My pin11 views on .... 10pin.
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M new to this forum....particularly interested in sg bowling scene. Keen student of the sport for long time.
Hope to contribute soon. -
Traditional ? Transitional? or Power?
In the early development of tenpin bowling, most learnt the game through imitation...copying what others do. At the time, knowledge of the physical nature of the sport...essentially the human movement mechanics in sports ...were not available.This resulted in the many compensations/adjustments leading to today's classifications of bowlers as strokers, tweeners & crankers in their desire to achieve success.But today, the availability of knowledge together with better understanding of human movement mechanics, the sport has taken on "natural" elements in the ball-delivery process!In fact, this is how power is generated ...naturally ... The Natural game!Currently, the closest to this is ...the Power game.Because it is natural...every able-body person can do this. So everyone can have better ball-speed & higher rev rate across the entire 39+ boards of the lane. -
300...Perfection???
Let's draw an analogy from the sport of target archery.To hit the bullseye, (at 12.2 cm across), an archer scores 10 points maximum per arrow.When 2 archers hit the bullseye and a gold medal is at stake, then the arrow closer to the centre of the bullseye (the pinhole) is judged the winner, indicating that his skill as an elite archer is higher!NOT perfection!An official tenpin game has 10 frames.Felling 10 pins with one shot per frame is termed a strike. Repeated from frame 1 to frame 10, consecutively, in a game will result in 100 pins felled ...then followed by 2 extra shots ...not frames ...felling another 20 pins. Total pins felled, 120! Commonly, termed 12 in-a-row.How did it become 300? This, of course, is due to the rule on SCORING.But more importantly, getting back to the archery analogy.For the bowler who hits the APPROPRIATE/SAME POCKET consistently, 12 times & results in 12 in-a-row ...isn't he closer to the 'pinhole' than anyone else?If a 'perfect' game is riddled with Brooklyns, Head-pin, & Messengers, in addition to pocket strikes, ...how is this game EQUAL to a 12 in-a-row POCKET hits ...BOTH felling 120 pins & SCORING 300?...300, in ALL manner of striking, including 12 in-a-row pocket-carry...is not perfection ...but MAXIMUM SCORE possible ! -
Performance ...Process & Outcome. Process & Outcome ...terms often heard in competitive sport What do they mean? Let's look at the game of golf. At the tee, the golfer, first visualises the flight of the shot he wants & follows up with practices of his swing away from the ball. He then carefully addresses the ball through balanced stance making sure that the club face is squared to his intended trajectory. From here, he draws his club back & then reversing the direction of his swing , his sends the ball into flight. From visualisation to ball into flight, the sequence of events is the process. These are actions, seen or unseen, that the golfer can perform to drive the ball onto the fairway or in the direction of the hole. In spite of his meticulous preparations, missing the fairway is a possibility too. Where the ball lands ...fairway, hole or otherwise, is the outcome. This element of uncertainty is always inherent in sporting outcome. The strike/carry in bowling is an outcome. The bowler often wants/thinks strike before his delivery of the ball. Even coaches, who put emphasis on process in training, are guilty of "must strike home to win" when medals are at stake during competition. Unknowingly imprinting the bowler, that strikes happen whenever the bowler wills them ...ie. that the bowler can pre-determine the outcome. In stressful competition, this mind-set undermines the bowler's mental game, especially if the outcome is less than favourable ...when ...all that a bowler can do is to deliver the ball to the pocket accurately at the correct angle of entry together with the necessary speed and rotation ...leading to the possibility of carry. No bowler can truly be certain to strike before it actually happens! In short, the best mind-set for tenpin is to focus on the best shot delivery possible (process) to the pocket ...and let the bowling gods judge if the frame is worthy of a 2-shot bonus (outcome).
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..."Difficult to Teach ... " Sometime ago, I heard this statement from a very knowledgeable personality in the sport of tenpin. He said ..." ... ...the Release is very difficult to teach ... ". I smiled ...thinking " why so?" On the contrary, the release is the easiest to grasp/teach. Firstly, the release in throwing an implement/object in sports or daily activities is, essentially, a NATURAL act. Therefore by itself, requires little or no instruction! In tenpin, it happens very quickly too. Almost an automatic & reflex action. Secondly, it's the final phase of tenpin delivery ...very much secondary to the more critical aspects of Footwork, Swing & Finishing ...all together commonly termed as Timing. In my view, the "real " difficulty in teaching the game occurs much earlier before the release. It lies in the teaching of the proper mechanics in tenpin delivery to allow the bowler to arrive at the finish ...with the swing/ball in the proper relationship to the slide foot ...together with a strongly balanced form/posture at the foul-line ...which then permits the release to take place almost on its own accord, with optimum efficiency & power. In short, when the bowler has the form & timing, the release is the NATURAL consequence of tenpin delivery motion coming to an end. The release must follow. When all, that before the release, is performed biomechanically right ...the release naturally follow with no thinking  involved. The RELEASE is INSTINCTIVE! NIL instruction required! Note: Teaching the release as commonly done today, inherently promotes the "difficulty" factor too. The bowler is seduced into thinking that release is the game itself ...paying little attention to proper form, balance & timing. How misguided. It also fixates the mind of the bowler to pre-meditate the hand action in wanting to " create a  certain look " or ball-motion shape on the lane. This thought and pre-meditation of the hand to, for examples ... load/unload, turn to 4 o'clock, etc ...all to happen at the instant of release/explosion point/bottom of the swing ...without affecting the ball-speed & distorting the power of a natural release???