The PBA World Series of Bowling begins August 2, 2009 at longtime PBA host center Taylor Lanes in Taylor, Mich. The World Series of bowling then moves to Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park, Mich. from August 7 – September 7, 2009. All seven ESPN telecast finals will be held at Thunderbowl Lanes and taped at the conclusion of the World Series of Bowling. These seven shows will then air out over what has traditionally been the first half of the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season from mid-October to early December 2009; Sundays are for bowling on ESPN.

The tournament fields have expanded from 64 entries to 72. 11 Tournament Qualifying Round positions are available in each event. Three International Exemptions will be rewarded for five of the seven tournaments. Also, there will be no spot differentiation between pros and amateurs at the PBA World Series of Bowling.

The PBA Women’s Series presented by USBC returns to contest six of their seven events of the season at the PBA World Series of Bowling. The Women’s Series field size expands to 20 bowlers with two Tournament Qualifying Round positions available in each event. Also a first for the PBA Women’s Series is the PBA Women’s Series World Championship, adding a third major and open tournament to women’s bowling.

The PBA Senior Tour adds an event to the World Series of Bowling. The return of the PBA Senior World Championship will air on ESPN putting the PBA Senior Tour back on TV to round out the 2009 PBA Senior Tour season.

In addition, PBA will be hosting multiple side tournaments with 100% of entry fees going to prize fund, guaranteed.

August in Detroit is heating up with the PBA World Series of Bowling! Stay tuned for more details. (article courtesy of PBA.com)

A youngster posed an interesting question during youth leagues this weekend. In not so many words, he asked how a bowler should practice. I love this question, especially when a youth bowler asks it! I told this youngster he first needed a plan with a built in goal for each of his practice sessions. A quizzical look came over his face. We talked about his game for a bit and he identified what he’d like to do better. Then, I decided to describe a typical practice session upon which I’ve come to rely. 

Choose no more than three particular things on which to work. No need to get overly tired during practice. Three things gives you one warm up game and three games to use for practice. First, warm up by tossing a game with your favorite (or only) bowling ball just to loosen up and get the muscles into bowling-mode. Sometimes it only takes a few frames to get warmed up. Everyone is different. Listen to your body and start the practice session when you know your body is loosened up and ready to go.

Second game, if you know there’s something physically you could be doing better on the lanes, choose to work on it. A common example is following through your mark. Third game, after you master following through your mark, choose a pin or a group of pins that give you trouble with spare shooting. For me, this past week that was both the seven and ten pin. Shoot a game focusing on nothing but this particular spare of which you’d like to make more. Try to make as many as you can in a row. My coach challenged me to do this years ago. When I first started I had a difficult time making a particular spare (10-pin) five times in a row. Now, I can make up to 24 ten pins in a row. The fourth game, practice the mental game.

Now, you might ask, how the heck do I do that? Well, you’ve already done it without knowing I bet. Do you remember when you were a kid and pretended you were playing in the World Series or a similar event? Bases were loaded, and it was all on you to hit it out of the park to win? Bowling can be practiced in the same way. Set up a scenario, visualize how you think it would be; the sounds, the smells, perhaps the quiet pressure of a crowd completely focused on you…then put it all on the line. 

A situation I’ve used is the televised finals for the U.S. Women’s Open. I’m up and need a mark in the tenth to shut out one of my heroes, Carolyn Dorin-Ballard. It’s all up to me. She’d done bowling. My fate lies in my own hands. I feel hundreds of pairs of eyes on my back. There’s some noise from behind and to the side of me. I hear people shifting in their seats and some whispering, trying to be quiet…you know that sort of thing. Try it sometime. If you really get into your thoughts, really focus on them, you can prepare yourself for similar situations which will arise. Then, you have something to reflect and focus on which should help you handle the pressure of the situation. Who knows? It might not be anything like the U.S. Open but it could be the final frame during a league roll-off where everything, the whole season, the jackpot money you and your team will share, is up to how you throw one single ball. How thrilling a moment that can be, especially when you come through in the clutch!

