So I went bowling last week. Ten pin not candlestick. First time I did real bowling for decades. It was a group social event and there were no real bowlers there. I was the second high score with is really scary as I bowled a 99.
I have an excuse though. Besides not bowling for years my left leg would not hold me up on a proper approach. It is still weak from some problems I had some years ago and on the first try I fell at the end of the lane. Not pretty. I wound up standing at the end of the lane, bracing my leg with one hand and trying to bowl. That I got any strikes or spares at all is amazing and as much luck as anything.
Oh but most of the group was really bad. I can imagine real bowlers cringing as balls bounced down the lanes rather than rolled. To say nothing of a good number of fouls besides my own.
Still it was fun and I realized that I missed bowling. But I’ll have to exercise my leg before I can try it for real again.
Bowling well requires a lot of things that don’t really meet the eye. One is that you’ve got to be able to bend down on your knees a bit as you release the ball. Leg pain or a bad knee is absolutely a _big_ obstacle to bowling well, and you’re putting a lot of force on your knees/legs as you bowl. (At least, if you’re doing it right…)
I think you’ve just inspired me to do a post about bowling, actually… I don’t even remember how it came to be, but I found myself thinking last week about bowling, and all the little things that go into bowling well.
Of course, I think you’ve stumbled across one of the most important things: you had fun. I’ve seen many people who had games that I’ve have been proud of, yet they’d have breakdowns because it wasn’t good enough for them. (And, having watched thousands of people throw tens of thousands of games, I’m pretty convinced that, once you get into a bad mood, you’re only going to go further downhill. A couple _really_ veteran bowlers would have a terrible game, go pace angrily in the smoking area for a couple minutes, and then come back for the next game cool, calm, and collected.)