Renowned Coach Mark Barker - Season 4 Episode 17 - Down Lane Podcast

The DLP Crew welcomes Coach, author and competitor Mark Baker to the show! They also discuss the results of the New Years Day Tournament....who do you think came out on top?
#MarkBaker #Bowling #DownLanePodcast

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Hosts:
Kyle Haines
Anthony Scaccia

Guest:
Mark Baker

Producer:
Austin Van Buren

Music: 
Active Aggression

Transcript

Let's go.
Thank you.
It kind of helped them advance.
I mean, do you think this is a conspiracy?
Gotta go with Jacob Butter.
Gotta go lefty.
We're talking about the players.
That's a tournament champion.
There he is right there.
Oh, he doesn't even know how to watch.
Go to YouTube.com and search Downlane Podcast.
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Downline Podcast.
We are streaming live from the lab at Town & Country Lanes.
I'm your host, Kyle Haynes, and with me is the assistant to the host, Anthony Skacia.
Welcome to the Pro Shop.
Well, the buffer brush broke.
My computer's down at the snack bar.
I had to line out the door for the Pro Shop and couldn't fit everybody in because, you know.
So, yeah.
Welcome.
So you had a nice Thursday.
Oh, it was a terrible Thursday.
It was a bad day when I walked in today.
The tears are flowing.
That's all I can say.
Let me catch them for you.
I'm not worried about it.
I was just hoping to have a really nice dinner today, and that didn't happen, actually.
That was my only thing I said to somebody.
What do you want to do today?
I was like, have a nice dinner.
Just be able to sit down for five minutes and have a dinner, and that's all I wanted today.
And there it is.
Did you get a dinner at all?
Liquid death.
Liquid death.
Apparently it's sparkling water.
It's pretty not all right.
Pretty good.
Austin, how's it going tonight?
It's good.
I had a fantastic day because I got 13 hours of sleep.
Yeah.
Dude, have some kids.
Tell me about 13 hours of sleep.
Get a pig.
That was a you decision.
All right.
On tonight's episode, we've got the great renowned coach, author, PBA champion Mark Baker coming on in just a few moments.
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What up?
Just came in.
Zach's got his from the giveaway.
Just hand delivered that.
And what else do I usually talk about?
Oh, yeah.
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So this weekend.
We all finally bolt together somewhere.
That doesn't happen a lot.
Did you call that bowling?
It was a tough weekend for the three of us.
I showed up and spent money.
Unfortunately, I just blundered it, I guess.
I could have done a lot better.
I missed like 100 plus pins and spares.
Well, you know, sometimes that happens.
I had the lead after game two.
Tried not to look back, and I looked back pretty far.
I was in the top 10 after three.
That did not last long.
Yeah, I was plus 60 after two.
We bowled up on New Year's Day.
What was it?
Harry Styles.
Harry Smith.
Harry Smith, 41 feet, 32 mils, two to one.
It's real quick.
Hey, Andrew, what's up?
Zach, Rich, Deke.
Deke bowled really good up there.
14 pounds of fury.
Uh, it was, it was interesting.
I mean, I had the lead after two, um, hit a interesting pair.
Um, I must say we all, or at least we staggered our interesting pairs.
Like I shot two 50, you shot one 50.
Then I shot one 50.
You never shot one 50.
You did have a one 50.
I checked our scores, but you know, I didn't write your shot.
One 30.
I'm sorry, but go ahead.
I had a one 30 as well.
I went two 30, two 30, one 30, two 30, two 40, one 30, one 40.
Yeah.
Well, I had the absolute nut for a while.
Yeah, dude.
That blue was stupid.
The blue hammer was good.
And then we got to this tricky pair.
And then it stopped hooking down lane.
And then I couldn't throw up the lane anymore.
And that's always my nemesis.
I always give it away a little bit.
But I was watching all the other lefties.
And they were struggling.
And I was like, well, I'm freaking plus 60.
And then halfway through that game, I said, well, just keep it close.
Open, open, open, open, open the rest of the way.
And I was like, all right.
I think I slammed my ball in my bag.
I mean, I could not figure out what was going on.
So then we go to the low end.
I go to my other blue hammer, 230, 240.
Kyle's like, well, it must have been the brick and it must have been the pair.
Next pair, same thing.
So then I ball up, take four off the left.
That was nuts, dude.
Ball up.
Fantastic.
Four off the left.
Thank you.
And I was like, well, I'm screwed.
So I tried to gut it out.
It didn't gut out very well.
And then next pair, I didn't bowl any better.
It was operator error most of the time.
And then I probably played him a little bit wrong.
I was the only lefty, I think, on the leaderboard.
For a moment.
All day.
Yeah.
And I was on there twice.
I made it back to eighth after the 230-240.
Happy New Year, Michael.
What's going on?
I don't even know if another lefty beat me.
Uh, I'm not a hundred percent sure.
I don't remember.
Well, it's on the internet, but I didn't look, but I don't know if he's sub 60 at a 90.
I watched, you know, a few guys who are pretty notable.
Um, you were just below me who are notable lefties, you know, Matt, Gary Bingham, the other guys.
And, uh,
Yeah.
Which is odd because it was a very medium pattern.
It was 41 feet, and I think the ratios were pretty close on both sides.
They're too long.
It's a little flatter than what was out, I think, at the regional.
Yeah.
Or at least it played a lot flatter.
Yeah.
Yeah, the scores were the scores were, I thought, at least on the right side, they were pretty fair.
Like nobody ran away with it.
Like you guys in doubles last year.
No, this tournament actually last year, you and Matt ran away with it last year, which was like the scores were way too high.
I can completely understand if they wanted to kind of make the left a little harder this year.
Yeah, I can understand that.
I don't think they tried to shut us out.
I don't really think there is a shutout anymore.
You should be able to find something.
It might be a little tougher.
But that's why they always say lefties got to be twice as good as righties.
I don't know if anybody else says it, but I say it.
You got to be twice as good because you got to make it happen, man.
I mean, you got to make it happen when you're out there on that stuff.
You got to say, you had to make it happen to be fairly close on the left, at least, because nobody was close.
I made it happen for four games.
I will say, in eight games, the lefties definitely have a disadvantage because the right side is 1,000% going to break down.
Dude, I remember you came over to me and you're like, well, I hit a tricky pair.
I literally looked at you and said, I don't care about your tricky pair.
I said, you're on the freaking right.
Move left and hit it harder.
I mean, what else do you want?
I did try.
I tried moving left a little bit, but I just don't have the hand to get where those guys were playing.
Although I think the ball I think what I did is I just didn't move left enough because I that's what I said.
Oh, I missed it.
Sorry.
But but yeah, I probably needed to go more left.
And we talked about that earlier.
But I saw Deke.
