Pin Perspectives: Why Bowlers Don’t Practice

This article is dedicated to my mother, Nechama Hoenig, who is now at peace in Heaven. She supported my bowling and writing, and this one is for her!

Back in 2021, I authored an article titled Making the Most of Your Practice, in which I delved into the importance of focused practice and how to accomplish that. This time, let’s look at the other side of the coin: why many bowlers don’t practice, and some possible solutions to address that.

Recently, using my personal Facebook page, I posed the following questions:

• Do you practice?
• If not, why not?
• If yes, how often?
• Do you have specific practice goals?
• Do you have any practice-related comments or thoughts?

I thank the 18 bowling friends who took the time to respond and engage in dialogue with me on this subject. These friends include “serious” scratch tournament bowlers, bowling coaches, a pro shop operator, competitive league bowlers, and fun league bowlers—the entire gamut.

The most common reasons for not practicing centered on a lack of time to do so, the distance and travel time from home to the bowling center, and the cost of practice. Let’s examine each of these.

Time

The common time concern was that the bowler’s work schedule barely allowed them to enjoy one or two leagues, let alone additional practice time. One bowler went so far as to admit that his “practice” time was during leagues, and that he used his league sessions to learn which balls worked for those leagues. One bowler is a collegiate coach, and his coaching schedule forced him to ...