. So trust me when I say wearing sunglasses is nothing like cosmic bowling. Now wearing them while cosmic bowling is a different story and with some of the centers around me the might be needed with rotation lights and strobes that sometimes shine right in your eye as you are on the approach.