8
- August 2014
Helen Duval‘s Bowling Tips
Idle Bowling Thoughts
By Chuck Pezzano
The Way It Was…
Lanes, balls, gutters, pits, and everything else were anything goes. For
an early ball, you went to a carpenter or machinist because they were
made of wood, although no metal was allowed. But the wooden ball
wore out of round and had to be evened to round from time to time.
Thus, a ball return in the late 1800s and early 1900s had balls from the
current size to some as small as a large softball.
What may surprise many of today‘s bowlers is that the better bowlers
fought almost every advance. They were against going from two-
fingered balls to three- or more. They were against the installation of
dots and arrows on the approaches and lanes as targets, and also on the
use of darker- colored boards on lanes which led to the pocket area.
They fought for modifying the fat-bellied pins and any pin which seemed
to fall too easily. And, rather than have a foul-calling person sit at either
end of the line of lanes, they positioned many foul judges in a coop-like
structure erected into the wall at either side to give a great view of the
feet if they inched over the foul line.
Most of today‘s bowlers never bowled with a wooden ball, had human
beings setting up pins by hand, and scoring and calling fouls. But they
have had the benefit of rule books which were developed over long years
and now are universally administered.
And yes, women were allowed to bowl in most centers.
In the rush for entries, some senior tournaments are lowering the mini-
mum age to 45 or lower from the usual 50. There are super senior divi-
sions for bowlers 60 and over, and super super divisions for 70 and up.
Is bowling going to be like boxing? Boxing once had eight divisions –
period. Now there are junior and super groupings added to the original,
making 24. And there are at least three sanctioning groups, and that‘s
why there are so many boxing champions, 72 and counting, as other
newly-created weight divisions and boxing associations pop up. In bowl-
ing, in most cases, youngsters and oldsters, what counts is average, not
age.
Whenever a so-called unknown wins a bowling event, just remember
that many a nobody who isn‘t known by anybody becomes a somebody
and is known by everybody, and everybody tells him they knew him when
he was a nobody, and they knew he would be a somebody some day.
Huh?
Pure fiction is the story of a head-to-head bowling match – as told by
the participants two weeks later.
In the more than 50 years that pro bowling has been on TV, the event
which caused the most comment and excitement and got the most expo-
sure was not a specific thrilling match or perfect game or a big money
purse…it was Mark Roth‘s conversion of the 7 - 10 split.
All bowlers have had their bad outings. It has been said that those bad
times will be matched by an equal number of good times. Most bowlers I
know have a lot of good days coming. In the meantime, have a good
bowling day – or at least a good day – every day.
Proper Grip on the Ball
Even I catch myself not thinking about my own grip on the ball. All of a sud-
den I realize the ball is not hitting the pins too well—no stuff on it and no lift
from the fingers.
Then I call myself ―stupid‖ (other things, too) and say, ―Where‘s all that con-
centration you preach?‖ Well, even the pros lose the magic touch sometimes
and it‘s hard to get back on the track.
Are you really conscious of your hand
in
and
around
and
connected
to the
ball as you stand, walk and deliver it?
All five fingers must be
against
the ball and you must know it. Granted some
of the men pros curl the little finger under the ball, but they are experimenting
all the time for certain results and they know what they are doing.
A previous column stressed that the wrist should be firm so you would have
better control for the lift and roll of the ball.
Now if you
lift
or kink a finger in your stance, you cannot have a firm wrist in
your delivery.
This means you must exert pressure on all
five
fingers on the ball with
slightly more pressure on the two lifting fingers. This itself will help firm the
wrist so you can‘t ―break‖ it in the swing. Of course, a wristband will also help
remind you to think about keeping your wrist firm.
Tilting the hand will tend to put the weight of the ball on the thumb in the
swing, whereas the weight should be distributed evenly on all fingers.
Do you know what will happen? One, you‘ll probably drop the ball at the foul
line. Two, you‘ll complain of the rubbing on the thumb and blame a tight thumb
hole. If you tilt your hand, then when the ball is swung the thumb is pointed
down at the floor. In the first or second delivery the ball will probably fall off,
then you‘ll start cocking your thumb to hang on. All because you tilted your
thumb.
In other words, the knuckles of your bowling hand should be in a fairly
straight line from your elbow. Stand with your ball in your bands in front of a
mirror. Turn sideways and check the position of the ball and the angles of your
hand, wrist and fingers. Try to keep this in mind when you get ready to bowl.
Have someone hold a ruler along your hand to your elbow to emphasize how
far it is from being straight. Then straighten it out and practice until next month.
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