Anyone do a lot of bowling?

[Youngun5]

I'm looking to get into bowling some. Not super serious, but I'd like to work and progressively get decent. I just don't really have the fire to play much golf anymore.

Didn't know if there were any good tricks of the trade, and good ideas for someone starting off.

I'd like to eventually establish a good average and possibly join some leagues.

 

[BigJim13]

I'm looking to get into bowling some. Not super serious, but I'd like to work and progressively get decent. I just don't really have the fire to play much golf anymore.

Didn't know if there were any good tricks of the trade, and good ideas for someone starting off.

I'd like to eventually establish a good average and possibly join some leagues.

I bowled in a league for about 4 or 5 years. I started out and was horrible, I mean if I broke 100 it was a good game for me. It did take time but eventually I got to have a decent average, around 150 or 160 (they carried your avg over from yr to yr, so it went from like 101 to 150-160 in 4-5 yrs). I got to a point where if I only got my average I was disappointed. I wanted to have a game in the 180-190 range and broke into the 200's quite often my last year. I think my high was around 250-260, you know stars aligned type game.

Anyway, as for tips it's actually quite similar to golf. When I first started I didn't have shoes and couldn't rent any, I have a size 16 shoe and the alley didn't carry rentals that high. I didn't want to spend a bunch of money if I wasn't going to stick with it. I guess the biggest thing is find your own ball. I didn't buy one, although you certainly can, I went to the ally a couple of afternoons when there weren't many people around. I tried a bunch of different weights and hole setups (yes they can vary) until I found one I was pretty comfortable with, put it in the bag before I left the ally and never looked back. Before I get jumped on for stealing I returned it to the same ally when I stopped bowling.

Once you find a ball that you are comfortable with all you really need to do is practice a bit. As much to see how the ball reacts as anything. Some quick tips I got:

1) If you are missing left move right, if you are missing right move to your left.
2) Try to go straight back with the ball, if you get behind yourself it causes all sorts of problems (kinda like an OTT move in golf)
3) Don't be afraid to be different, just like golf everybody's body type and swing will be different.

I really enjoyed my time bowling in the league. It was good friendly competition. The one thing I would say though is check the length of the league's season. The one I was in went for 32 weeks,once a week, three games a week. That's alot of bowling and I got to the point that I wasn't going to get much better without committing more time/money and frankly I was burned out.

It can be a blast though!

 

[ejdahl21]

Anyway, as for tips it's actually quite similar to golf.

Except that you will hardly ever lose a ball bowling.

 

[zaphod]

Except that you will hardly ever lose a ball bowling.

LOL Eric you have not bowled at our local alley. 50/50 chance your ball will not come back. Grab a beer a sit down for a while. That's the perk of a defect pinsetter.

 

[zaphod]

Except that you will hardly ever lose a ball bowling.

LOL Eric you have not bowled at our local alley. 50/50 chance your ball will not come back. Grab a beer a sit down for a while. That's the perk of a defect pinsetter.

 

[Youngun5]

Really getting into this.

Have 2 bowling balls on the way, also bought a pair of Shoes.

Before this, I don't think I ever could really average much over 100. I used to just try and roll is straight down the lane, but now hook it and have increased my high game all the way to 176 using a house ball. Obviously this isn't great...but I'm moving in the right direction. Once I get my bowling balls in, and get them fitted and drilled, then I should hopefully be able to get a little more consistent, and really work on what strategy I want to use. For now though, I just want to work on getting my rythm and delivery consistent.

 

[Dusty90]

Read this thread for a second time and it now makes a lot more sense to me. I initially thought that it said "anyone do a lot of lawn bowling." Now I am pretty sure that this is a sport, but I didn't think that any young guys would play that.

Wow, it has been a long day... I need to get a bit more sleep me thinks.

 

[mont86]

Use to years ago...Just like golf ... practice. My bowling was like golf good days and bad days, never did break 200.