BiggAndyy the Magazine

Ok folks.  For the last few weeks we have been developing muscle memory with our arm swing and making great progress in our hand/eye coordination and hitting the same spot on the alley a high percentage of the time.  And our scores have been inching upwards.

But they also aren’t very consistent.  One week we are getting 120’s 130’s and maybe even some 150’s on our scoresheets.  The very next week (or maybe even the very next game) we throw a 90.  What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is going on?  We are hitting our spots, we are swinging our arm and following through, what is next?

I was bowling in my Sunday Night League last week and one of my team mates was opining about the same situation.  Wildly inconsistent scores, one week in the 150’s and the next in the 100’s.  Doesn’t help the team handicap much and he knows it.

So I watched his shots more carefully and he was hitting the pocket (or Brooklyn) fairly consistently but he was getting no pin action.  The pins are fairly new so they weren’t dead wood.  I watched some more and what I believe was his bowling ball (a hard rubber house ball) was just not getting any action on the deck.  It would rip through the pocket (he throws 18 mph) but all that explosive power wasn’t translating into pin action.

The ball was simply banging through the pins and generating no reaction.  A dead ball.  Each week he chooses a ball that simply fits his grip rather than what surface the ball has so there is no consistency right from the start.  There are house urethane balls, balls with plastic coverstock, and rubber, a wide choice.

But, I recommended he might think about getting a ball of his own.  For his straight shot style a ball costing less that $60.00 would be a great place to start.  And since he does bowl every week with the league the benefits of a more consistent game would outweigh the few dollars spent on a new ball.

And this leads to our tip, your scores are directly influenced by the equipment you use, and not just the bowling ball and shoes (ill fitting shoes can ruin your entire evening), but also the lane composition (synthetic or wood), the equipment in the back of the alley (is it in good condition or does it regularly take chunks out of balls during the ball return), and even the oiling machine (is the lane surface oiled consistently from week to week).  All these things have an effect on your game.

But the two things you can most diretly control on your own is your bowling ball and your shoes.  A well fitting ball with a modern coverstock (even for a straight shooter) can greatly increase your scores, maybe even 10 to 30% and will certainly help in getting consistent scores from week to week.  A good fitting pair of bowling shoes is a must.

So stop by your pro shop.  The pro shop manager will be happy to talk to you about your game and what equipment is right for you, even if you don’t buy anything that day.

If you have ever wondered if the PBA pros use the same oil pattern (house oil) as you and I, the answer is no, they don’t.  Here are the top 5 oil patterns the pros need to contend with on the tour.

http://www.pba.com/resources/oilpatterns/laneconditions.asp

Remember, they don’t know before hand which oil pattern is being used and only have a couple of practice shots to try to figure out what the lane conditions are presenting.

The patterns are Chameleon, Cheetah, Viper, Shark, and Scorpion.

And a bonus, the USBC Masters pattern is online as well.

Quick edit, here is the HOUSE oil pattern as well.

Ok.  You’ve just spent your last couple of bowling nights really concentrating on arm movement.  Sometimes you did good and remembered to bring the arm straight back and to follow through completely, sometimes not so much.

That is okay, it takes time and practice for the muscles to develop a feel and muscle memory for the delivery.  Next item to add to your inventory of bowling tips is what to aim for to get the ball in the 1-3 pocket (1-2 pocket for lefties).

I won’t bore you with all the competing ideas of what to aim for on the bowling alley.  Some say look at the pins you want to hit, some say look at the arrows, some say the dots, some say close your eyes and hope for the best.

Since we know WHERE we want the ball to go (in the pocket) we really don’t need to concentrate on the pins.  There is a lot of wood between you and the pins (62 feet) and the ball has to travel down the alley consistently from one shot to another.

We can look at the dots in front of the pins, they are about 15 feet from the pin deck (where there is no oil applied to the lane).  But that is still far away from the foul line and where you are releasing the ball.

At 15 from the foul line there is a large set of arrows on the alley in a triangle pattern.  These arrows correspond to the pin positions on the pin deck.  It is much easier to aim your bowling ball at these close up arrows and actually hit your mark over and over again.

Many bowlers, including professional bowlers, will use these arrows as their primary guide in lining up their shot.  Here we will start getting you used to looking at the arrows as you make your approach and getting your ball to roll over the arrow of your choice.

But just rolling the ball over a specific arrow won’t guarantee a good shot.  If you decide to make the first arrow on the right your target but you are standing with your feet on the second dot from the left on the approach your ball is headed to the gutter every time.

Odds are you are still using a house ball (plastic) and that means your bowling shots will be straight, even if you try to intentionally hook the shot it isn’t going to bend much.  But you still want to have some angle of entry into the pocket.  Without an angle of entry there won’t be as much mixing of pins as the ball drives through and a much greater likely hood of leaving tougher spares or even splits.