He bowled really good.
He didn't.
He's an older guy.
He throws 14.
Like you?
A little lower rev rate.
He bowled good, so I don't know exactly what he was doing, what he was throwing.
Don't tell him, Deke.
Let him figure it out.
I did not have a ball comparable to what I was watching out there.
I'll tell you what, Blue hammer was good.
For a little while.
When the look went away bad, it was bad.
I already had Anthony order a ball.
Yeah, I already ordered your ball.
I ordered it today, actually.
It changes.
All right.
Well, it didn't go as planned, especially for you and Matt.
You guys thought you guys were going to run away with it.
That's for sure.
I didn't think I was going to run away with it.
I kind of figured it was going to be a little tougher on the left this year.
That's just my opinion.
Well, wait a minute.
I have an idea.
We've got a coach at hand.
Maybe we can ask him what we should have done.
I'm not complaining.
I'm just stating.
I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying maybe we should ask him what we should have done.
Well, my move should have been 30 right.
I'm sure he's probably going to yell at me about my 100-plus pins in this space.
So he's right here.
Let's bring on the podcast author.
gentlemen gold level coach uh let's see pba champion this is probably our most esteemed guest that we've ever had um of all of the guests that we've had so let's bring on uh mark baker renowned coach to the podcast hey mark how's it going all the way by the way from disneyland i have to say i am yep i am at the uh the grand californian hotel i'm in a some kind of little room here off to the side hopefully i don't get kicked out what's going on i'm sorry to bother you at disneyland
Oh, I made the, you know, you and I talked and I said, sure, I'm usually coaching on this day.
But my son's on the Christmas vacation, one of the last days off.
So my wife said, hey, by the way, we're going to Disneyland today.
So I just thought it'd be easier to figure this out this way than to fight her.
Which you're pretty close to, right?
You guys are right near.
Oh, yeah.
We take surface streets to get here.
Nice.
I one of the things I want to get right into since it's right around the corner is the league, which has a lot of big changes this year, which I think are probably way more exciting now than the well.
We've talked about this on our show a lot is that I think the league is really exciting for you guys, the coaches and the players.
For us on the watching end is a little was a little less exciting because it was like packed into one week.
I think it's be really, really exciting.
And with all the changes going through the whole season now.
So tell us what you think about that and what's like what's to come for the elite league now.
Yeah, I don't think any of us have an idea because of the new way of doing it where they're going to bowl matches every week.
I think after we get a couple weekends in, we get four or five matches under our belts, see who's doing what.
You'll find out how well your team gels.
But it'll be a lot more fun.
I'm going to go to two events.
I go to Detroit and I go to Akron because now I'm an Akron Adam splitter.
So it'll be kind of cool.
I get to go back to – I haven't been to Riviera since 1990 when I bowled my last Tournament of Champions.
So a quick 34 years later, I get to go back through those famous doors.
So I'm looking forward to it.
It'll be a lot of fun.
So when you say two places, or you're just referencing two places, are you going to every stop to be the manager?
Or are the teams not participating at every stop?
How is that working for the schedule?
The stops that your team is on Fox Sports, FS1, they want the managers there at those.
You're allowed to go to any of them, but obviously cost.
You know, living on the West Coast, going all the termites are in the Midwest or back East.
So that would be, you know, I can't make a living doing that.
So the two I'm required to be at are the ones on FS1.
So I'll be at Thunder Bowl and I'll be at Riviera.
So they're not backing you guys, unfortunately.
No, that's the mean there.
They take care of us and it's a pretty cool thing we do, but.
You know, then there's then there's paying the bills.
I got I got I got to give a few lessons here and there.
That's right.
That's right.
Speaking of lessons, you got you're doing the the your not just the camps, but your actual training center in California.
Yeah, that's worked out unbelievably well.
It's a place called the Westpac Training Center.
It's in a building that sells Western Pacific bowling supply.
And so they sell all the parts and all the things that you would need for the capital part.
A lane machine, you need gutter caps, you need a new rake, you need any part for AMF or Brunswick, they sell that.
So the gentleman, Lee Hackson, who built it, had built two lanes to train mechanics on, an AMF machine and a Brunswick machine.
He and I are friends for 40 years.
He called me during COVID.
Hey, this thing sets up.
There's a door in.
There's a door out.
Do you think we can make a go of it?
Because California stayed closed for so long.
And then we started it last January, two years ago January, and it's been amazing.
What a run.
How many players through those doors have you put through?
off the top of your head.
Well, well north of 2000 lessons in two years.
Whoa.
Wow, it's a ton.
It's a lot of fun.
What's the I mean, every player is probably different.
What's the process like when you when you're going for a lesson there?
I mean, every I'm sure every lesson is different.
Every every goal is probably different.
But what's that kind of seat in my pants?
I've never had a game plan.
I've never had a written anything down.
I'm not the one throwing the ball, so I don't think I should be the one determining the lesson.
I'm pretty good at getting in about five minutes.
I ask about seven or eight pretty good questions, and the bowler will tell me exactly what they want to work on, and then I just fix it.
So that's what I do.
It's just what I do.
I like that.
That way you're not too worried about coming in, what does this guy need, what does this guy need?
You're coming in, hey, what do you think you need?
And then you can kind of tailor it to them a little bit more specifically.
If you ask bowlers what they're bad at, they're unbelievably good at telling you.
Bowler self-analysis is so good, I think most coaches should stop and listen more.
they'll tell you exactly what they want to work on.
So if you listen and you have a little bit of game as a coach, I think it just makes the lesson go by.
That way, you know, when I charge what I charge, 140 an hour, they're getting exactly what they wanted from the lesson.
So there's never at the 50-minute mark, hey, you know, I really wanted to work on my 10 pins.
If you ask them what you want to work on, they'll tell you immediately, I want to work on spares, my consistency, my balance, my timing, you know, moving in, moving right, whatever they want to work on.
It doesn't matter to me.
I will accommodate them and then we get the job done.
What's your kind of philosophy then when you're meeting a brand new player?
Obviously, you're asking a lot of questions, but fundamentally, are you looking at upending a player or do you like to work with what they got and make them better?
I always work with what they have.
I mean, it depends on your skill set.
If you're 210, I'm not going to change much.
If you're 105, it's going to be painful.
Right.
You know, if you're 105, it means you have a hard time hitting the pin nearest you.
So you would do way more with that.
So the bowlers that are pretty good, it's just bowlers throw a lot of good shots.
They don't understand why they throw the bad shot.
More importantly, they don't know why they throw their good shots.
So it's my job to figure out, okay, with Strike Seeker there in every shot of the video, if you throw 10 shots and you really like five, instead of telling you constantly what you're doing wrong, you look at the five good shots, like every time you throw it good, Kyle, these three markers show up.
