What can be learned @ The Super School

[BowlingDJ]

I'm very interested in the Super School, i just don't want it to be a bad experience. I went to Ritgers 2 years ago it was very pleasant but bowled terribly. It has taken me 2 years to get some of my game back to respectful.Don't get me wrong i thought the Ritger method was good but it did not stick with me. I really don't want to hear my signficant other telling me i came back worst then i had left. I worked really hard to get my grip corrected, Thanks to Joe Slowinski and The Magic Carpet man Ron. I finally went from 5/8 reverse to 1/8 forward in my thumb. Reading BTM has helped alot too. I'm 50 years old and still have that fire to compete. I'm far from where i want to be, but willing to pay the price to get there.

Thanks
Bowling Dj

[Magic Carpet]

This will be my fist time coaching at Super School so I am not qualified to report very much about the school as a whole. I will say that with the level of talent and experience accumulated in the coaching pool at this year’s Super School, if you can’t find help there your chances of finding help anywhere is slim.

You asked “What can be learned”; from my own coaching experience I can tell you the answer to that question is different for every bowler. All bowlers have different physical and mental abilities and limitations; your genetic soup if you will. All bowlers learn at a different pace and have a different understanding of the sport and visualize things different ways.

The guys on the PBA tour are the same way. Just about every one of them sees the sport in a different way. Some of them (not many) are very technical and have a wide depth of knowledge while others bowl more off of their instincts and just know what works for them…most of the time. You would be very surprised at how many of the pros don’t know or understand the simplest of terms such as axis rotation. They all excel at what they do but accomplish it in very different ways. About the only thing they have in common is that they have the genetic soup to be the best bowler athletes in the world.

As individuals we never know exactly the full make up of our genetic soup. We just know that we are better at some things than we are at others. Even if we don’t have the soup to be the world’s greatest bowler we never really know just how good we can be. Great coaches can help bowlers discover new techniques that make advancement in the sport much easier and additional knowledge can help us understand the “why”.

Coaches are no different; I am sure that nearly all the coaches at Super School see the sport differently and have different degrees of knowledge in different areas. All the coaches are “nationally known” which is not easy to accomplish in our sport since very few of us coach teams like in basketball or football that are televised. I bet there are no more than about 25 coaches in the world that are known to a great number of bowlers.

I think of the best coaches in the world as artistic engineers and the best bowlers in the world as athletes. Artists are creative and engineers are problem solvers; athletes are good at performing certain tasks. Being a great athlete and being a great coach are two totally different skill sets or require a different genetic soup. A person can be lucky enough to be born with both types of genetic soup (athlete and coach) but it is rare. For this reason bowlers should seek out professional coaches for lessons and professional bowlers as doubles partners.

From the artistic side a great coach is like a portrait artist; you are ether born knowing how to draw or you aren’t. If you were not born with the genetic soup to be a portrait artist; all the art schools in the world will never be able to teach you how to draw. If you were not born with the genetic soup to be a great coach, then all the coaching schools in the world will never make you a great coach. The best coaches are very creative in the ways they teach and often think WAY out side the box.

From the engineering side of coaching we have problem solving. It is our job to solve a multitude of problems for bowlers that are at very different skill and knowledge levels. We may be asked to solve a carry percentage problem for a professional bowler that is no longer matching up to the conditions on the pro tour or help a legally blind bowler throw strikes and make ten pins on par with sighted bowlers.

Like all artist and engineers every coach will tackle the problem in a different way. If we were sculpture artists and were told to chisel a horse out of a large piece of stone I am sure we would all end up with nice horses but none of them would look alike. In some schools the coaches are trained to try and chisel the same horse from every piece of stone regardless of the type or size of the stone. I call this “cookie cutter coaching” and you won’t find that at Super School.

All the coaches at Super School have worked with bowlers at every level imaginable and all have excelled at what they do or they would not be hired to teach at Super School.

What can be learned? Only your genetic soup can ultimately decide that but you will get to work with some of the best chefs in the world.

Ok, what would you like to learn? Different stances for playing different target lines? Different armswings, footwork, releases or ball speeds? Learn more about thumb pitches, ball layouts, surface changes, and sizing up lanes to decide what line to play? Little tricks to help your carry percentage or increase your rev rate? Play the one board with your eyes closed? How to perform better under pressure and other aspects of the head game?

Hope to see you there!
Ron Clifton

[trekbowl300]

I am over 50 and went to the Super School. What I did learn is there is much more to bowling then I ever thought possible. The physical bowling and in classroom courses was an eye opener for me as a bowler.

I never thought I could learn about bowling in a classroom but yes the different classes went over aspects of the game I never knew about.

The on the lane experience as mentioned by Ron, goes according to what the coach sees and what your able to do. I am sure each of the students that I was on the lane with were working on different parts of the approach and their game. There was a cranker with my group and the coach did not change him or the rest of us to be like him it came down to making adjustments that would work for the individual not an all for one approach.

I enjoyed my experience, however I warn you at 50+ I was not ready for the number of games you get to bowl. If you bowl only a few games a week then I suggest this summer before the school you get yourself into a pattern of bowling more because it was more bowling then I was used to.

You also have to have an open mind and try what the coach is suggesting unless it is physically beyond your ability. I am still trying to master some of the things I learned at the school.

If you have a specific point in mind mention it because I asked my coach probably a 100 questions and never once did I get a feeling that I was a pain in the neck. Instead just the opposite some of the answers were very in depth and nothing I ever thought about.

What can be learned is simple how to become a better bowler. If you want to learn more about spares then ask the coach and practice the spare game. I even use one of the spare systems taught and my 10 pin spare conversion has improved beyond my goal. It's also what you make of it.

I am a more consistent bowler then ever before, and I try to use the information I learned to the best of my ability. I am very happy I went and I had a very good experience.

Dennis G.