Bo-Fish Bowling News: the Positive Source for Bowling Worldwide

Bowling Better
by Brian Dodds

Article Archive #1

Coaching Equipment; The Shoes
Coaching Equipment #1; Proper Fit
What To Do When Nothing Works
The Revolution Is Here
Change Your Target
More Learning & Focus
Learning How To Learn
Spare-making Part 2
Armswing Drill & Simple Spare System
Pendulum Armswing Key

Coaching Equipment; The Shoes

Last week we reviewed the importance of bowling ball grip considerations. Another basic is proper footwear. Bowling shoes are not often given their due but a poor choice of shoe can cause approach and delivery issues a coach cannot overcome. How many parents will spend hundreds of dollars every year on athletic gear for youth hockey, baseball, football or other sport without a second thought? But when it comes to our sport, many think that their daughter or son can become a skilled performer very quickly by getting house shoes at the front desk and using a center-provided ball.

I do understand the thought process of not wanting to buy a new pair of shoes when a child will probably outgrow them within the year. But for balance, stability, and power, a center-provided pair of shoes is not the answer. Both shoes on every center-provided pair have a slide sole. A true sport level performance shoe will have a slide sole on only one shoe and a gripping sole on the other.

Why is this so important? When you push off into your slide you need to have traction on your push-off foot. If this foot slips you lose power. More importantly, you lose balance. If you do not have good balance you will not be able to consistently maintain proper posture and get into a good leverage position at release. Most of your good effort to have a relaxed swing, proper timing and rhythm and maintain balance throughout the approach can quickly be negated with a slipping push-off step. A coach can do little with this issue, just as we have a problem with a bad ball fit.

The best shoes will be of obvious good quality and some selections come with interchangeable slide pads and, in some cases, interchangeable heels. This can be important particularly if one travels from center to center, as conditions for approach surfaces are no more the same than conditions for lane surfaces. Some will be tacky, some slick, others just right for your particular shoe equipment that day. Here again I recommend you have a conversation with your pro shop technician for her/his recommendations.

I do have one suggestion if you still don’t want to spend the money for a quality pair of shoes. Some shoe repair shops sell a slip-on shoe grip, an elastic grip sole that fits over the end of your shoe. This enables the purchase of a cheaper pair of athletic style bowling shoes to which you can add some grip. Not my first choice but a possible alternative to consider.

Even a good instructor cannot out-coach a poor fit. If your equipment does not fit you properly there are many more bad results to your game than good ones. I’m not just talking about your bowling ball here but let’s start with that since it is the most obvious and our biggest concern.

Having an over-stretched span is still an issue for many bowlers. You can often see bowlers chicken-winging her/his release or muscling the ball. The ball hits the lane with a thud, is lofted too far or spins its way down the lane. A grip check often will reveal a span that is too long. Do you muscle your swing instead of let gravity take it back and through? Do you feel you have to have a death grip or you are going to drop your ball? Sometimes it’s just learning how to relax and let the ball release naturally. Other times it’s related to an improper span.

Here’s a general guide to better understand if you should be asking your IBPSIA certified ball technician for her/his help with your equipment. And please don’t blame the pro shop if you asked them to copy a previous ball because it was “comfortable” for you. Getting a good ball fit often takes several attempts because of the difference in each individual’s hand. Be patient with your ball-driller. Getting a proper fit is often a combination of science, trial and re-trial and personal feel. A lot also depends on how you deliver the ball as well as your flexibility, skin texture and other factors.

Place your thumb in the ball and your fingers on the ball surface in a relaxed state extending them over the finger holes. If you have a conventional drilling look for the edges of the finger holes (toward the thumb) to be approximately midway between the second and third joint crease on your fingers (counting from the tip of the finger toward your hand). With a finger-tip grip the edges of the finger holes should be midway between the first and second crease of each finger. Now let’s place your hand into the ball. Insert your fingers first up to either the second joint crease for a conventional grip or the first joint crease for a finger-tip grip. Now insert your thumb. The web between your thumb and index finger should be stretched but not taut, perhaps with almost enough room to stick a pencil under the area but not easily.

The grip I have described is referred to as relaxed. Why do we want a relaxed fit? A relaxed span enables us to have a less muscled swing, allows us to more easily hang onto the ball and to release it with less effort. If a hand is stretched, how much grip strength is left to hold onto something? Almost none. Unless we squeeze, we feel as if we’ll drop the ball, and in fact it could happen. With a relaxed grip we have more natural strength to hang onto the ball as well as to get into a better leverage position at release. A relaxed grip promotes not only a pendulum swing opportunity but also a more consistent release. Other important aspects of a good fit are hole sizes and shapes, proper pitch, and the use of inserts and slugs. Build a relationship with your pro shop of choice, get a grip and…relax!

