Hi Nolan,
How’s it going? Have you been playing outside with Ciara or any of your friends. So, I think the last letter I wrote was about having a newspaper route when I was 11 years old. That year was also the first time I went to the bowling alley to bowl. Do you go bowling at all?
Inside the bowling alley, there was many bowling lanes. I recall that I had to go to the bowling desk and ask for my size of shoes. I believe it was $0.50 extra. Then, I had to find a bowling ball. They had many racks of bowling balls with many different colours and different heaviness. I tried lifting some bowling balls and some were too light and some were too heavy. I think I found the weight of a 10 lb. ball that was perfect for me. With finding the right weight, then you had to make sure that your three fingers could fit in the holes fine. Then at last, I found a perfect bowling ball.
It was my time to bowl, and nobody taught me, so I threw the bowling ball in an usual way. This is how I still today bowl in an unusual way. I started to play for fun, but I got pretty good at it. I think the total score you can get in a single game is 300. My average was about 125. Sometimes I got strikes, and most of the time I got spares.
Then, I started to join a bowling league and play every Saturday. I had to make sure that I got home in time to do the newspaper route. It was fun bowling with all different people your age.
Bowling was a sport that I never tried before, but I practiced so I could understand it better. If you do ever go and try bowling, I found out you in order to get a strike, you had to hit the 1st pin (king pin) either very fast or had to hit it on the side of the pin. If you hit that 1st bowling pin, most of the times all the bowling pins would fall down.
Then in bowling you get a second attempt to knock the remainder bowling pins down. If you did hit the 1st pin and didn’t get a strike then usually about 3 or less pins were still standing. I think the second attempt took more concentration and skill than the first attempt. You had to stay focus and let the ball go straight where you wanted it to go. Then you got a spare.
Don’t try and be too competitive. Help and teach new players to perform well. Nolan, if you join a sport, it will take some time to be better at it. The more you practice, the better you will become. Some sports might take a team effort, where there are going to very good players and some average players. As long as you try your best and have fun, than you will enjoy that sport. Don`t try and be too competitive. Help and teach new players to perform well.
When I played ball hockey, I could never lift the tennis ball above the ground and score in the hockey net. I tried and I tried. Until one day, a long time afterwards, with a lot of practice, the ball finally lifted off the ground and I scored top shelf into the hockey net. I finally could do it. So, don`t give up, and it will eventually come.
Love Dad XOXO