Bowling

We found a new family favorite hobby. Bowling. Besides the fact that it is a lot of fun whether you win or lose, there are several other reasons for us to like it that we've recently discovered.

Last month, we took the kids bowling for their very first time as part of Mika's birthday. We picked a nearby alley and just went. We were a pretty sad group. Scott and I haven't been bowling in about 9 years. I haven't been bowling very many times in my life to begin with. I think my best score was something like 102. Pretty sad. The kids were able to get the ball down the lane but we had to utilize the reset button many times as they didn't roll the ball hard enough to activate the machines at the pins. But we had fun and that's what counts, right?

So, anyway, while we were there we found out that they offer kids free coaching every third Thursday. The kids loved bowling and the idea of coaching excited them so we signed them up. We arrived last night to find out that they changed the coaching schedule to every other week and we came on the off week. They honored the original deal and provided the kids with an hour of coaching anyway. It was great! Each kid got their own lane, a 6lb ball (they bumped Mika up to 8lbs), and shared the coach. Scott and I bowled at a nearby lane.

The coach thinks Sam is a natural. I'm not sure what he's seeing because I see a kid struggling to control a ball heavier than he can handle. He IS young and small after all. But, the coach, sees other things. I know he sees Sammy's tendency to get frustrated as a good thing; it will keep him trying harder to get it right. He also mentioned that Sammy was using "the stance" after only being told once. He said it's difficult to get most kids to do that. I told him it was the taekwondo which is all about stances.

The coach also thinks Mika has potential. He was working with her on a whole different thing since she's older, stronger, etc. After a while, she was getting what he was showing her and starting to get the balls down the lane without hitting the bumpers. I told her that she'd soon be scoring better than me. I think she liked that idea. The coach also mentioned that if she liked bowling and kept it up, there are tons of bowling scholarships available for women bowlers. Whoo hoo! Scholarships is a word a mom likes to hear. LOL

The coach even gave me a couple of pointers which made a huge improvement in my game. My first game was only a 58....REALLY PITIFUL! My second game was a 174 but didn't really count because Scott accidently bowled one of my frames while I was getting food and got a strike. Of course, I got a strike the frame before and the frame after and a couple of other frames. My third game, I only got a 113. We had moved lanes and I did really poorly the first few frames before I started hitting a few spares and a strike or two. But still, I doubled my score from the first game and increased my highest score.

Oh, and this bowling alley has awesome food. The first time we went, I made the mistake of ordering everyone their own plate. BIG mistake as the portions were huge. Last night, Scott and I shared some nachos, Mika and Sammy shared some chicken strips and fries, and Josh had a very small order of chicken strips and fries. Yum!

I'm looking forward to more bowling. I can't wait until we can afford to go regularly.