You are having problems. Nothing seems to work. You are not scoring, not striking, splits are everywhere and you are even missing some spares you never ever miss. We’ve all been there at one time or another but…what do we do?

My first recommendation when you find yourself in a slump is to STOP! Stop thinking and please stop practicing. Don’t commit to muscle memory bad habits. Instead, back off and take a breather. Okay, so you have a league match or tournament in a few days. Can you bowl any worse? Yep. Been there, done that. Sometimes you just have to step away.

After taking a break then what? Seek a qualified coach to work with you if you have the time and a few dollars. I’m not talking tips, but a real lesson that gets to the root cause of your problem. If you don’t have anyone you have worked with before then log on to the bowling website at www.bowl.com or ask around and find an experienced, certified instructor. The one exception here is a teammate that may recognize something you are doing differently but I suspect at this point you have already tried that alternative.

If that doesn’t work for you then try throwing the “melon ball”. What’s a melon ball? That’s my term for getting back to the most basic thing we do in our game and that is to hit a target. Doesn’t matter how you hit it, just pick a spot on the lane, just an area on the lane is good enough the way you are bowling, and try to hit it twice in a row. Once you accomplish this, you can adjust to get the ball back into the pocket area. The key here is you have focused on one thing and one thing only. Often by getting your game back to something simple you get your head out of the way and enable your body to get back to doing naturally what it knows how to do.

Okay, suppose that doesn’t work. You say to me, that’s my problem to begin with, I can’t hit a mark consistently. Let’s take another tact. When you warm up do not try to make a good shot the first time you pick up your ball. In fact, don’t worry about making a good shot for the first several deliveries. Walk slowly to the ball return, pick your ball up in a relaxed manner, put you fingers in the ball and walk very casually toward the line. When you feel ready, put the ball in motion. Don’t attempt a perfect ball start, just get it moving, allow gravity to bring the ball back and just keep moseying on. When you get to the line let the ball fall off your hand. It does not matter where the ball goes, if it rolls, if it knocks down any pins at all or goes into the channel. The key element here is you should be paying attention to your body. How does it feel today? Take your time and enjoy watching the ball reacting differently than you are used to seeing. After three or four balls, get set up in your stance three or more boards from where you would normally stand, but NOT WITHIN two boards. Stay relaxed. Starting slower than usual lets you find an approach speed that fits your natural rhythm that day. Let your eyes tell you what adjustment you need to make with the line you are playing.

Because you are more relaxed, another outcome of this process is that you will have a bit less body speed to the line and therefore less ball speed. Having found more natural timing you’ll be able to be more consistent and make better adjustments. I have found it is easier for most of us to add more speed than it is to slow down once we have started bowling. Let your body help you out of your slump!

The revolution is here. An evolution that will soon lead to a new elite bowler athlete has begun. It’s called Sport Bowling…for youth. Adults have not accepted the change in our sport’s direction with the numbers most of us had hoped for but many youth are picking up the gauntlet. I am not referring to the social or recreational bowler but to those who aspire to become better, those who love competition and those who seek the challenges and knowledge our game offers at its highest level. The next generation national, international and big money bowlers are on the lanes and learning their craft as I write.

Sport Bowling for the uninitiated is an attempt to take bowling back to a higher level of challenging conditions and add integrity back into our game at a true sport level. This you will not see in your house league where we will continue to gather to socialize, bowl a few pot games now and then and roll up big averages on a “walled shot” euphemistically called “adult bumper bowling”. A typical sport condition is more exacting in that there is often either a very small area one can play and/or a very consistent delivery is required as compared to a typical house shot. Many do not want to be challenged or have their physical game shortcomings exposed and the sport shot can do both very quickly. Consistent speed, the correct angle, good roll and other variables must be repeated with precision, shot after shot after shot. Spare-making is king.

The youth who have bowled and initially struggled on the various sport shot conditions (there are several patterns) have found themselves progressing in their high school league and youth tournaments as well as their Saturday morning leagues. They are learning the game they way I learned it “back in the day” and are outpacing those who have not joined the revolution. Technology alone cannot bolster sport condition averages the way it helped us in our house league play. At the collegiate level, those who regularly participate under more challenging conditions usually fare better in the season-ending national rankings.