Let's key on those three things and see how many good ones in a row you can throw.
Bowlers respond to that much better.
Positive reinforcement.
Something you don't give yourself.
No, I'm really bad at positive reinforcement.
Oh, bowlers are rough.
You guys are rough on yourself.
Oof.
Oof.
It's true.
No, I'm not allowed.
You can't throw a strike in my training center and shake your head.
I don't put up with that.
There's none of that stuff where I coach.
That's not good for me.
I mean, as you've been working with people, I've watched myself on film a few times.
So my question would be, you know, you throw a bad one, you look at it on film, and it's not always that bad.
Do you think bowlers have a perception that it's worse than it is, like the shot itself?
Or is it, it really is that far off?
I mean, do you have?
Oh, no, bowlers are brutal.
Bowlers, like I said, a lot of times they'll throw three in a row and they'll shake their head.
So I was a jock way before I was a bowler.
So if I happened to get a lucky hit in baseball and I flared one over the first baseman's head, I didn't get on first base and kick the bag.
I'm like, wow, they gave me a freebie.
I mean, the line drive is going to get caught.
So I threw plenty of strikes on tour that weren't exactly where I was throwing it.
So if I got away with one, I never let anybody know I got away with one.
Because I was just going to take advantage of it.
So or else I would think, oh, my God, my misses strike.
Look out, I'm making a show because my bad ones are striking.
I know my good ones are striking.
So I try to make that influence.
Don't ever stomp your foot, shake your head.
Why?
I mean, bowling's too hard.
That's like saying you're never going to leave a ringing 10 or a solid 8 or a solid 9.
The bowling gods, if you strike and shake your head, the bowling gods will get even pretty quick.
Sounds like they did this weekend with some of your shots you guys are talking about.
That's true.
I don't really know if it was the bowling guys.
I did leave a smashed nine pin on a ring of like five.
I can't tell you I struck on the bowling guys took care of it.
I think I just did it enough.
It was my own fault on how I played the lane.
I say they were actually really nice to me for a long time.
For a couple of games.
There you go.
Very good.
I can't complain.
I just didn't play them right.
That's all.
Yeah.
Speaking of video.
So I'm sure a lot of people know you do online lessons and it sounds like that's really successful for you.
How does how does that go over?
I mean, it's successful, so it must be really good.
But how does that go over for the player?
How does that do they come back a lot for more reinforcement?
How does that work?
Yeah, everybody's a little different on that.
So I would say the virtual lessons, I'd say 90%.
Their success rate's pretty good.
And the people that like it, I mean, they take tons.
I have people that take lessons, well, every other week.
They just can't get enough.
And they're always fine-tuning it, working on it.
Or they'll stop.
They'll slow down.
And, you know, Anthony Pepe, he's the leader in the clubhouse.
That's the guy trying to get better.
So, Anthony, once you and I develop a pretty good rapport together, and I know your game very well,
Yeah, the virtual lessons have been a huge, that was a pandemic idea.
California, we were shut down.
Either I had to leave California or find another way to make some money.
So I started doing the virtual lessons, and it's done very, very well.
I really enjoy it.
I probably do 20, 30 a month.
I don't push it real hard, and that's a good number.
So it definitely made me a better coach.
Because, you know, you're just getting, you know, a written word.
I want to work on this, this and this.
So it got my eye sharper where to look quickly.
So I have my own system of how I coach.
So it's pretty simple for me to do that.
And what the virtual lessons really is, I'd say everybody under the age of 30, both two handed.
So the two handed thing is huge.
And that's I spent a lot of time on that.
And how does that, with video, how do you help people with their lane play?
Where I feel like, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like you can really help them with their physical game.
Are you able to help them with their lane play?
That's tricky.
How to see the lane?
No, I don't believe you can.
That has to be an in-person thing.
Because what I see and what you see as a bowler never match.
No two bowlers play the lanes the same.
None of us throw it the same.
So none of us, I mean, where you pick it up and where I pick the ball up, I guarantee you when I still bowl, where I saw my ball, I mean, I looked at the arrows and I was aware of a break point, but I saw my ball at 30 feet.
And once I saw where my ball was at 30 feet, I could tell you what pin I was going to leave.
So I never even saw the two markers, even though I was looking at one.
So I would never use my style to teach somebody.
So everybody sees a lane difference.
So a lane play, that's got to be in person.
That's got to be you telling what you're trying to do.
And I'll tell you what you did.
And then we talk about it and look at Specto and you come up with a game plan because so many people where they think they hit and where they hit are so far off that.
And it's not wrong.
It's just how they see the lane.
So that's that's a lot of it's it needs to be done in person.
If you get really good at lane play, I believe.
How often do you, how often has Specto come into the coaching world?
I mean, there's so much information at your fingertips now versus, I don't know, when it came out a few years ago, whatever it was.
So how often do you use that?
And has it really improved or helped you be able to coach people on what they're looking for?
I use it on every shot I give.
Okay.
Okay.
have specto and i have strike seeker so i have the data and i have the replay of 10 shots of the shot you just threw from the back going through the pins and the ball going down the lane so i got as much tech as i can you know and i don't use specto i only use about eight columns i don't use all the everything they have on there i think that's too much for a bowler to comprehend because when you try to get too perfect by making all the numbers exactly right
One thing about bowling is within 90 seconds to two minutes, you're up again.
So no matter how good the last shot was, it doesn't really matter.
They just need to be a lot of A minuses.
They don't need to be A pluses.
So I use Specto really to prove my points.
I got my own way of teaching how to play the lanes and stuff like that.
So Specto kind of proves my coaching system.
So like today I had a kid from a Wahoo from Hawaii on his way home after spring after Christmas vacation.
And he was thinking he was hitting three.
He was trying to hit five, six down lane and he was hitting three, four every shot.
So the argument goes away when you can show, well, here's the specto.
Every time you hit three, you leave a two, eight, 10.
Every time you hit five, six, you strike.
And he's like, and I said, well, you're sliding on 35.
So your head angle is so far left of where the target is.
that you're seeing the ball from the left side of the ball.
I'm sitting on a bench behind you.
I'm sitting on the break point.
So I'm seeing the very bottom of the ball.
So that's probably one of the biggest things people don't get right is because they're looking at it.
When you're sliding in the left gutter, it was a two handed kid and he's sliding in left gutter and he's seeing his ball.
He's seeing the left edge of the ball.
So Specto takes that out of play.
So that's when he immediately changed what he was doing.
So he made his break point seven, eight, which really was five, six.
And then he put a run on him for a good hour.
And I know his mom was pretty happy.
So his flight home would be pretty good.
What's the biggest thing, if anything, that you had to change coaching from traditional to two-handed?
Oh, you just measure timing a little different because two hands are touching the ball.
