Lies, Myths, and Half-Truths About Bowling
This sport has changed a lot in the past 40 years, from rubber bowling balls to plastic bowling balls to soft plastic to soft rubber to urethane to reactive resin, particle, and exotic weight blocks. The environment within which we play our sport has changed, but there are many myths from yesteryear that remain. Let’s take a look at a few of the common ones, and their modern-day replacements.
Myth #1 – You’re Dropping Your Shoulder!
If you’re holding a 12# to 16# object on one side of your body, all chances of symmetry are out the window. The ball-side shoulder WILL AND SHOULD BE lower than the other shoulder when you set up the swing. If you make an attempt to rigidly hold the ball-side shoulder up, you will be creating a mechanical, forced
swing that will not have enough ball speed or ball roll for today’s game. Relax that ball-side shoulder and let it remain 3-4 inches below the other shoulder in the stance. This shoulder has to be relaxed enough to allow the joint movement needed for a fluid swing.
Myth #2 – You Must Lift the Ball at the Release Point.
To take the lyrics from an old song, “that was yesterday, and yesterday’s gone.” In the 1960’s and 1970’s, bowling on 45’ feet of oil with something like a Columbia Yellow Dot, we needed to impart as much action on the ball as possible. If you attempt the same action with today’s very aggressive reactive equipment, the ball literally goes crazy. The lifting action and the subsequent landing of the ball creates unpredictable motion when it hits the lane. Roll the ball smoothly out onto the lane. Let the swing finish toward the target. Today’s game is more about “feeding” the ball into the lane, or envisioning that your hand and arm are a ramp that the ball rolls off of and onto the lane. We talk about rev rates today because the more the ball rolls and make the proper transitions from skid to hook to roll on the lane (there’s another myth, by the way), the more predictable you ball reaction becomes. Lift and loft from yesterday is low and long today.
Myth #3 – You Must Always Walk in a Straight Line
Most high-level players today finish to the inside (or left for a right handed bowler) of where they start their approach. If you take five steps (which I recommend) your first step should go straight, the second step (when you start moving the ball) should cross IN FRONT OF your slide leg and the ball should swing in the slot where your ball-side leg started. The last three steps of the approach should all be straight. If you do this you will slide 4 boards inside your starting position. Further, there are cases where a player must walk around the ball return to slide far enough to the inside of the lane to send the ball down the intended deep inside path. This is due to the lane condition at that point in the competition and where the player believes they have the best chance of scoring. In these cases the player often ends up far inside of their starting position on the approach.
Knowing the Difference Between Myth and Fact
Today’s certified bowling coaches have been trained in how to teach today’s game. Find a certified coach near you by using the website https://bowl.com/coaching and invest the time and money to learn the best techniques for success in today’s game.