The Tenth Board

I was recently contacted by one of the authors of the new “Dummies” book on bowling to give it a review, and, being one that likes anything that helps neophytes get into the game, I agreed and was sent a copy of the book a month or so ago.

Overall, the book does tell a lot of what a new bowler needs to know starting out. It goes into the many benefits of bowling (and I did like that they mention the social aspects), what to look for in equipment (both at the center and when you’re ready to get your own stuff), and the basics of bowling form (I especially liked how they illustrate the motion involved in a hook release). They even mention the fact that there is oil on the lane, something most casual bowlers don’t know about, and the basics of handicapping (explained in the chapter on league bowling), which I felt could make a newcomer to league bowling feel more comfortable. They also explain what to look for in a bowling coach, should the reader decide he/she would like to have one.

This book was not without its flaws, however. They said a right-hander’s hook ball curves to the right, when it’s actually a right-to-left motion at the end (it should be said that it was correctly shown in an illustration, however), and, while they correctly use a four-step delivery as the basis of explaining bowling timing, they fail to mention that other steps are possible in a delivery (remember, I use a six-step delivery myself). It was the chapter on spares that I had the most problems with, however, and a lot of that is technical in nature. For instance, they use the 4-7-8 leave as an illustration for a right-hander as a basis for explaining how to pick up clusters when a right-hander will actually leave the 2-4-5 cluster far more often; the book makes similar assumptions for other types of leaves. As I said, however, my problem is just a technical one, but using an illustration for the more common leave might have helped. Also, none of this paragraph should be taken as though I didn’t like the book; I did, and noting what I felt were flaws in this review is just done in the hope of improving future editions.

To reiterate, the book does a solid job of explaining most of the basics of the game to the beginner, and I would recommend it to someone who wants to go from being a casual bowler to a more frequent, serious one.