Further Enhancing Your Bowling Strategies

The general style of the advanced bowler is already set. Below are listed pointers eliminating faults, increasing speed and handling spares. These are a great start to improving your game!

It might be well to point out right here that any change in one's style almost automatically means a temporary drop in average. For instance, if you decide to change your footwork, you might as well face the fact that you will lose points while correcting yourself.

The important thing to remember, if and when you are satisfied in your own mind that you are doing something fundamentally wrong, is that by correcting the fault you will bring your average up higher than it was.

The best time to do this correction work or practice is in the summertime, when your experiments will not be at the expense of your teammates. During this period, you have three or four months to work out those kinks and to incorporate into your style the correct methods you failed to use previously.

One fault leads to another.

It is an axiom of bowling that one key fault can cause two or three other faults. Suppose a bowler takes his first step too fast.

That is the key fault, but it also results in poor timing, too fast footwork, and being off balance at the foul line. Another key fault might be allowing the right shoulder to be pulled back and out of line, which brings on such other faults as improperly facing the pins, finishing sideways at the foul line and a poor follow-through.

The key fault of lunging at the foul line ruins timing, makes the release jerky, and may cause the bowler to hop.

Get rid of individual faults only when necessary.

You may have a particular flaw in your game, but if you do the same thing consistently and successfully, do not change. There are bowlers today averaging 200 who do not have a good follow-through, or who have too high a backswing or who possess some other fault. But they have learned to incorporate that flaw into their game so well that they are consistent, and their game might fall apart if they attempted to change it.

In this regard, I might point out that I am not referring here to those bowlers who are not high average bowlers and are afraid to change, despite the fact that they possess an obvious flaw in their game.

There are several ways in which to increase your speed.

You might use any or all of these to succeed. Here they are:

a. Hold the ball higher in your starting position. This will help give you a longer pendulum swing.

b. Use more pushaway when you begin. Push it farther out, if you have been negligent in that phase.

c. Increase your backswing. Perhaps you have been bringing the ball no higher than your waist on the backswing. Remember that you can bring it back as high as the shoulder without violating the fundamental rule in this regard.

d. Work on more perfect timing. Perfect timing gives you the maximum amount of natural speed. If you have had trouble getting good speed, perhaps you have been coming to a full stop at the foul line before your right arm begins its swing. Perfect timing will increase your speed and is far better for you and for your game than trying to force the ball.

Do you play spares properly?

Here are the three rules:

a. Face your target from the correct angle. Square your shoulders to the target.

b. Walk directly toward your target. In the cases of the 7-pin and the 10-pin, this means walking directly toward that pin, which will cause you to go to the foul line at a slight angle.

c. Make sure that you have your right arm following through directly toward your target. Get your right arm out to where you are looking, whether this be a pin or a spot.

Work on the above points conscientiously and your game will improve dramatically. Just keep going!