Sunday - January 19, 2020

back to the beginning, again

After we got slaughtered 0-7 Friday night at almost-cheap-league, I realized yet again that it’s time to reinvent the wheel, and go back to the beginning and learn how to bowl all over again. I been doing this every few years for nearly 15 years, but I haven’t done it in quite a while.

I just could not get any action going with my ball. And I notice that the callus on the inside of my thumb is coming back again. This means I’m clenching the ball. Not good. So assuming I can find some time this week, I want to get up to the alley and do some no-step and one-step drills. That’s where you stand at the foul line in “release position” and just swing your arm to throw the ball. The idea is not to actually bowl, but to focus on your release and on your targeting accuracy. With no momentum behind it, and only a short free swing, the ball ought to hook right off the lanes long before it hits the pins, or maybe just dink one or two on the left side of the rack. I need to work on a loose grip, on my finger spreads, on not overturning/forcing my hand, or rotating my shoulders to the left. Do that 5-6-7 drill with a flat wrist, a slightly cupped wrist, and then with the ball palmed as much as you can do. Repeat until it becomes automatic.

The good news is that the internet has a gazillion bowling how-to pages, and most of them are pretty good. The clockface concept tends to confuse me, because as a natural engineer I see things from all three axies at once, X, Y, Z .The trick is to remember that the inside of your forearm is always 12 o’clock. Also, when these sites talk about winding up with your thumb at 1 o’clock, they mean that you’re supposed to get it out of the ball and then flip it up to the side “thumbs up” style. If you just pull it out of the hole, it will be at about 10 o’clock. But the act of moving it to 1 positively gets it out of the way. Just make sure not to pop open your whole hand when you do that, because you want to keep some tension in your fingertips to impart the spin on the ball. That’s why these sites talk about feeling the weight of the ball on your fingers. And also, you’ll feel the burn in them (at first) when you do it right. If you’re not feeling the weight on them, it’s probably because you’re squeezing the ball with your thumb. Guilty! And that’s where the thumb callus comes from.

Best bowling advice I’ve had in a long time is to do the least amount of work that gets the job done. Keep it simple, keep it relaxed, let the ball do the work. And remember, it’s a game, so you’re supposed to be having fun.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/19/2020 at 08:38 PM   
Filed Under: • Bowling Blogging •  
• Comments (1) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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