This past summer, at both state and local levels in western NY, the benefit of having sport condition experience paid off for several. Two youth bowlers in particular, Nick Secours (at 14) and Rich Ferraro (at 15) teamed with adult qualifier Bill Stoddard to win the Men’s Open Trio Gold medal in the 2003 Empire State Games. Several YBT successes from Buffalo to Rochester belong to youth that have experienced the sport. The summer youth sport league Nick and Rich participated in featured weekly instruction and on-lanes coaching help from several volunteer coaches.

How far away are we from seeing the effects at the professional and international level? Probably no more than five or six years. As our experienced sport bowlers bring their impact to the national and international scenes we will see more demand for open play that offers two or three challenging choices rather than the standard oil wall. Once it is realized we have a cadre of elite bowlers with a sport shot background who are winning consistently we’ll see more requests for coaching and condition specific clinics, as well as sport league growth.

If you want to experience a sport shot find a local center that offers an open bowling opportunity on it and try it. In fact, I recommend it.

Our sport appeals to many because it is a non-contact game of thinking as well as physical coordination. (I am not talking about the social or recreational bowler.) My job as a coach is to get the athlete to think about what he/she takes for granted. Making a connection from our brain to our body can be overwhelming until we experience a couple of successful attempts. And, when we first apply ourselves to changing our game, we often try to do too much too soon. Let’s talk about one easy adjustment and the dimension it can add but with one caveat; each adjustment we learn is only that, one possible adjustment. As we build our physical inventory we will discover that sometimes we are required to make several adjustments before finding the right one for the condition we encounter on a particular day. Be patient with yourself and enjoy our journey one step at a time.

Practice moving your target either closer to you or further away. If you normally use the area of the arrows for your target, the next time you practice use the dots beyond the foul line. Observe the difference in ball reaction. You may notice, for example, the ball will roll earlier but with less speed. Why? Because you are now aiming for a spot on the lane closer to the foul line, your body position at the line has changed slightly. Perhaps you’ll notice something feels different to you, perhaps not. You should be aware of a different ball reaction. As a result of this change you may also have to move your new target to the right or left a bit to hit the pocket.

Once you have mastered hitting a target closer to you I want you to try moving your target down the lane beyond the arrows. What happens when you do this? You may see the ball rolling a bit later and a bit faster than your normal shot. Again move your new target right or left as needed to hit the pocket and practice until it feels like you can do it whenever you need to add speed or a bit less early roll.

With this one maneuver added to your personal physical inventory you now have two ways to adjust to lane conditions without changing balls. After getting comfortable with changing target positions closer or farther away from you let’s add one other element to your next practice. Change your starting position at least 5 boards to the right on the approach and try to hit the strike pocket. Once you have done this successfully at least twice in a row move 5 more boards right. Repeat the routine twice more moving 5 boards left from your normal starting position and 5 again. When you have been able to hit the pocket area two consecutive times from 5 different positions give yourself a few moments breather and consider what you just had to do in order to be successful. Did you move your target closer while in some positions and farther away in others? Were you able to strike on any of the angles to the pocket better than another?

The target area for your delivery now expanded, notice the next time you compete or practice when and where the ball begins to hook. If it hooks too late to get to the pocket try moving your target closer to you to get the ball to roll slower and hook earlier. If the ball is hooks too early and is coming into the head-pin too high or even crossing, move your eyes down the lane to a target further away to delay roll and hook and add some speed.

An important part of the mental game we often overlook is our focus. Have you noticed the high percentage of spares the pros who make the weekly TV finals have made that week? That is because they devote a lot of time on spare-making and give each spare shot the same importance they give to their first ball. If we can give each spare our total attention we’ll all become better bowlers.

Here are some additional thoughts on how we can learn to focus for better performance and learning. Try a form of meditation to put your brain into a better state of preparation. One technique is called Autogenics. It will not only help you to learn faster, retain more information for recall and to perform better, but it will also help you have better health. I have read that in Switzerland upon completion of an accredited Autogenics program, a person is eligible for lower health insurance rates. Autogenics is a relaxation process. Basically you begin to focus on and relax your extremities, beginning with your feet, and while slowly breathing diaphragmatically you progress by focusing on each part of your body until you have attained a completely relaxed and focused state. After much practice you will be able to relax within a couple of seconds by simply thinking of a “trigger” phrase.

