Folks, the following article was sent to me by a good friend. I ask many people to submit ideas or articles to me and I will either write about the subject or take their article and put in 'bellaonline.com" ...

Choc,

I will give you some ideas of my own since you are always looking for things to write about in your bowling column. I will give you my take on my 5-year bowling journey to "get good ".

After a 30 year layoff from bowling I saw a sign flashing that said 'BOWL". I figured I'd throw a few games since the weather forecasted another sunny day of 115 degree temperatures. The name of the bowling alley was Country Club Bowl in Mesa. I think I threw about 4 games and averaged about 170. That was about my average when I had quite thirty years before.

After a couple of weeks of practice, I decided to get in a league for the upcoming season. A lady called me back and found me a spot. To make a long story short, I was on a five man team and got the most improved average in the league from 170 to 189. I had a couple of lessons and had a ball drilled that left my thumb perpetually cut open, and a pair of my own shoes so I could save on shoe rental.

My life was fine until one day I noticed a league that had been coming in after us, but never stuck around to watch. So one day I did stay and watch. Pins were flying around like shrapnel after a bomb goes off! Guys were whizzing spare balls down the lane faster than I had ever seen. I watched two 300 games that night. I was hooked. The name of the league was the "East Valley Open." I looked at the league sheets to look at the averages and thought they were misprints. Growing up in Detroit, the high rollers in the Classic League were rolling 190 averages for the most part.

Fast forward 5 years. I subbed for only 18 games in a local summer league because of a major hip surgery. My average was 226. Now that is not really an average because of a lack of games. But it does mean that I am paying attention. See I became a fanatic about being coached and attending clinics.

Most of my growth has been in the last year because I attended one (a bowling clinic) and could not believe what I didn't know. I've since been to 4 more and currently am being coached by a local pro. My advice to anyone is to seek out a local coach who has had some formal training and become an advocate of lessons. You'll have more fun bowling and your teammates won't have to tell you to 'shake it off' as often. You'll be slapping a lot more high fives as you help lead your team to the title.

(Thanks, Paul, for sharing your journey back to the sport and your points of wisdom for anyone wanting to ”get back into the game.")

A Hui Hou! (See You Again!)