Modern Bowling Coaching Dilemmas

The idea of coaching in bowling in the modern world has presented both bowlers and coaches with some unique dilemmas. What follows are some of the most common ones I encounter, both for bowlers seeking to improve their games and for coaches who are there for them.

Let’s start with the bowler dilemmas.

Bowler dilemmas

“Why should I hire a coach? I can get everything I need for free on the internet.”

How true! However, you can also get everything you don’t need, and you have no way of knowing the difference. Once something is posted on the internet, it’s there forever. Where did it come from? You don’t know. When was it written? You don’t know. Who is the author? Many times you don’t know. What are the author’s qualifications? Another you don’t know.

As bowling changed dramatically in the period from 1990 until now with the introduction of synthetic lane surfaces, reactive resin cover materials, dynamic cores, and a total relaxation of lane maintenance restrictions, all the rules of the physical game have changed. If the information that you are getting from the internet does not take all of these changes into account, it can do you much more harm than good.

You can also get some advice that is very slanted toward a particular prejudice in terms of both technique and equipment. This can cause havoc with your bowling if the advice differs from that which you get from a personal coach or pro shop operator.

“Why should I hire a certified coach? Any good bowler can help me with my game.”

Unfortunately, there is a totally different skill set involved in coaching than there is in bowling. Good bowlers come in all shapes and sizes with their ability to score as the common factor between them. How they do it is as unique as their individual styles. The one thing that they have in common is their ability to repeat ...