Speed Control Part 1......How to throw the ball slower
Ball speed
is one of the most important factors in shooting high scores. Your
ball speed must match up with the lane condition and the ball you
are throwing at the time. If the lanes are too slick for your ball
speed, the ball will skid right past the break point. The break
point is of course the spot on the lane where the ball needs to
start griping the lane and start hooking toward the pocket. Think of
the break point as the mouth of a driveway that you need to turn
your car into, and you are traveling on an icy road. At the end of
the driveway is a garage with a very narrow entrance that you must
drive you car into. This garage entrance is the pocket to the pins
that we need to hit in order to throw a strike. If your ball speed
is too high, just like your car is traveling too fast on the icy
road, it can't make the turn at the break point and drive toward the
pocket.
So if our ball speed is too high for the condition how do we slow it
down? A lot depends on your bowling style. If you use a fairly free
arm swing, adjusting ball speed is much easier. If you use a very
muscled arm swing, where you tend to really pull the ball down from
the top of the back swing, adjusting ball speed may be harder for
you. As I have said many times, there is no one way to bowl. But
here are some things that I have found that work for most people.
Number one, unless you already hold the ball very low in your
stance, lower your ball. If you only need to slow your ball speed a
small amount then lower your ball two or three inches. If you need
to lower your ball speed a lot, then lower the ball 8 to 10 inches
in your stance. It can also help to bend your knees a little.
The next thing is to move up on the approach about the same amount
that you lowered the ball. When you lower the ball in order to throw
it slower, you are changing your swing cycle, the amount of time it
takes the ball to go from first motion to the release. Even though
you are throwing the ball slower, the ball may complete the swing
cycle quicker than before, because the ball is not traveling as far.
I have found that for a lot of people moving up on the approach will
keep them in time. Your brain knows that it is closer to the foul
line and it will compress and slow the steps the correct amount. You
will have to practice this and see how well it works for you. You
may find that you have to move up a little more or less to keep your
timing correct. If you really practice this you can change your ball
speed in very small degrees.
Some lane conditions require us to only slow our speed a little,
while a flooded condition my require us to cut our normal speed
almost in half. I suggest practicing your slowest ball speed often,
if you are a bowler going out and competing at a high level. Flooded
lane conditions are very rare and you will not be ready if you don't
make throwing the ball slow part of your normal practice routine. If
you already hold the ball low in your stance or tend to force the
ball a lot, try just moving up on the approach a little. Try to
think of your hand as a passenger on the ball just along for the
ride and not a engine that's pushing the ball forward. When you are
trying to throw the ball really slow it's important that you not do
a strong follow through. All you need is the momentum of your arm
swing going through the ball. A strong follow through or an attempt
to rev the ball more, will only result in more forward momentum and
the ball will skid farther and be less controllable. A good way to
practice slow ball speeds, is to throw a plastic ball if you have
one, and try to make it hook more and more by throwing it slower and
slower.
Speed Control Part 2......How to throw the ball faster
There are times when we need more ball speed to overcome a drying
lane condition, or to just make the ball in our hand match up better
to the lane condition. There are basically 3 levels of increased
ball speed. The first is a situation where we need just a little
more ball speed. Maybe you notice that you have depleted enough oil
on the lane that the ball is starting to hook a little too early or
that the ball is starting to roll out on you. In this situation you
may decide that you need just a little more ball speed. At this
first level we are not trying to break the sound barrier but just
trying to make a minor adjustment. In that case most people can just
hold the ball 3 or 4 inches higher in the stance. I always suggest
that most people try holding the ball about waist high for there
normal ball speed. That gives you somewhere to go if you need to amp
it up a little. When you hold the ball higher you will get a boost
of speed from the help of gravity. Gravity is a very powerful force
and raising a bowling ball just a few inches higher in the stance
will in turn make your back swing a few inches taller, which will
add the extra speed you need. It is best to always use more gravity
over more muscle because gravity is the most constant force on the
planet. That means that a faster shot that was thrown by using
gravity, is more repeatable than a shot where we just used more
muscle to propel the ball down the lane.
The second level of increased ball speed is more than just a minor
adjustment to get the ball to skid a few more inches. This next
level of speed may be needed to overcome a much dryer lane
condition. If we need to amp it up a couple MPH, then we need to
hold the ball even higher in the stance. Try holding the ball
anywhere from 6 to 12 inches higher. This will change your swing
cycle, so you most likely will need to move back on the approach, by
about the same amount that you increased your ball height. This will
stretch out your steps and make them a little quicker, to better
suit your new arm swing. This helps you keep good timing and is much
easer than actually telling yourself to walk faster or slower. Try
holding the ball at different heights and standing in different
places on the approach to see how much speed you can generate
without loosing control. Try to only use the added speed of gravity
and not additional muscle in your swing.
The third and final level of increased ball speed is a big one. This
is a last resort move that we make if the lanes are way to dry for
us to overcome with conventional methods. At this speed level, we
will need to apply some muscle. But we need to apply it the right
way and at the right time. We need to apply the muscle in a manor
that compliments and works with gravity. This will make best use of
our muscle power and have the least adverse effects on our approach
and accuracy. We still use the higher ball position and move back on
the approach that we used in level two. This time though we are
going to do the big no no. We are going to muscle the ball down,
AFTER the peak of the back swing. This is a critical point and a big
mistake that a lot of people make when they try to throw the ball
harder. We need to wait on the ball to reach it's peak in the back
swing and then start to fall on it's own. Then and only then, do we
apply a downward pressure on the ball and increase that pressure
gradually until the ball nears the bottom of the swing.
Remember that one of Newton's laws of motion in physics is "for
every action there is an equal and opposite reaction". This equal
and opposite reaction becomes torque in the upper part of your body
that will tend to open your shoulder more as you force the ball
forward. We minimize this by waiting on the ball to start falling
and gradually increase the pressure to accelerate the ball. This is
using the laws of physics to our best advantage. When you throw the
ball at this kind of speed, you will need to make sure you have a
quick enough approach to keep your timing in line. Since we are
forcing the ball after the peak of the back swing, the ball can
start to out run us to the foul line. This will give us early finish
timing and cause us pull the ball inside of our target and or make
us have a weak release. It is a good idea to push strongly with the
right leg (right handed) into your slide as you complete your next
to last step. This added approach speed will also add some speed to
the ball. If you find that even with your increased speed, the ball
still hooks off the lane, then I suggest that you open your wrist
some to take some revs off of the ball. This is especially important
for high rev players. If they don't open the wrist some, then they
add as many revs to the ball as they do speed and the ball hooks
just as much as before. Also I would check out the
Bowling For Dummies, there is a small price for it, but
it's well worth it in my opinion. That's it, take care folks.
