Mythbusting Practice | Bowling This Month

Article Contents

• 1. Myth #1: Always finish your practice with a strike (or a double)
  • 1.1. Spare shooting practice
  • 1.2. Physical game practice
  • 1.3. Lane play and skill application
• 2. Myth #2: Practice on fresh oil
  • 2.1. Counterproductive fresh oil
  • 2.2. Unnecessary fresh oil
  • 2.3. Valuable fresh oil
• 3. Myth #3: Sport patterns are the best thing to practice on
  • 3.1. Physical game development
  • 3.2. Tournament preparation
• 4. Myth #4: Practicing by yourself creates more value
  • 4.1. When to practice by yourself
  • 4.2. Benefits of practicing with others
  • 4.3. A note on focus
• 5. Final thoughts

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Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of common practice habits that are actually detrimental to a bowler’s development. This doesn’t even have anything to do with technical changes or what bowlers are doing when they practice. Rather, it’s about how they are doing it. There is some “common knowledge” that has been passed down to bowlers, new and old, that doesn’t really fit with long-term development ideals.

With that in mind, this article will focus on four popular practice myths and discuss what you can do differently to accelerate your learning.

Myth #1: Always finish your practice with a strike (or a double)

A long time ago, someone came up with the idea that finishing your practice with a strike (or a double, a triple, etc.) was the best way to finish a session. As a youth bowler, I was told this, and I generally tried to do it. Years later, as a coach with a deeper understanding of practice planning, I see the error with this kind of thinking.

Let’s back up a step. We should always be practicing with a purpose, right? What if the purpose isn’t to strike?

Yeah, that sounds strange. Isn’t the purpose of bowling to strike? Generally speaking, yes. But the purpose of practice doesn’t have to be about getting strikes. In fact, it often shouldn’t be. Let’s take a look at the most obvious example.

Spare shooting practice

Let’s say that you decide you need to work on your spares. You devote an entire practice session to ironing out the kinks in your strategy, you shoot a bunch of corner pins, and you practice a few other pin combinations as well. After 45 minutes, what would be the point of throwing …