Help! By Steve Barker

                                                                   
Many of our current competitive players grew up in an era of YBC where there was no shortage of quality coaches to guide us. It was especially true in the days before automatic scoring, and particularly in the younger divisions where we also had parents and volunteers who were helping by keeping score.
Today, kids can still get fine instruction in the YBC and have other options such as the Bowling Schools that are run around the country. I’ll delve deeper into those in the near future, but today wanted to look at the options that adults have in getting help with their game.
If you watch other individual Pro sports, you’ll notice that tennis players have a coach sitting in the box with their family and friends, and golfers usually have a swing coach with them on the range before a round. These two sports also offer all sorts of lessons for the amateur player.  
For the social league bowler, the thought of having a coach or getting instruction is likely foreign to them unless they qualify for the “Holiday Classic” or some other tournament. For the average bowler who may possibly be looking for help to improve their game, they may not know where to look and may not know how easy it could be to get that help.
If you happen to fall under this category, I would suggest that you speak to your proprietor about soliciting some assistance, or you could simply contact any one of the people on here who may be in your area. There is also some material online that could offer some good suggestions. For instance, Tom Paterson, from Saskatchewan has written books on the subject and also has lots of tips available at saskbowl.com.
If you are a lifetime bowler who is looking for help with your game, one of the drawbacks will be that you have many years of muscle memory built into your arm swing and approach, so physical changes could be difficult.
A couple simple things that could help your form would simply be making sure your approach is controlled and balanced and that you are relaxed and “square” in your initial setup.  If you are unbalanced and twisted before you start, there is no chance of being straight and balanced through your shot. Also, as in any sport, make sure you FOLLOW THROUGH. And if you look at the pins when you throw, try using the arrows to line up your shot as it is much easier to hit a target 15 feet from the foul line rather than 60 feet. Simply picture in your mind where you want your ball to go down the lane and line yourself up accordingly. The final “physical” thing you can do to improve your game is to use video. Nowadays it’s very simple to record yourself, even using a cell phone, and once you’ve seen how you actually deliver the ball, flaws are easier to feel and fix.
Physical changes aside, there is still one very simple way to improve your game. Just understand that 5 Pin is a challenging game and you do not need to rely on strikes to score well. Limit the pins you leave on the deck and make your spares and your average will improve.
 
For the competitive player, you are only assigned a coach for events as the Masters Nationals and the Open. It’s always interesting to see how other tournament players practice and what resources we use in individual competition.
Many players have one or two people that they can rely on when they are struggling. Oftentimes it is a spectator on fellow competitor who may know the bowler’s game very well.  This seemed to be common at the recent Masters Tournament in Oshawa, Ontario. I also noticed that many bowlers also had parents on hand to lend technical and moral support.
It can be beneficial to have someone to talk to when things are going badly. A major reason that I was able to hang onto a spot at last month’s Open Zone finals was because of some advice and reassurance I received from John Honeyford. In the 19th game, I was “all over the place” and had 70 in the fifth frame. Since it didn’t seem like I’d get my timing and mechanical issues sorted out, I was considering an extreme move (about 17 boards to the right) on the approach to throw a line that might work with my newfound (yet unwanted) technique. I pitched my idea to John to get his opinion and he gave it the thumbs up with some encouraging words to boot! I threw 4 strikes in a row and finished with a 253 and went on to have a decent final game as well. Having that extra person to lean on for advice or a vote of confidence can make a huge difference.
One of the things that will help all bowlers is to learn your own game and your tendencies so that you are not reliant on just one or two people to help. Instead of being “lost” up there, you will be able to self- diagnose issues more quickly. Plus, it’s easier to ask someone to watch for something specific in your delivery rather than simply saying, “What am I doing wrong”?
As I’ve always said, the cool thing about this game is that while there are some standards out there that will help, there are many ways to hit those 5 white objects with that little round projectile.
I hope that some of the tips offered were helpful and I encourage others to debate or add some of their own. But the most important piece of advice I can offer to bowlers out there looking for help is “Don’t be afraid to ask”! And unlike the “PROs” at your local Golf or Tennis club, our lessons are FREE!
 
