While I was warming up for my lesson today, Ray remarked that my Fast (which I’ve been using) may not be the perfect ball for the current THS, but that the upshot of that was that it’ll get me to learn to bowl better. My answer was that I knew the Fast could carry if I hit the pocket, so I didn’t mind the learning process.
Another thing that came up was that I remarked about not really feeling my finger position through the swing, after which Ray reminded me of a long-neglected bit of ball maintenance: keeping my grips clean. He likes acetone for cleaning the grips, but not wanting to use something that’s not on the list of approved cleaners, I asked about others, and he said dish liquid and water would be fine.
The bulk of the lesson was on hand position, with Ray telling me about how reverse psychology works in bowling: If I turn in too early, what I want to do is turn out. In the process of going over this, he was on the approach with me getting me to feel where the ball should be on my hand at the top of my backswing. My shots after that were uneven, but this was normal, and I did get in a few good ones, including one I absolutely killed as my time on the lanes was running out. He remarked at the end of the session, that there are really only two things I need to keep working on: hand position through the swing and keeping the ball close to my feet at release.
The Tenth Board 