You're pretty limited how high your backswing can go, and your footwork has to be a lot different, I believe.
You take five steps.
I believe the third step has to be completely different than a one-hander because you've got to get both arms to clear all the body parts before you throw it.
So it's not very hard to do this.
All you do is look at the man and then you kind of figure it out.
Belmondi's fundamentals are stupid.
They're that good.
He's done what he's done for a reason.
He's not lucky.
Yeah, no, his fundamentals are definitely, you try to strive or help people get, be like, hey, watch this guy bowl.
And then you watch people try to put together like, man, that guy is that good to be able to just repeat it every time.
And it's almost like it's a replay, right?
Uh, seriously, he's that good at it.
It's incredible.
And Simonson's starting to be getting that touch.
And then you guys play, you know, Kyle Troop's very good.
So, you know, it's, it's, it's definitely a thing.
It's not going away.
It's very effective.
You know, they don't seem to be getting hurt.
So, I mean, two-handed kind of saved our sport is the way I look at it.
I think Kyle Troop's got, out of the two-handers, he's got almost that traditional style.
He walks very... Very straight.
But then he throws it with two hands.
So does Chris Vaughn.
Yeah, Chris Vaughn does too.
So they're one-handers who learn how to bowl two-handed.
Then you've got guys like Simonson who's a pure two-hander.
Jesper is kind of his only.
He's got some unique stuff going there.
But they definitely get their hand in a good spot in the ball.
So when you're throwing it, if you look at it, the biggest difference is, except for maybe Tack and a couple other guys, if you look at the earth, the ball being the earth, you know, you're trying to get your fingers at the equator slightly below it.
The two-handed guys, when they're on, they're throwing it from Antarctica.
They get to turn that globe a half turn for free.
Hard to beat them when they can hit a target.
It's, it's wild.
Yeah.
Michael Polky says his biggest problem is hitting the same mark consistently.
What's his, what, is there any, you would look at his drift and you would look at a lot of it has to do with timing.
You know, I'm a big timing.
I think it's all about timing and balance.
That's the two most important things.
So there's a lot of timing and balance.
So if your timing is pretty good and your balance is okay and you can keep your breastplate pretty quiet,
Uh, hitting a target doesn't seem to mean you gotta look at somebody's drift.
You know, you want to have a, it doesn't matter really how many you drift long.
Is this a consistent number?
So most bowlers aren't very, very knowledgeable on their drift or they, they don't realize when they play, right.
They drift a lot and then they move left.
They drift less, things like that.
Yeah, I was chatting with one of our players here and a couple of people actually, and they didn't actually realize that they would start at a certain spot, looking at another spot, and then didn't realize that they moved 15 or 20 boards.
That's a lot.
That's hard to master.
And I'm not joking.
And then trying to hit a 20 board spread from.
Well, yeah, they're lined up in their stand.
So they're let's say they're standing on 15 looking at eight.
Right.
But then they slide on.
Just make it easy.
They slide on 25.
Well, if your eyes don't move, you don't if you don't allow for that and you slide on 25, look at eight and you do actually hit your target.
You throw the gutter.
Right.
Exactly.
They tend to come over the top of it all the time and they want to hit it, but it's too far right.
So they kind of come over the top.
They missed inside it.
They missed right.
The networks on the back end.
Yeah, I deal with that pretty much on a daily basis.
That's easy stuff.
I actually was sorry if I'm interrupting you because I know that you're about to ask a question, I think.
No, I'm not.
I'm trying to process all the information so I can formulate a question.
It's very intriguing.
I was watching you with, um, with Chris the other day or a couple of weeks ago, you're on his show, uh, beef and Barnsey.
And, um, you're actually talking about drift and you were mentioning that a lot of the pros now or for a long time, they all, it's kind of their standard operating procedures.
They all drift.
Um, is there kind of like a, uh, um, cause I walked dead straight.
I, I end where I start.
Um, but I have a very traditional game, uh,
But anyway, what's that?
So you probably don't like playing left to fourth arrow.
My game does not do very well left and forth.
There you go.
It's very true.
But I don't mind it, but I wish I could.
But yeah, so what would be like that average drift or is there one that... No, I've never found that there's an optimum number.
So you would look at a guy like Chris who is probably the best bowler in the world for a good five, six years in a row.
And then once...
Once Tackett and Belmonte became the top dogs and they tend to walk a little more left and their angles to the front were more open.
When Chris was really good, Walter dominated.
So the field tends to play the way the leader plays.
So when Walter was the man, guys tried to bowl like Walter.
And Barnes was the best at copying Walter and outdoing Walter, what Walter was good at.
So the field would break the lanes down the way Chris did.
Whoever leads, everybody's going to follow.
We've all been that way since when I bowled on tour in the 80s.
Then Jason and EJ started moving left quicker and opening the angles up.
Well, then Chris struggled with that because Chris doesn't drift left.
He slides where he starts.
So when he's sliding straight like that, his hips and his breastplate are facing square, but he's trying to hit 7'8 to 45 feet and he's sliding on 35.
If you're square, there's where your brain wants the ball to go and where's your breastplate want it to go.
They have to match up.
So if your breastplate's aiming at the two-pin and you're trying to hit the break point at 6'7", at 45 feet, your hand has to do two things.
Whereas if you drift left and your shoulders open up a little bit and your breastplate and your brain are matching the same thing, then your hand just has to add rotation at the end, not redirection.
That's for the shots that feel easy.
So then if Chris played right, for a long time, if you could play right at 7', Chris was unbeatable because he walked dead straight and he hit exactly what he looks.
I know what I'm practicing tonight.
So it's tricky, you know, the drift and everything.
So as long as you know your numbers, I guess I was always four and like five and three.
I drifted five left and I missed my target by three.
So if Dave Husted was fighting on 25 and playing 12, I stood on 20 and I looked nine and I was lined up without ever throwing a shot.
That's kind of how we always did it.
But, you know, back in the 80s, we're so old school compared to the guys now.
It's not even funny.
They just have better excuses.
The new generation, you guys talk a better game than we did.
We never missed transition.
I didn't ever match up.
Either I bowled good or I bowled bad.
We only had four answers.
How'd you bowl?
I bowled good.
That means you made the top 10.
How'd you bowl?
I bowled all right.
That means you finished the top 24.
How'd you bowl?
I stole a check.
That was 25th or 53rd.
How'd you bowl?
I bowled like shit.
I got to go practice.
That was the extent of our talk.
Now you guys have way cooler excuses and the transition and your thing and Mary had a little lamb and all that good stuff.
Your guys' excuses are way better.
I'm jealous of that.
You guys are much, much, it'd be much easier for me to call home now and explain why I bowled bad than back in the day.
I love that.
That is one of the most favorite things I've ever heard.
That is good.