* I would also like to congratulate Oshawa’s Mike Herbert for his incredible performance at the recent MBAO event held at Neb’s Fun World. In the 12 game qualifying, Mike finished with a remarkable 3822 total. His 6 games during the first day were 396, 333, 400 (an 1129 Triple), 310 (1439), 350 (1789 for 5!!) and 253 for 2042 total. Congrats to Mike and also to the eventual winning Triples team of Brad Rowland, Les Ham and Brenda Walters! For Brenda, her win was an astounding and record-setting 17th Tournament Victory!! Congrats!

Steve Barker
 

New 5pin App available!

Recently, there was a new addition to the world of Apps, a steady growing world that seems to help us survive the world. A helpful 5pin App, created by Darcy Schultz of Calgary Alberta was released to us bowling tech geeks. The app gives you the ability to track your scores in practice, league and tournament play.

Schultz was kind enough to take some time out to talk about his invention, and to let everyone know that there are more features in the works. "My original intention was to spend some spare time to provide something for my son and learn a thing or two about iPhone development. I have rapidly discovered that it seems to be something that other people seemed to have wanted too. That's fantastic. The community has been pretty open and welcoming. That's been a very good thing." he explains, adding that there has been a flood of requests from it's current users already. "I've received some enthusiastic response from some of the early adopters. In the next version of the application I would like to add the ability to provide game and frame statistics to the bowler in order to support their desire to improve their game."

Feature requests that may become available in the future include,
Hit Percentage
Pins Left On The Deck
Specific Spare Percentage

If you are interested in downloading this App, you can do so simply from here:
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/5-pin-bowling/id488203472?mt=8&ls=1


And the support page link:
http://sites.google.com/site/sundog5pinbowling/

The App is set up for IOS 5.0 so you may require some upgrading, but for someone looking for a great tool to improve their knowledge of their game and their strengths and weaknesses, this will be well worth it. Be sure to look for updates in the future and if you happen to see Darcy around the Calgary area, don't be afraid to thank him for his great work. It's ideas like this that will continue to make us better, and more educated on what happens in our game. Thanks Darcy!

Jeff Young

Over the past few seasons, a glaring problem with our game is the weak numbers of competitive bowlers rising from our youth ranks into the world of adult competitive bowling. I personally think that these low numbers are contributing to the overall numbers problem that we have here in Southern Ontario.

In the Masters and various "cash" tournaments in Ontario, we have seen a steady decline in numbers to the point where tournaments are disappearing altogether. While many feel that the most noticeable reason is the past players no longer showing up to bowl, for various reasons. I feel that the lack of younger players coming to these events are directly relative to these past players' absences being noted.

When I was in my last few years of YBC, there were roughly a dozen young bowlers in my age group (2 or 3 years younger/older) that could step right into the adult ranks at a competitive level and play with the "big boys" in my zone alone. Having this steady stream of young bowlers entering Open qualifications and money events allowed the older players that no longer had these events as a priority (as opposed to families, work obligations etc) to simply not attend without a very large impact on the overall events. While the younger bowlers may not see success early in their adult careers, they get introduced to the world of competitive bowling, see what they need to do to get better and WANT to get better. This allows for a smooth cycle of competitive bowlers.

While the decline is very alarming, I truly believe that help is on the way. In Ontario there seems to be a very healthy level of youth competition in zones like York Simcoe and Ottawa Valley, not to mention the 5pin killer in Edmonton, Jennifer Baker. I think with the continued success of our youth will only encourage more in their programs to follow those footsteps laid out for them to begin a strong cycle again. However, we need to be sure that with that talent and willingness to get better, we have accessible coaching for them as well. We need to advertise and promote not only events that the youth can play now, but what could lie ahead for them in the future. I don't think it's any surprise that the youth in Ontario have already been introduced to our Ontario Open or Masters events before they've reached the required age to play in these events.

That being said, any youths out there that would like information on events, like attending the Ontario Open or any Province's Open, send me an email and I'll try to get you some info. I'm located in Ontario so I know my home province's events best but perhaps someone from other provinces can leave some contact info in the comments section so that everyone can be looked after in the event that they would like to know more. Otherwise, send me an email to FIVEPINBLOG@LIVE.CA and I'll see what sort of info I can pass along your way.

Jeff Young