I put in four games of practice yesterday and another four today. Yesterday's session had to wait until after 3:30pm because the entire bowling centre had been rented out, "kashi kiri" is the Japanese term for that and it was written on a whiteboard placed at the entrance.
Today' s session was a bit more experimental because I was attempting to follow some advice I had seen in a YouTube video just before heading over to the lanes. This particular video talked about the mechanics of ones stance when throwing a bowling ball. It took a bit to transfer what I had just watched into what I was going to do. In my first attempt, the ball didn't leave my hand. The new stance I used just didn't jive with my muscle memory. By the later stages of my third game I had sorted out various adjustments to my starting stance and approach to the fault line.
The one shot which stuck in my mind wasn't a good shot. It was actually pretty bad. Upon release the ball rolled along the right edge of the lane and looked like it was destined to roll into the gutter. But the shot had enough rotation and spin to stay on the right edge of the lane. Once the ball got off the the oiled portion of the lane, it curled to the left a bit and took out the three pins on the right corner. The good feeling takeaway from that shot was that my release mechanics have improved enough to get even a bad shot to hook a bit. Now if I could only do that more consistently with my better shots....
My tools of my game at rest. The purple and blue one has a "reactive" cover which is intended to give it a tendency to hook once a spin has been applied to the ball upon release. The marbled wine coloured one has a plastic cover and is meant to run true and straight.