I mean, uh, being a lefty, I do follow the other lefties who do stupid things and then I have to try to, uh,
you know, bowl around it, which I've gotten, you know, not bad at, I will say.
But what do you think about coaching two-handed versus one-handed?
Do you think one is easier than the other, not in terms of doing, but to coach?
If a guy comes in and he's two-handed, is it easier to kind of guide that guy in the direction he wants to go because there's really no thumb in it so you don't have to worry about it getting stuck in there?
Or do you think it's a little easier to coach the one-handed guy
You know, I don't know what he would be working on, but it would be easy to work with him.
Or is there no right or wrong there?
It just depends.
Oh, it always depends on the player.
But from my experience only as a coach, I've been coaching.
I've had a big advantage.
So many coaches, you know, I'm going to be 63 here in a couple of months.
So, so many people from my generation, you know, like a Brian Voss, they hate left-handed.
They hate two-handers.
I could care less.
You're just throwing the ball down the lane.
The hand comes off a little sooner or a little later.
I've never had a problem with it.
So coaching two-handers, I think, is a much easier process because there's way less moving parts.
You don't deal with much of a backswing.
They don't have their thumb on the ball.
So I've never worked with a two-hander on a release in 18 years.
So I got to coach Wesley Lowe when he was 10 years old.
I coached Wesley when he threw a 10-pound T-zone and couldn't average 140.
And his dad's like, every coach wants to make him bowl one-handed.
And I watched him throw five shots, and he had four nine counts and a seven nine, and he kicked the rack every time.
So I liked the kid immediately.
I loved him because he had such a temper.
But I said, the last thing I would do is switch him.
His ball does the right thing.
He's not going to be four foot tall and 50 pounds the rest of his life.
One day he'll grow.
I had no idea he was going to turn into who he turned into.
But I could recognize it pretty quick, like, wow, that ball shape, that takes me years to teach.
He's doing it with no help.
So I bought into the two-handed thing first time I saw it.
And then Osku came to Fountain Bowl and he made the show as an 18-year-old at the U.S.
Open.
And there was a bunch of old guys like me with our mouth hanging open like, did you just watch that guy bowl?
And then I watched Jason Belmonte.
I know exactly when I saw the future.
It was at the Players' Championship.
I don't know what year it was.
The year Duke beat Barnes for the title in Wichita.
In the semifinals, the lanes were okay.
Everybody shot about 200 over.
Belmonte shot 500 over by himself.
And I'd never seen messengers do it three times.
And he was doing it like every other shot.
I went, OK, that's that's where it's going.
So you need to get on this bandwagon.
So I'm not I don't care who walks through my door.
I'll coach anybody.
But obviously coaching two handers because they tend to be very athletic.
So that makes your job.
They tend to be pretty good athletes.
So in the in the in the sports world, you would say they all have twitch muscles.
So they tend to practice a lot more and they tend to be a little more athletic.
So I think two handers are much easier to coach than a one hander because I don't ever deal with their thumb and I never have to teach release.
So one of our viewers, I'm going to throw him right under the bus.
deke he absolutely hates urethane he yells at us every week ban your thing ban your thing what's your uh even though he he i'm gonna even throw him under the bus again he's an old guy he's an old guy through and through he probably grew up with urethane just stop hating on deke
I love you.
He's a good guy.
Super good guy.
Anyway, what's your what's your whole what's your feeling on your thing tour wise or any other in any other aspect of the game?
I know we use it, whatever.
It's a tool.
It's another tool.
But what what's your feeling on on your thing?
It's not the pro shop, right?
Yeah.
Learn to bowl.
What's the difference?
What do you say?
I mean, it's your thing.
So let me ask you this.
So the guys that don't like your thing.
So, you know, I threw your thing my entire life, but I hear this as my son's two handed and I hear these things.
So I didn't realize when I paid my entry fee, my job was to make the other guy's shot better.
I missed that on the entry fee.
When was that put in?
I like that answer.
So what's, I don't get it.
I don't try to sell it to the average league player.
So I don't feel like it's needed.
That's my.
Well, league players.
I mean, that's, that's one thing, but tournaments I get, you know, you hear it all the time.
That should be illegal.
That's this, that's that.
Right.
I mean, but when was it my, when was my son's job to make the shot better for your daughter?
I didn't get that.
I didn't know.
I didn't notice that when I signed up.
So what's the deal?
The ball, the ball's the ball.
It's just another tool in the bag is what I tell people.
I mean, it is what it is.
If I'm good at hitting a seven iron and I can hit a seven iron from anywhere and make it work, you're not going to tell me to ban a seven iron.
I'm just going to be able to use it.
I mean, I get it.
I see what happens.
My son made the finals in the JBT main event this past week in Vegas and he's 14 and all the college kids made it and they all started with urethane and
You know, by game three or four, the front hook and the back ends were super tight.
He doesn't bowl with that group of bowlers that much that good.
So he really struggled getting his ball to shape.
So we talked about on the drive home and something we will work on.
He'll recognize.
But, you know, it's I don't I just don't you know, that's like the people getting mad at the two handers.
You know, I mean, they should ban this or there should be a separate entry.
I mean, I'm a rock and roll guy.
I grew up with Led Zeppelin.
So the way I look at two handed, it's just like my dad's an older guy.
I grew up in the South.
He liked Chuck Berry.
I like Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin.
My son's 14.
He likes some guy I never heard of playing guitar.
It's all music.
They just played a little bit different.
So I could care less.
I make a living coaching.
If they show up with six urethane balls, you know what I'm gonna make them do?
Hit the pocket with all six.
If they show up two handed, I'm gonna make them hit the pocket.
They show up as a senior, I'm gonna put them in balance so they don't hurt.
I could care less about all that stuff.
My job is to make them better with whatever they bring in with the training center.
I don't have the ability to say, sorry, you brought in motive today.
I can't give you a lesson.
Give me a slight break.
I could care less what you bring.
I have people that bring balls from the 80s.
Don't care.
I'll line them up.
It just doesn't bother me.
Yeah, and Deke was saying, would you use a wooden golf club?
My answer to that is, if it's getting me to the hole, then hell yeah.
Whatever gets me the number, then absolutely I don't know.
So I just accommodate whatever they have.
I just think, to me, it's a sport.
If you start doing these things, I can't do that because of what happens.
And the best part about sports is adjustments.
It's not about who the best athlete is.
It's never been that.
It's who can adjust best at halftime is always the best athlete.
That's why Tom Brady's Tom Brady.
No matter what happened the first half, Patriots played pretty good in the second half.
And they're finding that Belichick may not be the coach he thought he was.
That quarterback mattered.
So the best guy changing at halftime was Brady.
For a long time, it was Nick Saban as a coach for Alabama.
