Wednesday - February 25, 2009

Starting Over, Again

I just about gave up on bowling the other night. All season long I’ve been trying to bowl the way some people have told me to, and it just wasn’t working. It was getting rather depressing.

Bowling is an odd sport. You don’t really throw the ball, you roll it. And you don’t want the thing to go straight. You want the ball to curve to the inside, because you knock down more pins that way. That’s called getting the ball to hook, and it can be very frustrating.

Monday night the other team had a sub. I know him; he’s a very good bowler. He doesn’t throw the ball very fast, but he puts a huge amount of rev (rotational spin at an angle other than that the ball is rolling) on the ball. He throws it out, it slides smoothly out almost to the edge of the lane, then the ball gets traction and it takes off like a shot in the direction of the rev. He threw in the 240s and up without hardly trying. I think he made a 760 series for the night.  I was watching really carefully, and what he was doing was just a more intense version of what I was doing at the end of last season.

So I took all my balls to the alley this afternoon. I figured I’d give that kind of throw another try, and mid-afternoon is the best time to try something that might not work. I was the only bowler there. And away I went. Slow approach, small natural swing, slightly bent-in wrist held firm. Straight push away, get that elbow locked. Stay under the ball as it drops. Walk across the approach, not down the approach. See the invisible line between the 7 pin on the next lane over and the 2nd arrow on my lane. That’s the swing line, so walk parallel to that. Stay behind the ball. Stay behind the ball! Big slow lunge on the last step, get down close to the ground. As the ball swings past my hip, lift and relax the thumb. Feel with the hand. Feel! Yes, the ball is falling forward in my palm. Turn the wrist, not the arm. Turn the wrist so that the palm faces my 7 pin. Now SNAP the fingers closed and snap the arm up from the elbow. Snap it! And follow through with the arm, so that my hand stops next to my ear.

And the ball revved right up like it had a motor attached. Ok, not the insane amount of rev like that other guy gets. But plenty enough, and far far more than the 8 or so spins I’ve been getting with the other throwing style. And it slid down the line to about the 45 foot mark, at which point it got traction and dove to the pocket. It wasn’t a huge hit. It didn’t echo like a gun shot. Pins didn’t go flying every which way; they just got knocked over and slid around knocking other pins down. Try it again. Again, only use the 3rd arrow this time. Again, but move a board to the right. Ah, this is better. Throw it just right and it strikes in the pocket. Through it a little inside and it strikes Brooklyn. Throw it a little too fast and it breaks harder and leaves the 7. Throw it too slow and it breaks high and leaves the 10.

Ah, sweetness and light. This is what is supposed to be happening. I threw 5 quick games - I was done in 40 minutes. My hand and wrist started to tire early in the 3rd game. By the 5th game I was getting exhausted. But I threw 948 for the 5 games, which is nearly a 190 average. And I didn’t have the slightest problem getting my thumb out of any of the balls. And all my balls hooked. Not just the one (a Track Uprising) I decided was dead on Monday. The one I gave up on last season (an Ebonite Total NV) because it was “drilled wrong”. Even the one I bought last summer and didn’t like (an Ebonite NVD). They all worked pretty well. At the end I started leaving 10s and 6-10s, but my USBT makes those spares more than 9 out of 10 times. [USTB: Ultimate SpazBall Throw. A throw where I do everything wrong - limp wrist, pointing, too fast an approach, lofting, horsing the ball around with my thumb, etc., with the result being a high speed throw where the ball revs backwards on the 2 o’clock - 7 o’clock axis at high speed. Not matter how “hooky” a ball is, this throw makes it go dead straight and slows it down once it hits the dry. It’s killer on the 10 pin, 6-10, 9-10, and 3-10 leaves.]

It was me, being a doofus and listening to bad advice, the entire time. And while I know I was playing on worn out mid-afternoon conditions, I think I should still be able to get most of the hook to happen on the heavy league oil patterns. What I need to really do is some wrist and finger exercises. And get some more practice in tomorrow and Friday. I’m gluing new fingertip insets in tonight as I noticed that they were worn out on 2 balls. Inserts only last about 60 games, but at least they’re cheap. Properly tight inserts get you more snap off the fingers. Do the “schnap” properly and you can hear them pop when your fingers come out of the ball.

Assuming my arm is rested, I want to try for a 200 average tomorrow. Yes, I know ... I’m manic / depressive about this whole thing. Welcome to bowling!

My apologies if this is all so much mumbo jumbo to you non-bowlers. This is a video of what I am trying to do and it is not something I am finding intuitive. Notice how fast the guy’s arm moves, yet how slow the ball travels. But it’s spinning like mad. See the ball sliding to the right while it’s spinning counter-clockwise to the left? That’s the “rev” I’m talking about. See how the ball’s slide seems to slow down, and then it shoots off to the left, yet the ball doesn’t actually turn? That’s the “hooking up and taking off” I’m writing about. And the pin reaction? That’s close to perfection. Pure perfection is when you hit the pins just a bit harder, so that the 2 pin and the 3 pin shoot off to the sides, hit the walls, and bounce back hard as they cross the pin deck, helping to clear out any remaining pins. That’s called Double Messengers, and it’s a thing of beauty that happens in an eyeblink. But the hit in this video is a strike, a good reliable one, and that’s all that really matters.

Posted by Drew458     on 02/25/2009 at 04:29 PM   
Filed Under: • Bowling Blogging •  
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