Jason Couch wins the outdoor championship at the Villages PBA Open and narrowly misses winning the Battle at Little Creek in Virginia Beach the following week. It was the third time Couch has lost the title match from the top position having lost the championship match to Mike Aulby in Daly City, Calif., and to Ricky Ward in Burlington, N.C., in January and February, so Couch had one victory and three near misses on the PBA Winter Tour and was voted Bowler of the Month for February. He was rocketed to the Number 1 PBA ranking, displacing his Clermont neighbor, Norm Duke, and is in position to become the latest career millionaire when the Tour returns to action in September. Couch attributes much of his success to the time he spends on his bowling game at the Kegel Training Center in Sebring, Fla., only hours away from his home in Clermont.
Couch said he may also have won at Little Creek if he had bowled the second match just before the championship match instead of the opener because the long wait to bowl again actually played on his emotions rather than his ability to make the lane adjustments.
Since Jason has been so successful on Tour lately because of his time spent at Kegel with Shockley and his touring coach and ball rep Del Ballard Jr., I wanted to research the phenomena myself to find out how he did it by taking the same kind of training that Jason gets from Shockley. So with my equipment loaded into my vehicle, I drove through miles of orange groves along U.S. Route 27 deep into this South-central Florida safari. I figured comparing my game to Jason's would be like comparing apples to oranges, but it could be useful for you, the readers, as a road map to better bowling, so I gave it my best shot.
Couch told me about how Shockley drove him on the lanes until he got it right, like a bowler's boot camp.
"Richard Shockley grills me on my bowling as my coach, and I'll throw 10 shots in a row on the CATS (Computer Aided Tracking System)," said Couch. "It tells me what speed it is and if it's not good enough for him, I'll do it again until I get it right. It definitely pays off when you let your muscle memory take over and concentrate on your target."
Couch was right. Coach Shockley grilled me with the treatment he calls "beating up your game" until you get it right or become exhausted, whichever comes first. My muscle memory was a lot of soreness, which gradually went away as I got warmed up.
I thought about the time Braves pitcher and pro bowler John Burkett told me pitching in a baseball game was much more taxing than bowling several games in a row. I also thought about the pain pro bowlers go through to shoot 50 games a week to make the finals. After the soreness subsided and I started losing several pounds of water weight, I gained new respect for the athletes who play sports for a living. Sticking to the approach on my own sweat reminded me of the outdoor conditions at The Villages finals.
The CATS computer stores a multitude of visuals of bowlers who have previously attempted to say goodbye to their games' weakest links. The replays you watch as a student act as a guide to compare the problems in their games with yours. The bowlers I saw as a right-hander were PBA pros Chris Barnes, John Gaines, and Norm Duke, who threw a strike with a ball thrown out of his bowling towel for comic relief.
In addition to watching the characteristics of other bowlers, you then see your own game on the screen. For me, it was like comparing the NFL to the XFL. I noted that grabbing your knee cap in pain and to try and maintain your balance this way to keep from falling over after you release your ball is not recommended. Having a slightly bent arm at the elbow at the height of your backswing, similar to Earl Anthony's method, is within tolerance as long as you come back through with your arm fully extended. Pulling up with your entire body at the conclusion of your ball release at the line the way senior pro Gene Stus does is not recommended because along with bringing your arm through too late after you have already slid at the line will cause you to yank the ball through your target, causing an abrupt hook toward the channel. Maintaining a knee bend upon your release at the line is the key to accurate targeting.
Simulating lane conditions from any center or tournament in the world is another specialty of Kegel's training with the use of the same lane dressing equipment the PBA implements on tour. This lane dressing equipment is actually manufactured in another area of the Kegel Training Center building.
"By experimenting with different lane conditions at the lab with CATS where you can do things such as tilt the lanes to simulate warped conditions, you find out how bowling can truly be a game of inches between success and failure," Couch said about Kegel.
I had enough trouble bowling on a flat lane surface instead of warped or tilted ones but bowling on long oil conditions was the simulation I wanted for comparable conditions to The Villages. Then trying to hit the same targeted board on the lanes was the key to a consistent ball in the pocket. Knowing how to do this and the actual execution of the same principles in real competition is what separates the professionals from the rest of us.
"You can never throw your ball exactly the same way twice," Couch said. "I've come as close as two-tenths of an inch in hitting the same target on the lanes, but that's as close as you can get."
Hitting the correct target consistently is easier said than done. I was able to cover the first arrow or fifth board three times out of seven as calculated on CATS, with the other times hitting the fourth board once and the sixth board another three times. For the typical bowler, this is within three inches and is considered tolerable. I first tried this around the 10th board from the right channel but I soon needed to move five boards to the right or "outside" for my game to accommodate the long lane dressing because my ball was staying too far to the right of the pocket.
The proper lift is important here, and the grid on CATS will verify how much your finger position needs improving. I was initially holding my fingers too high on the ball, so I lowered them so the tips would align with the center axis of the ball. Then I came out of it cleaner with more power and without dropping the ball. This was after some ball tape in the thumb hole helped me from releasing the ball prematurely. Your thumb actually swells up with humidity, but after several minutes of bowling, it then shrinks again and the tape you added will need to be removed. For best lift and turn action, Shockley recommends the multi-adjustable Pro Release wristband.
Keeping the knee bent as much as you can, whether my football knees wanted to bend or not, is another key to retaining the ball on your delivery through the swing until you reach the release or explosion points, or letting the ball go down the lane before you do, is another factor in completing the mission of accurate, consistent bowling.
Maintaining proper balance by swinging your nonbowling arm out to a parallel position of a minute hand at 5:45 on the clock if your bowling arm is the hour hand in conjunction with parallel shoulders at the line upon your release is another factor in consistent bowling.
Keeping the proper ball speed of 16-17 miles per house as calculated by CATS, if you can still maintain this speed and power by the end of your lesson, is key to more strikes. Walking a straight line, once you pick your line, can at times be tougher than a sobriety test, but it, too, is another tool in shooting a consistent line and hitting the same targets on the lanes.
PWBA Rookie of the Year Cara Honeychurch finished second at Kegel on her tour last September, two weeks after she won the Greater Orlando Classic. Her session at Kegel involved the simulation of those conditions at the stops where she struggled to beat her weakest links on those conditions.
"This is a unique center for bowlers in the world, and I know because I've been there," Honeychurch said. "The coaches and equipment at Kegel can create any condition. In the tournament here, I chose long oil because that best suits my style. Being the final survivor on the lanes is how you win on the PWBA Tour."
Winning tournaments as the only remaining survivor is the ultimate test for the competitive bowler after going through the Kegel Training boot camp. After my day of training was done and I took my long day's journey into night and headed home, I felt rewarded by what I learned and that I survived the rigors of a single day of beating up my game.
To be sure I didn't imagine it and that I really did make it through bowling boot camp at Kegel Training Center, I watched the whole thing again on video tape with coach Shockley's instruction to see if I could learn more about my game. When my hand could hardly move the remote from what it went through the day before, I knew for sure I had survived the lessons of the day before. If you want to take a lesson and see if you're ready to survive Kegel Training Center's rendition of boot camp bowling, the web sites are foundation300.com or kegel.net.
As for Jim Rome, the syndicated TV and radio sports analyst who once said that he could bowl as well as the pros with a house ball in one hand and a beer can in the other, Coach Shockley and his boys are waiting to smack down his game.