Most people believe that bowling a good game, requires you to bowl a hook.  While yes, eventually this is true, however it starts before that.  It starts as soon as pick up your bowling ball.  If you don’t have the right ball, then these tips to bowling a good game are going to be absolutely useless.

Now if you’re just the average bowler  – maybe you go out just a couple of times a year, then you most likely are going to use a house ball.  These are the balls that the bowling alleys provide  bowlers to use free of charge.  Remember though – these balls are free therefore they usually don’t consist of anything special.  So let’s go out and pick out a house ball…

What I find most of the time is that the first thought for the average bowler is to pick the lightest ball they can find and WHIP it down the lane as HARD as they can.  I don’t know….maybe they just like throwing things hard!    The problem here is two-fold -

1. The accuracy of the throw will never be consistent because the mindset of the bowler is to throw it as hard as possible
2. That light ball will not be able to push through the pins as well as a heavier ball

So find a ball that you can use and aim properly.  Don’t be afraid of grabbing that heavier ball.  Trust me – no one will look at you differently because you aren’t using that pink 8lb kid’s ball!

I truly believe that the best tips to bowling a good game is to learn how to bowl with a hook.  The reason being is that straight bowlers typically don’t get the same sort of pin action (that is the way the pins fall and spin after they’re hit with the ball) as you do with a hook.  Bowling a hook ball will allow the ball to crash through the pocket making you a better, more consistent bowler.

You can learn more about how to learn to bowl a hook here.

Here’s some other GREAT tips to bowling great game-

1.  Your stance, approach, and release.  DO NOT DISMISS THIS!  After all, this is the start of the entire bowling sequence (that is, after you find the right ball).  Just like with baseball and swinging the bat…if the mechanics are off, the batter isn’t going to have too much success once the pitch is thrown.  I did an article on this very thing.  You can check it out here.

2.  After you have bowled a couple of times and you think that you want to keep at it, don’t shy away from finding your own bowling ball.  Most importantly, this will give you some consistency with your bowling.  Think about it – if you’re using a house ball every time you bowl, how can you learn how the ball reacts and what you need to do each time?  Get your own ball!!  You can get some cheaper bowling balls at your pro-shop or even online.  You don’t need to spend a fortune on your first ball.

3.  Um…PRACTICE!  The most important advice I can give you for tips to bowling a good game is practice.  The bottom line is that just with anything else, you’ll need to practice in order to become better at whatever you’re doing.  Bowling is no exception.  Even if it’s just one day a week for two games.  You will start to see a dramatic improvement in your game before you know it.

I hope these help out a bit.  At the end of the time, bowling is one of those individual sports that can be both gratifying AND frustrating!  Keep at it and you’ll get more of the gratifying than you will of the frustration!!

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.

If you are reading this, then you understand the importance of learning how to bowl a hook. Compared to a straight ball, a hook ball offers superior control and maximizes pin action. These two attributes alone will help you bring your bowling game to a whole new level! The problem however is that a lot of people do not know how to bowl a hook.

I have outlined three very basic, yet extremely useful ways to start getting the rotation on your bowling ball needed to get that ball to hook!

Easy Tip Number One

Slow down your approach. This is the steps that you take before you throw the ball. This is especially true if you are relatively new to bowling. By nature, we want to throw the ball as hard as we can. This causes you to lose control of where you are aiming. Naturally the end result will be a lower score. Slow down your approach. Relax. This will keep your mind AND your body focused on the pins. Trust me!

Easy Tip Number Two

Allow your back swing to do the work for you! You do not need to be weightlifter to in order to be a good bowler! Yes I know that bowling balls are heavy, but they need to be. When you bring your arm back, allow the weight of the bowling ball to bring it down. The ball is heavy enough to where it will create a powerful release without using an extreme amount of arm muscle. Not only does it put less stress on your body, but it also helps to control your swing giving you more accuracy.

Easy Tip Number Three

Now it is time to bowl a hook! Now right before you release the ball, start to slightly turn your wrist towards your inside leg (that is your right leg if you are a right-handed bowler and your left leg if you are a left-handed bowler). After your release, your palm should be parallel with your leg. The motion of turning your hand should mock that of coming up to give someone a hand shake. By turning your hand like this, it puts the rotation on the ball needed to bowl a hook!

Learning how to bowl a hook can seem to be difficult, but it does not have to be as hard as you think. It does take some practice and some getting used to, but it is the furthest thing from impossible. Yes it is an unnatural feeling, but it can be done!

Take your time, practice and most importantly, enjoy bowling! Bowling is a wonderful sport that you can do anytime of the year. It can bring family and friends together or just give you an outlet to get away for a while. If you work at, you can learn how to bowl a hook!

I wanted to share with you a very cool little bowling tip that I have picked up through the years.  It’s really simple and can make a huge difference in your game.

One of the more common problems that I hear from people is inconsistency with their ball reaction.  What I mean is that they either have a problem with ball over-reaction or under-reacting.

An over-reaction will cause the ball to hook too much either hitting the head pin or missing the head pin all together.  An under-reaction will have the ball not hooking enough to hit the pocket.  There may be some movement, but the ball never makes it to the pocket.  Here’s a cool little trick that I’ve picked up through the years -

You know those little green scotch pads that we use when doing the dishes?  Get a scotch pad from the store and put it in your bag. (I wouldn’t recommend using the one that’s in your kitchen)!  When you see that you are getting too much reaction or not enough reaction, take that pad and just lightly rub out the shine on your ball.

What you are essentially doing is cleaning your ball – just enough to let it glide through the oil on the lane a bit easier.

See if your ball is really dirty, it will catch all that oil and will bite a lot more than normal.

If your ball is really clean, that green pad will almost “scuff up” that shine helping it to grab the lane giving you more of the hook power you need.

Pretty cool tip huh?

Use it and have fun!  See, some of the best equipment are the normal household items we already have!

Anyway, in watching these youngsters go at, I pointed out to an 11 year old what I though his biggest problem was -

His head looked like a bobble-head!!

Now how in the world can he accurately focus on his target when his head is going round and round like a ceiling fan??

Here’s what I told Kevin -

As soon as you lock in your stance, I want you to pretend that you have a glass of water on your head.  The goal is to not spill a drop!

What I wanted Kevin to do was keep his head as still as possible. This keeps his eyes as focused as possible.  This will also create some stability in his approach.  Remember this – with stability comes consistency and with consistency comes improvement!

Go ahead and give it try the next time you’re out!  It’s going to feel a bit weird at first, but with some practice, you’ll get the hang of it!

Sorry for the short e-mail today, I am off to give some lessons in about an hour.

I hope this helps.  Remember, if you have any questions or comments, I ask that you post them on the site!

Take care and we’ll chat soon!