So whoever can adjust is always the best athlete, always going to be the best bowler.
The easiest way to look at it is to watch, go back to all the years and look at all the, go look at game one and two in a PBA event who led qualifying after two.
How many times did that guy win?
Not very often.
Well, it wasn't this Monday.
There you go.
You answered your own question.
Last year, it was almost wire to wire.
I think I lost it in, like, the seventh game.
So, you know, it happens, you know.
But I know exactly what you're talking about, adjustments.
And I didn't make the right ones this week, and that's what I told everybody.
I never would have thought I had to go 30 right to have a semi-decent look of, you know, how I wanted to see the ball react down lane.
But, I mean, it is what it is.
I mean, I didn't make the adjustment.
Next time, I'll be a little better for it.
That's what I say.
How do you like that?
Huh?
It's a great answer.
Thank you.
So it's been a number of years since I read it, but I did read Game Changer, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
And actually, right after I read it, I'm pretty sure I went out on the lanes, took some videos because I wanted to see where my timing was, see if I matched up.
What can you walk people through the process if they haven't read the book, which they should absolutely go out and get how you came to find out the timing and the.
how you yeah how you came to find out that timing process and how you found out that all of the pros kind of or almost all the pros now at this point um yeah it was uh i can remember it was like 31 into a fountain bowl i had a person not show up for a lesson i was starting to get pretty good at videoing and i was using bowler's map and i was just trying to find markers i'm a big believer in markers like what do they all do the same
So when you work with somebody that might not have the physical abilities to do certain things, but if I can make them do more things that the pros do, they tend to get better results.
So I started just, you know, Tommy Jones was unbeatable at that time.
He was just the man.
And I had worked with Tommy, and he's such a good guy.
So, you know, everybody under the age of like 102 wanted to throw it like Tommy.
But nobody else in the world has ever thrown it like Tommy.
Now, the easiest style to coach of the bowlers I was on the bowlers map,
I thought Carolyn Dorn Ballard's game was perfect.
I mean, it was fundamentally just as good as you could get with Carolyn.
So I'm like, how can I take part of what Tommy does?
But it's easier to teach Carolyn.
So I started just running them side by side on a program.
And pretty soon they got to where their slide foot got flat in front of their head and their swings were exactly in the same spot.
So immediately I called Tommy like, hey, did you know you have the same timing as Carolyn?
He just hung up on me.
That was his thing.
He just hung up.
Didn't even say a word.
So then I started like, well, the guy when I bowled on tour was Roth.
So I went and found videos of Mark, and I measured, and then Mark Roth measured.
My best friend's Dave Husted, you know, had a pretty good career bowling part-time, kind of.
You know, so I measured Dave, and I measured Lee and Hulstenberg.
I just picked some random different people.
Then I picked Barnes, because, you know, at that time, Chris didn't really move it in the second step, and Tommy dropped it down.
But when you got, when their slide foots got flat in front of their head, all the bowlers I just mentioned, all their swings were in exactly the same spot.
So then I said, okay, so what I'm going to do as a coach, I'm going to guinea pig everybody.
So no matter what you came for in a lesson, I just fixed your timing.
Wow, you fixed my balance.
Wow, I'm more accurate.
Wow, I'm way more consistent.
And all I did was put them in that spot.
And then three months later, I quit my job and I've been coaching full-time ever since.
And I haven't changed it.
I still believe in it.
It still measures.
So it's just, you know, I guess we never identify what timing is in our sport.
Nobody's ever given you a real definition of timing.
To me, timing is the ability to use your lower body and your swing without using any upper body.
When your ball's in that timing spot, that allows that to happen the best.
So that's why I teach it.
I think you were going to say something again.
No, my wheels are turning.
I'm thinking about myself now, which is, you know, I'm visualizing myself.
That's it.
Yeah.
The mice is running, but the wheel's not spinning.
So, um, I know you mentioned that there was like some big announcements happening in the beginning of the year.
Are you ready to announce anything or do we have to put everybody on standby?
Yeah.
You know, they're not there.
They're within, um,
They're within four days of happening, so I'm not really, yeah.
I have, as a coach, I've definitely gone all in on this project.
Yeah, nobody's ever really, I mean, is there a two-handed instructional video out there?
Is there one out there?
I don't think so.
I like that answer.
Not that I've seen.
So there will be soon.
Nice.
And then I've written a book and I did a DVD.
So I've, I've added some new, uh, so I've got two, I've got two instructional videos coming out in the next week.
Awesome.
That's very cool.
And one for two handers.
So I saw that you had dedicated camps, not just for bowling camps, but literally a two-handed camp.
I don't know if you do just one-handed camps.
Well, the other camp ends up being that.
Because at my normal camp, the Camp Biggs, I've been doing now for, what, 17 years?
There's nothing in there pertaining to a two-hander specifically.
And so I would usually get one that would come to my camp, and that person always felt out of place.
In my other camps, they tended that the average age skewers up 40 to 50 years old.
So I decided to try a couple two-handed camps.
They went marvelous.
The only reason we didn't do one last year is because the PBA League was the exact same week.
We'd always done it.
Trying to get, you know, the two-handed camp is really Chris Vai and Chris Sloan and Kyle Troop and Anthony Simonson.
Those kids really want to see those guys when they walk in the room because that's their idols.
So to get all four of those guys to have the exact same three or four days off is very, very tricky.
So that's the only reason I didn't have it.
So, yeah, I'll probably have a two-handed camp again later this fall with that group, the same coaching group.
They were unbelievably good.
The guys were just the best.
I mean, when Kyle troops on, he's worth the price of admission.
He's the best.
Chris Sloan probably has the best stories.
Vi is just Chris Vi.
He's just a class act.
Anthony doesn't say much, but what Anthony says is probably the most important stuff that gets said all weekend.
Steve Jacobs, Tim Mack, Sean Ryan is unbelievably good.
So that crew is pretty good.
So, yeah, the two-handed camps are specifically for two-handers.
And then the one-handed camp, obviously, my regular camp ends up being all one-handers.
So it's a nice – go ahead.
Sorry, has that changed locations or is it typically the same?
No, it's been at Sunset Station.
Now I've done 40, 44 camps.
Wow.
That's a lot of training.
Yeah, that's – I mean, when you think of it that way, I'm pretty amazed how well it's done, how long it's gone.
So, you know, I said I'll be 63 here in March, so I'm sure it's –
My son's in eighth grade, so I'm sure camp will go on for at least five more years.
I got to get him through.
I got to get him at least to college.
One way to keep yourself young, have a kid.
And you won't get 13 hours sleep either.
Yeah, no, you won't.
We don't want to keep you here too much longer.
We'll let you enjoy the spoils of Disneyland a little bit longer.
So I'll just end with kind of the same question I guess we always end with.