The more focused you are the better your chance of getting into that elusive “zone” and remaining in it. Scott Pohl of TEAM USA told me he practices his focus technique at least 20 minutes every day. The beauty of this type of routine is that you can practice at home or in the office. When I asked Scott how often he is able to get into the zone he said currently “about 75% of the time”. His sport shot league average is higher than most bowlers’ house average and he had a tremendously successful 2003 representing his country around the world on TEAM USA.

Why do practices such as Autogenics, yoga and other similar techniques work so well? The brain uses 40% of the body’s oxygen supply and proper breathing techniques help to provide more oxygen to the body. Relaxation helps you to shed stress and focus on the present. It’s worth mentioning here my vote for the best sports drink on the market today - water; one part hydrogen and two parts oxygen. Feed the brain naturally.

Another method that helps create a higher state of learning is listening to Baroque music, preferably strings (the higher pitch seems to be important) at one beat per second. Mozart, Vivaldi and others of the same era wrote music with this profile. Look for CD’s and cassettes that advertise music for “Mozart babies”. The beat and pitch seem to produce a balance between the alpha and beta waves enabling both sides of the brain to be in a heightened learning state. Try this before taking a test, studying or practicing your latest improvement technique. For more info try www.Superlearning.com.

I have noticed time and again that a player with a good learning process can focus better in a stressful competitive situation and will consistently beat a person of similar scoring average but who lacks the same mental game skill set. Upgrade your learning process and upgrade your scoring.

I am amazed at our educational system placing so much emphasis on what we learn rather than on how we learn. What I am going to introduce to you now is a process, or actually a series of processes, to help your mental game by improving the learning process. Most athletes think of having a good mental game means “the ability to perform under pressure, or being able to focus in a stressful situation better than your opponent”. This definition is accurate to a point, but it is only one building block to athletic success when it comes to having the ability to outperform others.

Let’s begin with a helpful learning tip for improving our change process. Most athletes find that their initial improvement attempts are met with some resistance, especially if made without benefit of a trained instructor. Why is even a simple and obvious improvement not so easy to do? Hall of Famer David Ozio taught me our brain has a built in safety monitor that will not let you do something new without first making sure the change is not going to harm you. Overcoming this safety barrier is quite easy. Repeat your new routine at least 10 times. Once the brain learns you are not at risk of injury you then will begin to gain the ability to perform your new movement with less and less resistance.

Finding a trained instructor who is positive and supportive is another step toward learning faster. Making improvements are difficult enough without having someone yell at you, embarrass you, or who has unreasonable expectations. Being positive and supportive keeps the communication open and biased in a positive manner. A good instructor will help you learn to be patient with yourself by being patient and persistent with you. Learn to treat yourself well and your learning curve will accelerate.

Please understand that by practicing a proper learning process you can eventually learn how to perform well the very first time you try something new. Someone once said “what the mind can believe, you can achieve”. The “Power of Positive Thinking” is not just an all-time best-selling book but fact. Try it.

When you practice, focus on one thing at a time. Do not keep score. It’s the process you should be concerned with. Concentrate on that new arm-swing or spare system rather than on how many strikes you can make. Being results oriented creates a stressful condition wherein you focus on something over which you do not have control. Keep your learning process, your practice and your competitive focus simple.

Next up: “More Mental Than Game”

Most advanced bowlers use a very basic spare system. Maximum lane angle from foul line to target is used to pick spares because this strategy offers the most opportunity for consistent success. Move as far left as you can to pick the 10-pin. Once you have established a target that enables you to repeatedly pick that spare, move right with your feet 3 boards for the 6-pin and 3 more boards right for the 3-pin. Now find a spot as far right as you can for the 7-pin. Once you have established consistency picking that spare, move 3 boards left for the 4-pin and 3 more boards to convert the 2-pin. Again, adjust the number of boards as necessary based on variable factors.

You may wonder why we must have a system when the playing field is so small. Can’t we just look at our target and throw the ball and be successful without thinking? No. In our sport we must use simple math calculations because the lane is very narrow (+/- 42”) compared to its length (60’ from the foul line to the head pin. This is the same distance as from the pitching mound to home plate in baseball.). The brain has difficulty accurately interpreting proportionate adjustments without help. That’s why we count boards. Right-handers count from the right and left-handers count from the left. We meet in the middle on board 20, the board that has the biggest dot on the approach. Armed with this information, and knowing where you stand for your strike ball, we formulate simple strategies to increase our opportunity for success.

