Your Stance, Approach, and Release – Putting it Together!
May 15, 2010 by
Filed under bowl a hook, bowling tips
I know tha
t it seems like bowling a hook seems impossible, but it isn’t as hard as you may thing. It just takes some getting used to. After all, the very motion of bowling a hook is extremely unnatural.
Let’s see if we can’t put all this together for you -
Your Stance
This is where it all begins for every bowler. How you set yourself up for each throw is absolutely crucial to your success. Now depending on how you bowl will determine what arrow to focus on, but the approach should be relatively the same for each bowler.
As you stand facing the rack (slang for the pins), keep your knees straight and hold your ball up near your mid-section. Some people hold the ball too high or too low. This will do one of two things. It will either not give you enough power in your swing OR it will create too much movement causing your aim to be off.
Having the proper stance sets up everything for a bowler and if that is off, everything thereafter will too be off.
Your Approach
This is another crucial step to learning how to bowl a hook. Much too often, bowlers will rush their approach because they want to be able to throw the ball as hard as possible. Believe it or not, this is not necessary when bowling. You are better off having an accurate release than throwing the ball as hard as possible! So here’s what you do -
Slow your approach down. Keep your head as still as possible. Now I’m not sure if you use the four step or the seven step approach (this is how many steps taken before you release the ball – I’ll cover that in future e-mails), but you want to act as though you have a bowl of milk on top of your head. If you head is moving all over the place, you eyes too are moving.
As you are approaching the lane, remember that a majority of your power is coming from both your knees (again, we’ll get into that later) and your downswing. What you want to focus on is WHERE you are throwing the ball and letting the bowling ball do the work for you. This brings us to the next segment – your release.
Your Backswing, Downswing and Release
This is where you will generate the rotation on the ball to create the hook that you want!
As you bring the ball back on your backswing (this is the motion in which you bring the ball BEHIND you), make sure that your palm is directly behind the ball. If done properly, your palm should be directly parallel with the lane. This will provide with a more of an accurate throw.
Now for the good stuff…
As you bring the ball down (creating your downswing), let the ball carry your arm down. Do not force it through. The bowling ball is heavy, so allow gravity to do its thing! Keep your arm as straight as you can. Again, this will allow you to throw the ball with better accuracy.
Now once bowling ball passes your knee, start to turn your wrist towards your waist. Think of bringing your hand up to shake someone’s hand. It is this turning over motion that actually creates the spin on the ball.
Go ahead and stand up now and give it try. Act as though you are going to throw your bowling ball and bring your wrist around. Do not come past the “shaking the hand” motion otherwise you may hurt yourself or your shot will go completely awry. Do that a couple of more times to get used to the motion.
These are just a few tips to get you STARTED with bowling a hook. There is obviously a heck of a lot more that goes into bowling other than just this, but it definitely is important.
Super great post! Honest..
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