Bowling Time Machine

bowlingball.com, Originally Posted: 11/3/2014; Updated: 8/16/2022

If you have hit a slump with your game and can no longer seem to bowl as well as you know you can, then hop into your bowling time machine and take a mental trip back to times when you were at the top of your game.
Visualization can be a useful technique to recall the physical motion and the state of mind you experienced when you were at the peak of your performance level.
Try and close your eyes and recall the great feel you had when you bowled well in the past. Focus on a good set up and on how to properly grip your bowling ball.
Focus on the pace and direction of your steps during your approach.
Focus on a well times, smooth arm swing with no forcing of your delivery.
Avoid turning your ball early and changing the delivery path and the effective roll on your ball.
Hold your form at the foul line and be aware that maintaining good body balance throughout your approach is a key to accuracy.
Visualization is an effective tool to rally your physical game skills and return to a high level of shotmaking.
Everyone gets into trouble on the lanes from time to time, even the best players in the world. The trick is to have physical techniques to rely on to help you work back into shape.
It is also important to rely on strategies in playing the lanes and in selecting bowling balls to match best with the lane conditions.
It is surprising how many bowlers drift into a series of poor performances because of ineffective lane play decisions or because of choices in bowling balls.
If you are having difficulties in adjusting to the lanes during competition, then it pays to thoroughly understand your range of effective adjustments and avoid the temptations over-adjusting or of doing absolutely nothing and getting the same poor results.
Keep your range of adjustments simple which, in turn, will help you more often than not.
If and when your normal adjustments fail to work, then it is time to change bowling balls.
Hopefully you will try one which provides the skid distance needed to match the front end oil on the lane and one with the needed hook potential to react consistently and smoothly in the mid-lane and on the back end of the lane.

Try and match the ball coverstock texture to the degree of surface friction the lane creates developed from the oil pattern.
Having a reliable equipment arsenal can be an advantage when your usual range of adjustments does not help you hit the pocket as consistently as you wish.
Don’t be hesitant to change equipment. Thinking that you will simply deliver your ball better next frame and not make some type of adjustment may only extend your poor ball reaction and delay getting the solid performances you deserve.
Adjustments are your scoring lifeline in competition. Use your bowling time machine to recall past performances and rekindle the key elements of your game.