Where do you see the state of bowling?
Where are we?
Where are we headed?
Are we in a good place?
Are we going to a good place?
How do you see things shaping up bowling world-wide?
I think it's the best it's been in such a long time.
I can't believe how good bowling is right now.
All like in California, we don't really have anybody on tour anymore.
Everybody's left because of the cost of being in California.
Whereas when I bowled on tour, there were 30 guys that went on tour.
But the five gamers and the eight gamers and the six gamers are exploding everywhere across the country that the entry fees are up.
Bowling has, since the pandemic, maybe people realize that bowling could go away in a flash.
Since the pandemic's finished, bowling has come back with a vengeance.
now obviously there's been a you know a contraction of bowling centers so the bowling centers being fewer the ones that have made it through everyone i talk to the proprietors they're having their best years ever so i've never i've never given lessons to more new bowlers in my life
And I charge $140 an hour, and it's like they don't even blink.
Now, maybe that's a Southern California thing.
I don't know.
But I've never given lessons to more 105 bowlers ever, and they're addicted.
They can't get enough.
So from my standpoint, from my numbers and how my camps sell out and what I see in the local tournaments, and they're just –
There's a Tuesday night tournament, a Thursday night tournament, a Wednesday, besides the weekends.
So it's amazing to me.
Then you look at all the regions and numbers are up.
And what Fox has done on TV and bowling and everything, I think in high school and college is exploding.
So right now, I think, is as good a time.
Bowling's been in a long time.
So I'm very, very excited.
I mean, it's January.
So if you're a coach in January and you can't plug out 100 lessons in the first month,
you're doing something wrong because January is a good month.
So the bowlers, it's just every day.
So it's amazing.
Like tomorrow, I'll coach 10 hours.
And Saturday will be eight hours.
And next week will be 30 hours.
And then I go to Northern California for a weekend of the month, and I'll do 56 lessons in seven days.
So I'm not going to get out of work too fast.
I do think California must be a little bit different than upstate New York because – I get it.
I talk to Doug Kent about it all the time.
I couldn't charge that price anywhere else.
No.
Well, not even just the money, but I don't think kids are out here seeking lessons like that.
They want to bowl and they want to be better, but they're not seeking the advice like they do.
I don't know.
Nobody does it.
Yeah, we don't really have it.
Yeah, see, I've been doing it for 15 years, so I've kind of created it.
So then my kids, you know, the kids I coach tend to do pretty well.
So then the parents ask, how come, you know, your son or daughter is doing so well?
We go to this guy.
So I've been very, very, very fortunate.
I've had an amazing run with the kids.
We don't have high school bowling in California.
We just have tournaments.
But, you know, Wesley Lowe and Solomon Salama and Elias O'Halloran and Caitlin Abaganya and Avery Donmigan.
I mean, all these kids I've coached have all won junior gold.
We don't have high school bowling.
So, you know, we're doing an unlimited base.
We have the JVT and the JT's out here.
So I've been very, very, very lucky that the kids I get to coach.
So bowling just seems to be, I mean, most of the people I coach, I'll say it this way.
I don't coach bowlers.
I tend to coach very successful people who bowl.
My client list is like amazing.
I mean, surgeons and CPAs and lawyers and a lot of people that work in Hollywood type stuff.
It's amazing how so many self-employed and out here the IT thing is off the chart.
You know, what do you, computer software, software, software.
I write code.
So I coach a very eclectic group of people.
So it's very fun for me.
I learned as much from them as they learned from me.
They're very, a lot of smart people I give lessons to.
And they just can't get enough bowling.
They can't get enough.
made me think of a question do you do you do hollywood coaching for uh for actors uh okay here you go here's here's something you know that nobody else knows now i don't know if this commercial is going to be out there or not i spent three weeks ago i spent three hours doing it i make i throw the balls for the affleck duck
So, I mean, I won four times on tour.
I was high average.
My PBA teams won.
I coached Team USA for some years.
I've written a book and DVD.
Got some new videos coming out.
But if this plays right, I'll be more known for making that 7-10 with that damn duck than I ever did in my life.
So, I got a chance to be famous with the Aflac duck.
That is amazing.
Congratulations.
It was the craziest thing ever.
The duck's a puppet.
And if you had to sign an NDA when you showed up for the Hollywood, she was at a bowling center in LA, that if you took a picture of the duck, you were kicked off the set.
They put the duck together.
They combed its hair.
They shined its beak.
They shined its feet.
It was the damnedest thing you ever saw in your life.
And you weren't allowed anywhere near the duck.
But it's a puppet.
But they treated it like a human.
And so the duck would throw it.
And then I would be 10 feet away from the pins.
And I had to emulate.
Then I had to try to make the set.
They were amazed that I couldn't make a 7'10 whenever I wanted.
But first they wanted me to leave it on call, then to make it when I left it.
I'm like, well, I've been bowling for 30 years.
I've made it four times.
Pretty sure we're going to be here a long time if I got to make it on camera.
So then we figured out a way to get me almost making it from, I shot it from about, I couldn't see the pins when I was shooting the spare.
And then the duck did the thing and I imitated the duck.
So it may not, it may not ever be a commercial, but if it is, I almost made a 710 on my own dime, but there was a little, little fun going on there for the duck to make it.
So I came within that much of making it.
Oh, I so hope that gets aired.
So I hope it plays out.
I got to meet the guys who invented the duck.
It was Hollywood, man.
They dropped about a quarter million in eight hours.
Like it was nothing.
Yeah, no big deal.
And they were going to do it day two.
I wasn't there for that.
So hopefully it becomes a commercial.
I can't wait to see what it looks like.
Nice.
Well, on that note, to get those DVDs that'll be coming out soon or get the book.
No, they're not going to be DVDs.
Nobody has a DVD player.
Probably downloadable.
It'll be through Vimeo.
Okay.
It's a video on demand behind the paywall.
Kind of like a Netflix thing.
You go in there, use your ID, set up your thing, and you pay for it, and you can watch it on your device whenever you want.
And go to Mark Baker Bowling, I assume?
It's not up there yet.
It will be up there hopefully in the next 48 hours.
It's just one or two little things we've got to get done.
I have to get this project over.
My wife's just going to have enough.
It's been over a year of my life of...
I told you how much I coached the lessons in the camps and the virtual lessons.
I had another 500 to 1,000 man hours in for that for the last year.
It's been a labor of love to pull this off.
When you find out who the people I got to do it with, you'll realize why I went to the wall hoard.
Awesome.
Love it.
Then, of course, the book and all of the other things.
You can check your website and I assume Amazon or anywhere else, right?
Yep.
The book does, I sell, it does, you know, I sell between 50 and a hundred every quarter and a book came out 12 years ago.
People, I sign it all the time.
