Balance

Balance is key to success in every sport.  In bowling, the goal is to have a stable platform from which to deliver the ball.  A balanced body provides that platform.  How do you acheive balance while swinging an object in one arm?

Balance in Your Stance

You will never be more balanced than you are at the start of the swing.  Start in a position where you’re balanced, and so that it is easy to start moving forward in balance.  This means that your legs should support your upper body and the ball, so they should be engaged.  Your upper body should be relaxed.  Your ball side elbow should rest on your rib cage to help keep the ball-side arm relaxed. Your balance-side arm should support more than half of the ball weight for one handers and at least some ball weight for two handers.  The ball should be placed on the ball-side half of your body between thigh-high and chest high.

Balance in the Ball Start Move

 If you take more than four steps, those steps should just be small and straight ahead, so that you maintain balance going into the first step of the last four.  In this step, move the ball-side elbow forward in front of your ball-side shoulder while taking this step with your ball-side leg.  We need to clear a four board wide slot for the ball, so the ball-side foot should travel in front of the slide/plant foot in this first step.  The goal is to get the ball moving smoothly and so that you build momentum going into the second step, so this is an rounded move forward and then letting go of the ball with your non-ball-side hand to let gravity take over for a one hander.  For a two-hander, this move is up and out to adjust timing for the shorter two-handed swing.

Balance During the Swing

Once you let the ball start to swing as a one-hander, gravity takes over.  The tempo of the start will set the tempo of the steps building momentum. The two hander will build this same momentum, just slightly later and much faster.  When the ball starts falling back for a two-hander, the non-ball-side hand should take the full weight of the ball to keep the ball-side hand and arm relaxed.  The one-handers ball-side arm should be relaxed by letting the ball fall from gravity to the top of the backswing.

The legs will “catch” the weight of the swinging object and stabilize the body.  Both one and two-handed bowlers will lead the non-ball side shoulder forward, but without intentional turning of the thoracic spine.  The two hander should feel like the non-ball-side shoulder will tuck under and the swing stays on the target line.  The one handed swing just falls onto the target line.

Balance in The Downswing and Release

As both swings finish the backswing motion, the legs start to separate from the upper body and move forward.  The slide/plant leg should now be “pulling” forward to get in position to get the slide/plant leg on the approach while the ball is still at or near shoulder height.  This provides the platform from which to “slingshot” the ball from this position to the release.  As the lower body hits the brake, the armswing is accelerated naturally to the release.

The bowler will use the legs to hold or “post” the finish until the ball is released.  After the release, the two-handed bowler should allow the body to release from this position to protect the back.

Summary

If the legs do their job, staying under the body throughout the swing, you will have a consistent swing.  Take practice sessions where you start from the beginning, looking for where you lose balance.  Correct your balance at that point in the swing, moving forward until you can feel balance all the way through the swing.  Once there, you will be a more consistent bowler!

For more on balance check out this USBC video on the subject.