Ideally, you want to slant the ball into the pocket from around the third arrow.  This allows you to start with your right foot on center dot on the approach (left foot if you are a lefty), and walk straight towards the center dot at the foul line.  When you roll your ball over the third arrow the slant created should create the best conditions for a pocket hit.

If you find you are hitting to the right of the head pin, or even missing the head pin, move a bit more on the approach to the right.  Start with your left foot on the center dot and aim for the third arrow.

Now, your body size, the straightness of your approach, your arm swing, the weight of the ball, are all factors in how straight the ball slants to the target and how hard the ball hits the target.  But now you have a baseline to start from.

And experiment!  These are tips, not hard and fast rules.  You may not have a plastic ball but an older urethane ball that someone abandoned and the house kept.  Your release (we will talk about that next time) may be unorthodox and is contributing to lower scores.  But right now keep your swing and follow through straight, and find an arrow on the alley you can consistently roll your ball over.  These two tips will really start to make a difference in your game and in your enjoyment of this dumb game we call bowling.

There is no replacement for proper bowling “technique” at any skill level of bowling.  Running up to the foul line and heaving the ball as hard as possible will sometimes make a great crashing sound and might even get a strike or two, but it won’t knock down any more pins than will a shot that is slower in the course of a game or evening out with friends.

If there is one aspect of bowling technique that I want to stress, over stress, and stress too much is the FOLLOW THROUGH.  Watch this 3 minute video for a great discussion on arm swing and follow through.

For you guys out there I most often see the arm swing going wild everywhere except in that 4 inch groove.  That is, on your backswing your arm is most often moving the ball behind your body.  This might feel like you are really winding up your swing to impart a lot of velocity on the ball but you aren’t.  Especially with a beginner bowler with little or no hook, (and probably using a house ball with little or no hook potential) that wild back swing almost guarantees you won’t be able to throw the same shot twice.

And being able to throw the same shot over and over and over again is the name of the game in bowling.  Once you find the right “groove” in the lane you want to be able to throw your ball over the same boards in the alley, at the same speed, and with the same angle to start stringing strikes in a row.

For you guys (and gals), make your arm swing more deliberate, more thoughtful.  This is the foundation on which all other tips and techniques are built.

For the ladies, the number one violation of the arm swing rule I see is nearly zero follow through.  You will come up to the foul line and slump your arm down to your side “dropping” the bowling ball on the alley.  The ball will skid a few feet and begin to roll in one direction or another.  The same as with the men, there is no possibility to develop any consistency and repeatability to your game.

You must consciously push the ball forward and even after letting go of the ball continue with your follow through so your arm is pointing towards the ceiling.  Go to a lighter ball if necessary, even trim your luxurious fingernails, but get a better and LONGER grip on the bowling ball.

So, the absolute Foundation of Better Bowling is the arm swing and follow through.  Just keeping this Bowling Tip in mind with each shot you make your scores, whenever you go bowling, will improve.

Most bowling coaches lump amateur bowlers into one of three large categories: the beginner, moderate, and advanced bowler.  Some may use different names for each category but these are the main three levels.

Each level is defined first by the number of times you go bowling.

The beginner (or novice) is typified by the term “occasional”.  They usually bowl with their friends (Cosmic Bowling) or at social functions like a church or a school sponsored bowling night.

The moderate bowler will usually belong to at least one weekly bowling league at their local bowling center and can be found practicing occasionally during non league play.  They usually still frequent their social bowling opportunities and enjoy being called “the pro” by their beginner friends.

The advanced bowler will belong to several weekly leagues, usually at least one of them being sanctioned by a recognized national bowling organization.  They will bowl in local tournaments and may travel to bowling centers outside their regional area to compete in single or league play.

Inside each of these basic levels there exist a continuum of variations on ball speed, track, equipment, approach, etc.  A beginner bowler may have an average near that of a moderate skilled player while an advanced bowler may still posess many of the stylistic components of a more moderate counterpart.

Throwing a straight ball is a useful and necessary component for beginner, moderate, and advanced bowler while a seven step approach will benefit an advanced bowler much more than a beginner.  All this is said to drive home the point that a bowler with a 150 average can exist in each of the three basic categories above.  Scores aren’t as good an indicator of what kind of bowler you are as is your frequency of bowling.

Once you can nail down what kind of bowler you are you can intelligently make better decisions on what steps are necessary to improve your game.  Purchasing a $170.00 bowling ball won’t make much difference in your score if you only bowl 36 games a year (3 games once a month).  In fact, that $170.00 ball will probably REDUCE your score since it is designed to NOT roll straight.

Next time I will begin at the beginning with the beginner bowler.  We’ll talk about the fundamentals, what steps you can take to improve your scores right away and what steps are necessary to lay the groundwork to improve your scores later on as you progress from beginner to moderate bowler.