Of course, if you’re up to it, after four games of hard work you might just want to bowl a game for score. Quiet the mind, trust the body and reap some of the benefits of said practice. Remember, practice smarter, not harder. Plan your work and work your plan, watch the scores go up and as always…Roll on!

Rebecca K

Have you bowled an honor score, made a special split, or made your first strike? Post it here!

List your name, the date, where you were bowling (this can even be from practice sessions), and the feat (like a high game, series, split/spare conversion etc.) and see it online here. Good luck and roll on!

Name: Rebecca Keegan

Date: 6/7/08

Where: Belleville’s Lodge Lanes at MI Majors tournament

Feat: 300 game

http://www.900global.com/remote_control_bowling_ball/

Practice bowling? Yes, if you’re a bowler and in search of higher scores you might choose to use the off-league season of summer to work on your bowling game. Many other bowlers find this the perfect time to compete in more tournaments. Just getting back into bowling myself after a four year hiatus, I decided to get back to the basics, educate myself on the new equipment available, shore up my arsenal of balls, and hit the lanes for some good old fashioned practice.

When I returned to the lanes in April, I thought there’s nothing to this. It’s like riding a bike, right? Sure. After pulling a hamstring and muscles I didn’t know I still had, realizing the calluses on my thumb and fingers were long since gone, and jarring the heck out of my knee a time or two due to bad timing, I found bowling to be a little harder to get back into than I had anticipated. So, where do you start after you pick up the ball again whether it’s after a summer off or years away from the sport?

Timing. I read a few articles in Bowling This Month magazine and decided to start with analyzing the path of my arm swing. Afterall, my timing was off. This was clear to me after I pulled almost every muscle in my lower body and needed Bio Freeze, which smells like Ben Gay (very glamorous), to drag myself back to my day job. Did you know that one of the most important aspects of a bowler’s form is the arm swing? It sets the tempo for your whole game. I’ve discovered just how important a loose and relaxed swing is to a bowler’s game, which wasn’t quite apparant until I took so much time off from the sport. 

Being a bowler that used to, and still sometimes, rounds my body with my arm swing, I found a great improvement in my score when I buckled down and tried to tuck my arm swing in closer to my body. Why would someone do this? I wanted to create more leverage, which created more power, with the end result being more strikes and a much more powerful shot. One catch though, I needed to relax in order to do this, which is difficult when all I wanted to see was the instant gratification of a strike shot buried in the pocket and a 200 game posted on the scoreboard. 

Next came the problem of forcing the shot. The lack of revs or turn my ball had was what all the guys teased me about. So, I wanted to put more on the ball. What I didn’t quite get, until this summer, was how a bowler like me could give the ball a hand so to speak. I’m not built like those powerhouse players who plant and pull, turning the bowling ball like it’s a weightless nerf football.

What I discovered is the game of timing is all about speed, relaxing, and giving the ball time to work on its own. Forcing the ball to turn or pulling it to the spot on the lane I thought it needed to be wasn’t the answer. The minute I slowed down, rolled the ball, and gave my hand a chance to rotate naturally from behind it, the better I scored.

What types of things do you find yourself working on or struggling with to get into the swing of things for Fall leagues?

To check out updates on the tournament results as of today go to http://www.bowl.com/ Check back here for more up close and personal experience on the road to the U.S. Open (and I’ve got pics too) this week…

In the meantime, it’s almost time for the 08/09 season to begin, which is hard to believe. The summer went by so fast. Speaking of summer, what bowling has everyone done during the summer months? Practice? Tournaments? My friends and I practiced a lot and had a blast in the air conditioned climate of Nortel Lanes and then Monroe Sport Center. I even tried my hand at a few Michigan Majors events at which I bowled a 300 in May at Lodge Lanes in Belleville. Summer bowling was fun. So, what else has everyone done over the past few months?

Rebecca K.