Bowling, Saturday October 10, 2009

I am not sure if I have made improvement since last week, or if I have not. My scores last week in bowling were 91, 67, and 105, and this week they were 73, 74, and 82. The obvious answer would be that I have not made improvement and that I still need to develop a technique, but my scores this week were much more consistent, rather than, a good game here, a bad game here, which would suggest that my good scores are due to sheer luck.

This week, I was with a totally different group of kids, most of which were closer to my age. There are about 30 kids of various ages that are part of the same bowling league but they divide us up into groups and put us in different lanes. I thought that the people I was with last week would be with me all the time but they do switch it up. This week, 2 of the kids in my group were MUCH better than I was, and close to my age. The rest were at the same level of ability as I am, but I still worried I was the weakest link. I did try my hardest, though. But often I would get nervous roll the ball too fast, and the ball would end up going into the gutter. What this is telling me is that I need to practice, by myself, at some point during the week when I am not competing against other people so that I can work on my technique and then when I go on Saturday, I will have some idea of what to do, rather than trying different techniques (like, position of the arm, the wrist, etc.) for the first time and having them either work, or fail miserably. 

What I have realized is, when releasing the ball, it is better not to go so fast that it goes off to the side and into the gutter. It is best to release the ball right down the middle, and try to keep your arm straight, so that the ball is headed on a clear path down the middle of the aisle. Sometimes for me though, I just get something wrong and it still goes into the gutter or off to the side. Learning objective 1 - increase awareness of my strengths and areas for growth - tells me I need to go bowling with a friend or by myself during the week when I am not competing against anyone, so I can discover what works and what doesn't work, and so I can gain some awareness of what I am doing well, and what I still need to work on. I intend to do this soon, because if I am by myself, I will feel much less pressure and my scores will not count. To achieve learning goal 8 - develop new skills, I am going to need to practice by myself.

As frustrating as I was getting when I felt like the weakest link, it didn't stop me from trying, because that is the only possible way to succeed.