An Indecisive Time for my Bowling

I bowled in a tournament Saturday on the Cheetah pattern. I really struggled and shot abysmally low scores. I think my biggest problem was that I couldn't get my ball to hook enough no matter what line I tried to play unless I slowed it down so much that it hit the heavier gold pins like a proverbial wet noodle.

Only when, very late in the tournament, I started throwing my strike ball thumbless did I experience any success whatsoever, and it was far, far too late by then.

I'm in kind of a bowling twilight zone at the moment. I made some changes in my game a few weeks ago that seemed to be on the right track. But I didn't trust myself and got some coaching that had me trying something quite different from what I was working on by myself. But I don't feel comfortable working on the suggested changes in leagues and tournaments. I need to develop them in practice. I also need to work on seamlessly going to the thumbless release when the thumbed release just ain't cuttin' the mustard.

With a big tournament coming up in less than three weeks, I'm not in the most comfortable spot with my game. Not only that, but I plan to attend a coaching clinic in a couple of weeks that may teach me some wonderful things for the long term but mess me up even more in the short term.

So I find myself wondering what I should do. Should I skip the clinic and go to the tournament? Should I skip the tournament and go to the clinic? Should I go to the clinic and to the tournament and perhaps be so screwed up that I bowl even worse in the tournament than I did two days ago?

Decisions...decisions...decisions.