Switch Hitting?

Switch hitting is what a hitter in baseball does when he switches from batting right handed to batting left handed.

Well I don't play baseball I do enjoy bowling. I have been bothered by tendonitis in my right elbow for over 10 years and swinging around a 16 lb bowling ball doesn't help. While bowling right handed my slide foot is my left foot. So I end up sliding on my bad left knee. Normally this isn't a problem. But if I hit a sticky spot on the approach the pain in my knee when my leg stops moving while the rest of me continues forward is intense. Four years ago at state bowling the approach was very sticky. By the 5th frame of the first game I was reduced to tears. The pain in my knee was so bad that I stopped moving and just stood at the foul line and rolled the ball. My scores really stunk.

Since bowling right handed results in pain in the elbow and a high risk of intense pain in my left knee I have considered switching over to bowling left handed for several years.

This weekend I bit the bullit and made the decision to switch. Fall leagues just started and I haven't bowling the first two weeks. I told my team that I would be there on wednesday ready to bowl left handed.

So today I took the kids and went over to the bowling alley to give left handed bowling a shot. It was ugly. The first game I managed to outscore my 12 year old daughter, but lost to both the 8 year old twins. They all three beat me the second game.

I didn't expect to bowl very well. I was just trying get used to stepping off with my left foot and sliding on my right. It was tough. When I did get the steps right I was swinging the ball really poorly. I did have a few nice shots. But they were more accident than on purpose.

So starting wednesday night, I'm going to abandon my 185 right handed average and hope I can break a hundred left handed. Hopefully I will get into the swing of things with this quickly. If I can get myself up to bowling in th 150s I probably will stay left handed even if my elbow problems go away. But I really don't want to spend my life bowling worse than my kids. Unless of course they give me credit for teaching them everything they know.