The book came out, see the book, it's kind of weird when the book came out, I read it once.
I've never read it again.
The DVD came out with Jason Thomas and Tommy and Chris.
I watched it once, never watched it again.
It's just one of those things.
I got to find a, I got to find a better way to say it.
I'm always trying to, so when you get, if you guys happen to buy the one-handed video that's coming out, I try and invent four new terms in bowling that you've never heard.
Interesting.
I can't wait to use them.
I'm trying to be as a coach to communicate it better to you guys.
It doesn't matter how much I know.
It only matters how much can I get across.
So if I can explain what you want better...
And you can do it like, oh, I know exactly what he means.
So, you know, think about it.
When you throw a great shot, what are two things that happen on every great shot you throw?
Two things happen every time you throw a good shot.
Strike?
It comes off your hand.
It feels good.
It makes a move of 45 feet.
You see the second.
There's two feels.
The feel comes off your hand.
The feel when a ball makes that move of 45 feet.
Every great shot you have has two feels.
I tried to explain in the video how to create them both.
That's a good point.
That's why I'm a field bowler.
That's why you hate me.
Well, I've never coached anybody who wasn't.
You say you're not.
No, I feel the hand.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, but I don't.
You're not a field bowler anymore.
You look at your feet now.
Yeah, that was Bill O'Neill's advice.
I had to take that one.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right, Coach.
Well, I appreciate you joining us tonight and taking your time out of your Disney trip there.
And anytime you want to come on, you're more than welcome.
Hey, guys, it was great.
I really enjoyed it.
Appreciate it.
The knowledge up on your shoulders is incredible.
That's what happens if you coach for a living and you sit in traffic every day on the 405 and the 91 and 55.
You've got all kinds of times to come up with stuff.
go sit in traffic every day for 90 minutes to go 30 miles.
It's amazing at things you can think of.
I think, no, thank you.
Pretty much.
Everybody says that when they do it one time, like you got it.
And I've been doing it for so long.
I get in my car.
Like when I coach in the San Fernando Valley, it's 55 miles away.
It takes me about two hours to get there.
I get in my car and I'm in my driveway and I can't tell you the freeway I took.
I just, Oh, how'd you get home tonight?
Oh, I don't remember.
I just know I'm here.
I'm alive.
When you go 10 miles an hour, you don't really have to pay attention.
It's not like you're going to, you just go slow.
Oh my God.
All right, coach.
Well, thanks so much.
Uh, good luck this season with the Adam splitters and, uh, and, uh, we'll, uh, see you on TV.
Hopefully.
Sounds good.
You'll definitely be here tomorrow.
Next week.
You'll go.
Ah, he had, he kept one back.
I got something crazy.
I'm trying.
We'll see how it goes.
Good.
That sounds good to me.
All right, go to markbakerbowling.com, guys.
All right, thank you very much.
Thanks, Coach.
Thanks, guys.
Have a great day.
I'll talk to you.
Bye-bye.
Take care.
All right, Mark Baker.
What a freaking bucket of knowledge, man.
Holy crap.
There's probably a ton untapped, too.
You don't say.
We didn't even get to.
Well, I mean, he can't give all of his secrets.
True.
Come on.
Yeah.
Me?
I don't have any secrets.
As for around our area, Kyle, there's just... Name a coach.
I mean, there's a couple of handful of people that are just kind of like coaching that you can go visit, like your dad.
He likes to coach kids.
He's good.
He's a smart guy.
Anthony lends his hand out, and Alex Bonesteel likes to coach people.
But there's not a lot of what I'll call high-level coaching.
coaches with a lot of experience widely known well widely known tour player coaches type of level is what I'm saying so thank you so that's kind of what I was saying yeah we don't have that around here but I also don't see a lot of
I think if it was out there desire for coaching, I think it was different.
It'd be different.
It's not available.
So how would you know?
Sure.
You know what I mean?
So you would only know if it was out there.
Like you gotta remember some guys who put their name out there, got a few lessons.
I mean, people are out there.
I think it's just, you know, he's obviously got 15 years experience.
He's got a good track record.
A lot of people bowl well with him.
He's working with the pros.
He's got this, he's got that.
He's got the nice center too.
He's got everything going on that, that, that, that what you need to do that.
So, you know, uh, he's helping people out and, uh,
If you build it, they will come.
I think they would.
I think if we did something along the lines of that where we got to that, I'm not going to say we're going to get to that level because he's smart.
If you advertised a camp, I'm sure you'd get some people here.
I'll do it.
Listen, I'm just saying, I think it would be a little different if we had more, a guy willing who does that all day long.
He does it all day long.
Yeah.
All day, every day.
Exactly.
Writes books about it.
Yeah.
That's what I'm saying.
With that being said, guys.
Are you going to order that Vimeo?
maybe the one-handed maybe i like his style though i like i like i like keeping with i like that he works with your game not tries to upend you as a 220 or 230 bowler um you know he went all the way down to 210 what is that 210 oh yeah well i was referring to myself where i i took a lesson and i was i was told to change my fundamentals um i don't think you really need an upending
I don't.
I'm saying I was told to.
Well, you listened.
I know.
I'm an idiot.
Anyway, guys, it is time for us to go bowling.
That was a good show.
If you're just coming in late, then rewatch it because it was very good.
Mark's got a lot of knowledge.
Don't forget to like, subscribe, click the bell to get alerts from the channel.
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Head out to the Etsy shop.
Get your t-shirts like this Bowler's Bowl t-shirt.
Get my hoodie, Hudson Valley Baseball.
Or you can get a Lefty Love sweatshirt or a t-shirt.
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You want it.
It's there.
Go get it.
I have one of the original.
Oh, Austin's got a DLP shirt on.
One of the original.
DLP.
Yeah, me too.
Thanks, Matt.
It was a great show.
Not any doing of ours.
All Coach Baker.
Thank you.
You asked some good questions.
Oh, thank you.
Thank you very much.
I mean, I'm just not fast enough with my brain, I don't think.
Well, if you prepped and wrote them down.
No, I had some good questions.
I forgot to ask him.
I thought about it when he was talking about two-handed releases and stuff.
What the heck does he do when someone comes in that looks like Jacob Butters?
Pfft.
What do you do?
I guarantee you he had an answer.
I bet he would have an answer, but me?
No clue.
Until next week.
Happy New Year, guys.
It is the new year, 2024.
Thank you to Jack Skatia, proprietor of Town & Country Lanes.
Thank you to Austin Van Buren.
Good show tonight.
Anthony, good show tonight.
Wow.
Don't forget to check out our Tonight We Bowl episodes.
New episodes up.
New episodes up.
New episodes up.
We got some good shots out there.
Thank you to my family, Stephanie, Zach, and Ethan.
We will see you guys next week.
This is Downlane Podcast.