Bowling Guidance
Thoughtful coaching built on fundamentals, habits, and experience
Tom Reid has spent more than four decades helping bowlers learn how to bowl well.
Over that time, he has seen the game change — equipment, lane conditions, styles of play — but the fundamentals of learning, balance, timing, direction, and trust have remained remarkably consistent. Tom’s coaching is rooted in those fundamentals, shaped by long experience, and delivered with patience and clarity.
As a bowler, Tom competed successfully in tournaments during the 1980s and has rolled honor scores with every major era of bowling equipment — from rubber and plastic through urethane and reactive. He was inducted into the Elyria (Ohio) USBC Hall of Fame for performance, but it has been as a coach and teacher that his work has had the greatest reach.
As a young bowling center manager just out of college, Tom built youth and collegiate programs from the ground up. He went on to coach youth bowlers, high school students, college teams, and adult league bowlers for nearly forty years. For 25 years, he taught beginning, intermediate, and advanced bowling courses at Oberlin College, where he was consistently rated among the school’s top instructors.
Tom’s students have ranged from beginners picking up a ball for the first time to elite competitors, including PBA and international champions and NCAA national champions. Just as importantly, many of his students have been lifelong league bowlers — people who wanted to improve, enjoy the game more, and understand why things worked when they did.
Tom is known as a developmental coach. He excels at helping bowlers:
build sound fundamentals
understand cause and effect
make sense of inconsistency
develop habits that hold up under pressure
His approach is not about quick fixes or chasing scores. It’s about learning how to bowl well — and trusting that the scores will follow.
In addition to individual and group lessons, Tom has presented bowling-based programs for a wide range of audiences, including sessions such as Bowling as a Lifetime Fitness Activity and Bowling as a Metaphor for Life. His ability to connect bowling skills to broader life skills is a defining feature of his coaching.
If you’d like to receive Tom’s occasional notes on bowling, learning, and the mental game, you can join the email list below.
Testimonials
“I’ve known Tom Reid since I was 9 years old and Tom has been my coach for 17 years. Tom has been nothing but kind and supportive, both in bowling and personally! Tom is patient with each student, listening to what each person has to say. Tom is able to transfer knowledge to his students in a way that is meaningful to that individual. Because of Tom’s flexibility, communication skills and focus on fundamentals, Tom can coach any style or age, new to the sport or a professional bowler. After a lesson you will always walk away with something to practice. One thing I love about Tom’s coaching is the use of analogies to teach. Building confidence in your game is key to success and no question Tom is number one at doing so. Tom has a passion for the game that is infectious. Tom inspires you to be a better bowler and an even better person. I’m honored to call Tom my coach and my friend! To quote Tom, “Good luck, good bowling and have fun!””
note tom left for the oberlin College intercollegiate bowling team before a tournament. Photo courtesy of Karalyn Grimes
“There is no other coach that could even begin to compare with Tom Reid. He has been our children’s coach for over 4 years now and we wouldn’t consider going anywhere else. His knowledge and love for the sport come only second to his kindness and understanding. If you’ve been looking for a coach that is knowledgeable and can make you excel above the competition, you need not look any farther then Tom Reid. I promise you won’t be disappointed.”
“Tom worked with me to create goals that were accessible to me at my experience level. With Tom’s coaching my spare game was on a level unlike anything it had been before.”