Welcome to the Mark Baker Bowling world of coaching. For those of you with good memories (or a beta recorder), I bowled on the PBA Tour from 1982 to 1990. While my bowling accomplishments weren’t quite impressive enough to get me in the Hall of Fame, I did win four titles and had a couple runner-up finishes in the Firestone Tournament of Champions and the Touring Players Championship. OK, enough about my bowling…(but if you just can’t get enough of La Mode slacks and bad mullets, feel free to visit youtube to see it in the flesh).
The real purpose of this blog is to share my experiences as a bowling coach. I am now a professional bowling instructor, which means I coach for a living six days a week. Besides working with four of the best players in the world (more on that later), I also coach people who don’t even own their own ball or shoes, and pretty much everyone in between. So, on a daily basis, I see some amazing and unique things in the sport of bowling, which I plan on sharing here each week.
Coaching is not only just about individual lessons. While I do my fair share of these, I am also the “House Pro” at Fountain and Cal Bowl (in Southern California) four days a month. I run a weekly clinic at Fountain with PBA Hall-of-Famer Barry Asher, and I also run one-day clinics, usually on the weekends. I also serve as camp director of both Camp Bakes and the Bowlers Dream Camp, which I run in various cities throughout the country several times a year.
Through my affiliation with Ebonite International, I’ve had the opportunity to work with four amazing and talented bowlers the last three years. This season has probably been the most exciting for me as a coach so far, as “my guys” have each either reached career milestones or fought through (and back from) adversity to reclaim their rightful places among the best in the world.
Bill O’Neill
He is the Real Deal. The 2010-2011 season has been a continuation of the rise of this young man that we saw beginning in 08-09, when he qualified for seven different ESPN telecasts. This season, all Bill’s done is lead the PBA World Championship (where he eventually finished 2nd after a tough TV loss to Chris Barnes), win the Viper Championship, finish top 10 in the T of C, lead qualifying at the Masters (a kiss of death for the finals), lead qualifying again at the U.S. Open and then overcome a rough 20 games in match play before finding a way to turn it around and make the show. This kid is bowling so good, the only thing I tell him after having a look at his game and seeing that it’s (as usual) in tip-top shape: “Just be ready to bowl when it’s your turn!”
Chris Barnes
When you set the bar so high, it’s hard to be objective about this year’s performance. Let’s see: 1st at the PBA World Championship (which gave him the career Triple Crown), which included his best performance on TV in some time. Shot 270 in the position round at the T of C to miss the show by 15 pins (he finished 5th). A deep run at the Masters, where he ran into Mika and an 800-plus set (enough said). Leaves a 10-pin on a four-bagger at the U.S. Open to miss that show by five pins (he finished 7th). Now, if I had this run in my day, I’d have been ecstatic! But knowing Chris, at my camp in May we’ll be working on his game each day after coaching for eight hours!
Tommy Jones
While basically bowling on one leg this year, Tommy had a decent World Series, where he finished 22nd overall in the World Championship and 3rd in the Viper Championship. But after having, in his words, “his worst tournament as a pro” at the T of C, we worked on getting the position of the ball at the top of his swing into a better place to get him back on track for the rest of the season.
Now here’s the nice thing about working with great talent. After struggling to throw it consistently for about an hour, he throws one shot from out that looked pretty good. I told him, “Now take that same swing thought and move in and hook it.” Boom! The next day he starts throwing it great, he makes the show the next week at Earl’s place, he goes deep in the field at the Masters, then almost leads the U.S. Open (he qualified second for the TV show where he ultimately finished 3rd). And all of this with a bone spur on his left hip that makes it extremely painful just to throw a shot! You gotta like working with talent!
Jason Couch
After having two knee surgeries the last three years, he had to do something no professional athlete ever wants to do, which is change the style that made him a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer.
I’ve never seen someone so dejected as Jason at the T of C after leaving a solid 9-pin on the second shot in the 10th frame of the last qualifying game that cost him making the top 24. He had worked so hard on his game, with virtually no results. So myself, Del Ballard, and Ed Gallagher all told him the same thing: That this was the best we’ve seen you throw it in a long time and to stay with it. The next week he finished 6th at Earl’s place, then last week he returns back to the winners circle for the first time in four years at the Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship! No one can ever doubt Jason’s guts or his determination.
Oh yeah, that change that got him back to the top? The key was keeping his head behind his right knee at release. This move allows him to control his release point and, more importantly, takes pressure off of his knee. If you go back and watch the show again you can actually hear him repeating this to himself.
Others
Over the course of the season, I had the chance to work with a few other Tour players as well, most recently Joe Ciccone and Hall-of-Famer Johnny Petraglia. I always enjoy and learn from working with players at this level. After working together, both bowlers had nice weeks at the Plastic Ball Championship, with Joe finishing 5th and Johnny 8th (at the age of 64!)
But if I had to give this group a grade for the year, it would be an A minus. That’s right TJ, if you would’ve snapped off a win, the group gets an A, so you’re buying dinner at the Dream Camp this year! Oh yeah, Del Ballard also deserves an A…mostly for dealing with the guys week-in, week-out!
Well, I guess I’m officially a blogger and, depending on your feedback, I may do it again soon! Also, I am almost done writing my first book on coaching, which will explain my unique philosophy of the physical game that I believe will help bowlers of all skill levels and applies to just about any different style of bowling you can imagine. More info to come on that subject soon!
Later,
Bakes