Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Bowled Over and Over-Bowled

Do you have any New Year's Resolutions? Maybe to lose weight or to practice guitar or to ride your bike to work? I have a few. None of those that I mentioned. I have things on my list such as practice ukulele two hours a week, floss more, and to throw away socks.

One resolution that I might need to make is to cut down on bowling. I seem to have a bit of a problem. When my bowling team finished the season this fall, I was pumped to become a better bowler. I wanted my own ball, my own shoes, my own bowling bag. Right before Christmas, my teammates granted my wish and bought me a ball of my own. There it is on the left under the Christmas tree angels.



The day after I got my ball, I bowled eight games. I bowled eight more games the day after that. I even played hooky from work to bowl! I was sick with a cold/flu/sinus infection for the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve, so I wasn't able to bowl at Village Lanes those days, but I bowled with my nephews on the Wii at which time I bowled a 210.

Yesterday I was feeling better and I bowled eight games. Alone. And tonight, my intention was to only go bowl two games to try out my new wrist support, but two games quickly turned to seven games. When I am alone at the bowling alley, I just can't seem to stop. I am going back to the bowling alley tomorrow, but I'll have friends to tear me away from the lanes after a reasonable number of games.



You might think that all this bowling is improving my game. It's not... which is so frustrating. But I now know that with this new equipment and my new knowledge, I have the potential to bowl in the 130s-140s. (Before I was bowling in the 90s.) But trying to master my fingertip-grip ball and this darth-vader-looking wrist support is causing me to score all over the place... as low as 66 and as hight as 145. I just need to practice more. I need to bowl. MORE MORE MORE!

Tonight, my arm hurts. I think I have bowled over my arm limit. How much bowling is too much? When does enthusiasm turn to obsession?

4 comments:

Gye Greene said...

Hm -- sounds like you're indeed skating the border between enthusiasm and obsession.

But: as long as you're having fun (and not doing anything immoral or illegal...). ;)

--GG

Charlotte said...

Maybe after tonight, I'll tone it down a bit. I'm just eager to learn to bowl correctly. But I need to give my arm a rest.

christa said...

yeah, don't hurt yourself! it's only an obsession if you make yourself disabled and/or broke. :)

Marsosudiro said...

Man, those scores ARE all over the place. Good luck with the lessons.

I've started taking advantage of the free salsa lessons that are offered every night at a friendly hostel near my apartment in Merida MX (where I'll be for another month or so).

It's SO SO frustrating to learn something physical and new. I'm OK looking and sounding like a dumbass with my Spanish. I'm OK doing it with my accordion. But it's different with dancing for many reasons -- some obvious and maybe some not. I had to drag myself to the lesson today. And of course I'm glad I did. And of course I'll probably have to drag myself tomorrow again.

One good thing is that the teacher actually seems happy that I'm coming back as a repeat. Most of her "students" at this free class only take one or two lessons before moving on to some other town. I'm going to be here a month. She might actually enjoy teaching me more than the first night's worth of moves. Too, she might actually enjoy having me as a pseudo-experienced partner for working with other guests when she gets stretched too thin. So... Good things, of course. And SO frustrating!

Happy bowling. I'd love to throw with spin, some day. I think you're going to have much much much more fun now that you're getting lessons.

The expression I'm sure you've heard: "practice makes permanent." We build grooves and patterns from what we practice. But if we don't practice something sensible, we'll build grooves that don't help us. I have to remember this whenever I want to learn something all by myself. I can also remember this from an accordion FAQ:

QUESTION:
--------
How likely am I to pick up bad habits by teaching myself?

ANSWER:
------
A friend of mine's son taught himself to play concertina. One day he noticed that everyone else was playing theirs upside down relative to the way he was doing it. Needless to say, the rest of the world was not wrong. Please make sure that you at least know which side is for the right hand vs. the left hand.