When attacking pins, watch your weight - Bowling Clinic - Column

Bowling Digest, August, 2003 by Bill Spigner

* I currently own two 15-pound balls, a Brunswick Zone Missile and an Ebonite Maxim. I have some control problems in spite of a league average of 146. Would switching to a lighter ball--say, 13 pounds--help my control problems on the lanes?

The weight of the ball is important for consistency. The ball needs to weigh enough to allow you to let the ball help swing the arm from the shoulder. Your accuracy comes from the direction the swing takes, angle of the spine, and position of the shoulders relative to the swing and follow-through.

When your ball is too light, it is very easy to dominate its weight during your swing. If you grab the ball a little during the swing when your ball is too light, it's very easy to have your swing thrown off-line. Many bowlers, especially kids and women, will use a ball that is too light because they feel they can't roll a heavier ball. This happens because most beginning bowlers have no idea of the fundamentals that are necessary to deliver the ball and don't have a ball that fits them.

As a result, they are playing a game with an ill-fitting ball and will grab the lightest ball they can throw down the lane. What's worse, they throw the ball as if the hand is in control of the direction of the ball.

Only when beginners refine their games do they learn about the importance of a properly fitted ball: grip, weight, balance, and type of ball. Having your fingers fit into the ball alone does not constitute a properly fitted ball.

A properly fitted ball helps beginning bowlers work productively on their games. To bowl correctly, you need to roll a hook/curve, which complements good form. Once you have a ball that hooks, it's easier to develop good form.

To improve accuracy, don't use a ball that is two pounds lighter than your other balls. Keeping the ball weight consistent gives you a better chance to bowl consistently.

The real keys to accuracy come from accurate and consistent form. First, the arm and ball should not change direction from the top of the swing, through the release zone, and to the finish. Second, the shoulders need to be facing the direction the ball is going to travel at release in order to execute a 90-degree release. The third thing is that the upper body needs to be over the sliding leg so the ball reaches the bottom of the swing at or slightly in front of the ankle of the sliding foot. And last, you have to release the ball without grabbing it.

Seek out some instruction--but keep the weight of the balls the same.

* I have been bowling with a conventional grip for a year now, and my middle and ring fingers are sore around the second joint. I have noticed that you use a four-finger grip. Is this better grip? Does it give you a better feel and more leverage? Can a beginner use a four-finger grip?

I have been using the four-finger grip for about 20 years. It makes the ball feel lighter and better balanced in my hand, and allows me to have a lighter grip on the ball without losing it. It's a good grip for bowlers who want to use a heavier ball with less trouble, may have trouble hanging on to the ball, or have soreness or an injury.

I would recommend that you go to a relaxed fingertip grip as soon as possible. The conventional grip is hard on the middle joints in your fingers if you are trying to get under the ball to get lift and turn for a hook.

Using the pinky finger is a cross between curling the pinky finger and leaving it extended. When you curl the pinky finger, it tightens the muscles on that side of the hand. When the pinky finger is extended, the muscles on that side of the hand are more relaxed--but the two fingers that are holding the ball are bent, making the muscles in those two fingers tighter than the ones in the pinky finger. When the pinky finger is added to the grip, all the muscles in the three fingers are contracted equally.

To get an idea of how this works, curl and uncurl the pinky, then curl the middle two fingers like they would in the ball, then curl all three fingers as if they were in the ball. Which setup feels the most comfortable without the ball in your hand? The answer is the third, the setup with all three fingers curled. It's a natural grip when you don't have a ball in your hand.

Now, I'm not saying because it's a comfortable grip without a ball that everyone should run out and drill pinky holes. Pinky holes are an option for some. They've worked very well on the balls I have done for my bowlers, which amounts to about 2% of my annual total.

* I'm a right-handed, retired construction worker, bowling in three leagues. Last year my averages ranged from 190 to 196. This year I can't get my averages out of the low 180s.

Most righthanders miss their target to the left, but this year I seem to miss my target one to three boards to the right. Then my ball gets out into the drier area and comes screaming back into the headpin. And I'm plagued with splits. What can be the reason I'm missing to the right so much?

Missing to the right of your target for a righthander and left of target for a lefthander is unusual.