A few weeks ago, Jennifer started giving me grief about my arm swing, because at the top of the swing my hand turns completely out, meaning my palm is perpendicular to the floor. \u00a0Now, I don’t know when this started, but I know it’s a result my trying to learn the more dynamic release that is utilised by the pros.<\/p>\n
After much reading and hours of video viewing, I learned that the pros do three relatively simple things that simplifies their game, increases their accuracy and increases their power at the pins:<\/p>\n
Now, item three is really something that the power players use and is in fact a major source of their power, but I will explain that in more detail later.<\/p>\n
Pros work the inside. Amateurs work the outside. – Randy Pedersen, PBA Hall of Famer<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The above quote is something I heard Randy Pedersen say while I was watching a PBA show on TV just a week ago. It really is something that separates the pros from the proverbial joes. So whats the big deal about working the inside of the ball? Well let me tell you.<\/p>\n
The pros do two things here. \u00a0They keep their hand on the inside of the ball, meaning their hand is closer to their body than the ball. \u00a0The other thing they do, is they keep their wrist cocked throughout the swing. This is called the strong wrist position. Now these two things by themselves don’t do much for you. The real magic happens at the release.<\/p>\n
Just before the release point, they quickly rotate their wrist to the outside of the ball while keeping their hand behind and under the ball. Then, they uncock their wrist right at the release. By quickly rotating your wrist around the ball, the ball already has rotational energy working on it before it even gets off your hand. When you actually start to release the ball, the fact that your hand is under the ball means your hand must travel further around the ball before it leaves your hand, meaning your hand works on the ball for longer. By uncocking your wrist as the ball comes off your hand, your putting more rotational energy into the ball. All of this translates to more revolutions on the ball as its leaves your hand and begins its journey toward the pins. More revolutions, more hook, more power at the pins, more strikes.<\/p>\n
Keep your elbow in close<\/h3>\n
I also learned that the pros keep their elbows tucked tight to their body throughout the swing to promote a tighter, much straighter swing path. Now, what is the benefit of this? Basically, it increases the chance you will hit what you’re aiming at. If you’re waving you’re arm around throughout the arm swing, you have to work a little harder to make sure your arm comes through at the bottom of the swing in the direction of your target. \u00a0Now, this might be a simple task with a baseball or a tennis ball, but when you’re throwing a 15lb bowling ball, the effort required is that much greater.<\/p>\n
That being said, everybody has a little movement in their arm swing, the real key is repeatability. If you can do it the same every time, or pretty close to it, then you make the adjustments over time to ensure you hit your target, thereby increasing your strike rate. Put simply, a straighter swing path translates to less moving parts, which ultimately means fewer point which things can go wrong.<\/p>\n
Bend and snap!<\/h3>\n
Yes, that is a quote from Legally Blonde, but I felt it was appropriate. “Ah, the bend and snap! Works everytime!” Anybody who has bowled in a league at all, will undoubtedly have heard many comments about keeping your arm straight and not dropping your shoulder. \u00a0However, if you watch the pros on TV, you might notice that a good number of them break both of these cardinal rules. What the hell is going?<\/p>\n
The dropped shoulder is actually a product of the bent arm. If you watch bowlers like Chris Barnes<\/a>, Tommy Jones<\/a> or Robert Smith<\/a>, you notice that all three bowl with a bent arm and they all drop their shoulder at the release. There are two benefits that come from these simple actions. \u00a0Accuracy and power.<\/p>\n
By dropping your shoulder at the release, you release the ball right under your head, which should be pointed in the direction of your target. \u00a0If you arm follows through your line of vision, the chances of hitting your target, the thing you should be looking at, goes up. Sounds simple, huh?<\/p>\n
So, by a process of elimination, the bent elbow must provide the power. Correct! Just like working the inside of the ball, the real magic of the bent elbow happens at the release. Just as the ball is coming off your hand, if you snap your arm out dead straight (remember, we’re already uncocking our wrist) you’ve essentially turned your arm into a spring. Think about playing with a yo-yo. \u00a0When you throw the yo-yo down, you straighten your arm just a little and you snap your wrist downward. The faster you do this, the faster the yo-yo spins, the more likely it will come back up the string and in to your hand. \u00a0The same principle applies here, the faster you can straighten out your arm, the more energy you can impart to the ball, the more revolutions you put on the ball, the more power you will have at the pins.<\/p>\n
Don’t go to the dark side!<\/h3>\n
There is a dark side to all this voo doo, however. If you mistime any of the things mentioned earlier in this post, at best you will end up achieving exactly the opposite effect you were after, at worst, you could cause yourself some serious injury.<\/p>\n
Cocking your wrist puts more pressure and strain on your wrist. If you mistime the rotation, or forget to uncock your wrist after you rotate through the ball, all that pressure will put stress on your wrist which greatly increases the chances of straining your wrist, or even breaking it I suspect.<\/p>\n
If you mistime the release as you straighten your arm, you run a real risk of over-extending your elbow joint. This is something I did recently and believe me, its not pleasant. Much pain will accompany this over-extension not to mention the fact that bowling is very difficult with a damaged arm.<\/p>\n
If you can get all of this down pat, you will no doubt see all the benefits that come with it. More accuracy, more power, more strikes, more fun. If you are considering attmpting to learn any of this, I would strongly suggest learning each piece one at a time. \u00a0The way I learned it (and I’m still in the process of perfecting all of this) was by starting with uncocking my wrist at release, then adding the wrist rotation (working the inside of the ball), then adding the bent elbow. \u00a0I’ve noticed that while I have achieved more power, I tend to leave a lot of solid 9 pins (might be a side effect of a 15 lb ball) and I leave big splits if I miss any component of this whole chain. Another oddity is tend to let the ball go just a little bit late, which increases the odds of tracking over the thumb hole.<\/p>\n
I’m still working on all of this, but I believe that the effort will be worth it once I perfect the timing. We all want more revolutions and power at the pins. Now, I don’t want to be one of those bowlers who can only bowl the extreme inside line, but I am happy to bowl from about the middle of the lane, giving me options to move either way as the lanes transition. More options = more ways to win. \u00a0Yay!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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