Not just by the way, we measure our adjustments using our slide foot. The foot opposite our ball side is the foot we should line up with when we step onto the approach. That way we can tell by our position at the foul line if we walk straight or not.

Want to further increase your percentage of conversions? Throw only a straight ball when picking spares excepting for combinations that include double wood (1-5, 2-8 & 3-9). Use your normal hook delivery for these. Try “breaking your wrist” (releasing the ball with your hand bent backward). This will reduce leverage and therefore minimize hook. The number one choice for the majority of better bowlers is plastic bowling balls. Plastic has a harder surface and therefore less friction. A plastic spare ball will slide more and can be rolled directly at a target. Adding a plastic spare ball to your arsenal will cost from $50 on up.

I hope you have experienced a change in your swing since we last visited. Here’s a couple of drills I promised you to help you get rid of your over-gripping and muscling the ball. Once in your athletic stance, start the ball in motion without moving your feet. Let the ball swing back in a full arc and then forward again, catching it with your opposite hand. Do this once or twice and then immediately begin your real approach. Practice this drill at home in front of a full-length mirror to see if your swing is relaxed and straight. This will help you to experience a relaxed swing and help your brain begin to gain some important feedback. Another drill to try just prior to your approach start is to grip the ball as firmly as possible, relax your grip, and then immediately begin your approach. The result will be an easier arm-swing, as the affected muscles in your arm cannot fully recover within 2 seconds.

By allowing gravity to dictate the swing path and length, rather than your muscles which are difficult to control, you will have enabled an arm-swing that can be repeated accurately and with little effort. Hitting your target will become the norm and you will see your average rise.

Want higher scores? Pick more spares. I watch a lot of bowling, from youth to adult, high school matches to professionals. The difference between winning and losing, making the TV show and leaving for the next tournament early, is spare-making success…or lack of it.

Here’s a simple spare system for beginners: if you leave pins to the right of the head pin, move your feet left on the approach to make the spare. If you leave pins to the left of the head pin, move your feet right to make the spare. Now let’s further refine our strategy.

To reach the next competency level we must first identify the key pin remaining. We will use only the pins on the outside of the rack. This reduces the number of spares to seven. The key pin is the one we must hit in order to convert the spare and is closest to us. The exception to this is a baby split wherein your key pin is the missing pin in the middle of the two pins left standing.) For each key pin to the right of the head pin move your starting position (feet) 3 boards to the left of your strike ball starting position. For each key pin to the left of the head pin move your starting position 3 boards to the right. Your target remains the same as for your strike ball. Experiment with this. It may be more boards or fewer boards for you depending on whether the lane is dry or oily.

Consistency is a key to success in every sport. With the 2003 – 2004 season well under way you may already be performing short of your expectations and wonder what change you can make that will yield the biggest and the quickest results. Throughout the next several weeks I’ll review game improvements that will help you build a solid foundation enabling you to achieve your scoring goals.

We’ll start with learning to have a relaxed, pendulum arm-swing that is parallel to your target line. Making this one improvement alone can add many pins to your average. TEAM USA head coach Fred Borden says that when he improved his arm-swing his average increased by 25 pins to over 200 and he never looked back. When in your starting stance, raise your bowling hand until the forearm is parallel to the floor and the hand in line with your shoulder. Be sure you have your elbow at your side, touching the bottom of your rib cage. With the ball in front of your shoulder, start the ball in motion toward your target. The ball movement should begin when the ball side foot moves and the ball should be placed into motion by the opposite hand, not the bowling hand. This will help promote a relaxed grip and therefore a relaxed swing. Most muscling comes from having too tight a grip. Move the ball forward over an imaginary line that is approximately waist high and parallel to the approach. This is a short distance, as is the distance of your first step.

As you begin your next step, allow the ball to drop freely into its swing arc. Continue your approach to the foul line at a natural, but athletic, pace and walk past the ball. Ask a fellow bowler to observe you and tell you if your arm is straight at the elbow by the time the ball is pointed toward the floor at your side and you have completed this step. This will indicate your swing may be relaxed and natural. Allow the ball to reach a full arc, at least waist high behind you, and feel it “float” naturally. (Remember how it felt when you were on a playground swing and it reached its apex? There was a brief moment of weightlessness. That’s the feeling I am talking about.) Continuing toward the foul line be patient and wait for the ball to swing back forward without any muscled effort. Let gravity do the work for you. Relax throughout the release. Do not pull the ball down and forward or force the release of the ball.

Next time I’ll give you a couple of practical coaching tips that will help you to “feel” a more relaxed swing.

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