8
- FEBRUARY 2014
Check Points and Concentration
Did you know you should do four things every time you deliver a ball?
Here they are:
Remember exactly where your sliding foot is in your stance position—that is, what
board it’s on.
Watch to see whether you rolled that ball over your spot on the lane and what the
ball was doing at the arrow or spot area.
See where your hand is after the delivery and what position it is in.
Look at where your sliding foot is at the foul line and check to see if it is in a
straight line from stance position to delivery point in relationship to your target.
Let’s talk about each of these check points one by one.
Let’s presume that you are lining yourself up for a strike. Put your feet together,
pointed straight ahead, sliding foot slighting ahead of the other. Here’s the reason
for this foot position. If you pick out your position on the approach with your sliding
foot, then bring up the other foot behind it, you will be more conscious of the position
of the sliding foot.
Now let your bowling arm hang down against your leg, fingers pointed to the floor.
The fingers should be hanging pointed over the last dot on the approach if there are
five dots. This dot is on the same board as the second arrow. Some bowling centers
have seven dots. If this is the case, use the second dot in from the end as this dot is
in line with the second arrow.
Wiggle your feet around until you are in the right position and remember where that
sliding foot is.
Now deliver the ball and keep your eye constantly on the arrow until the ball rolls
over it. Did the ball roll over the spot or miss it? You don’t know because you were-
n’t concentrating on the spot? Do it again. The ball must continue over the spot
(second arrow) another 10 or 15 feet before it hooks. So that means you must
stroke the arm toward the target and that will help to get your hand up in front of
your face in the follow through.
Stay at the foul line until the ball hits the pins. This assures a solid delivery and you
have control of the ball. If you can’t stay at the foul line, we’ll discuss this later.
Why did I say to bring your hand up in front of your face? Several reasons: It helps
you keep your balance, helps point you in the direction of the target, but, most of all,
it tells you what position your hand is in.
Remember, your thumb steers and guides the ball. So the position of your thumb
will tell you the whole story. Where your thumb goeth, there goeth the ball.
The simplest explanation is to shake hands with the pins or your target. Your thumb
should be at about the 11:00 position, wrist firm and with no wrinkles on it. Look at
it—it’s probably ―broken‖ with the fingers open and no feeling of lift. How can you
feel the ball coming off your fingers if you don’t keep them curled?
Here’s an easy way to do it. Before you push the ball out in the delivery, squeeze
the ball slightly with your two bowling fingers and keep the two outside fingers firmly
on the ball. Keep that same feeling all the way through the arm swing and delivery.
Now you will deliver such a great ball and it will really shake the pins and break up
large combinations of pins.
Hope you’ve stayed at the foul line so you can see where you sliding foot was in
relation to the foul line at the delivery point. If you walk crooked from your starting
point (which you remembered, I hope), you will know why your ball missed the spot
or angled badly after passing over the spot.
You must become consistent in your approach so when you start walking toward
spares, you can do the same thing—only walk at an angle towards them, using the
same technique as for your strikes.
I’d venture to say that 85% of the bowlers walk crooked to the line. How can you
swing the ball in a straight line if you walk crooked?
Here are some helpful tips: If you are really concentrating on the arrow, you’ll see it
―move‖ to the left or right if you walk crooked; your first or second step is usually the
one you go off to one side with; have someone you can trust watch you from the
rear and this may help you.
If you drift across the approach on strikes—and I’m only talking about strikes—
before you start, point your toes in the opposite direction of your drift. It works; try it.
Remember the four check points and make yourself do them every time you bowl.
I’ll bet by now some of you have raised your averages at least 10 pins. So keep
practicing until next month.
Final tip: Did you know that there are five boards between each dot and each ar-
row? Also that all the dots are on the same board as the arrows?
Too often bowling has been depicted as an activity that has overcome a rather sor-
did past.
As a youngster I sort of reluctantly accepted the oft repeated tales of drinking and
gambling and assorted other ills as the main lure of the game, and not the thrill of
rolling a ball and knocking down more pins than the other bowlers.
Early in my writing career I met some people who were involved with the very early
days of the sport and others who were related to or know some of the pioneers of
the game. One day a fellow sportswriter handed me a package, told me that an
older women had dropped it off and if I didn’t want it, just throw it away.
It was a scrapbook of bowling articles that appeared to be from 1900 to 1905. I was
surprised, fascinated and proud as I eagerly devoured every word. It was all quite
positive, perhaps by design or maybe because that’s the way it was. It had many a
piece about woman’s bowling and they were informative, educational and illustrative
of the larger role played by women in bowling history than ever imagined.
Serving on various Hall of Fame and other committees I had the opportunity to pe-
ruse long ago publications and articles about the sport plus much of the research
done by bowling scholars such as Al Matzelle, Bruce Pluckhahn and Herm
Weiskopf.
Sure there was some gambling, drinking, plenty of needling, lip action, equipment
tampering and all the rest that goes along with the evolution of a sport, however
there was the touch of class given by builders, engineers, women, churches, athletic
and social clubs and people from every walks of life.
In a game that on the surface seems to change little, there have been many
changes. The equipment, balls, pins, machines have all evolved and thus changed
the sport. Lanes, lane dressing and conditioning changes can and have filled
books. Change isn’t bad unless it is change for change sake alone.
A case can be made for and against every major innovation in the sport, and a good
case can be made for the abilities of star bowlers who lived from the turn of the last
century and before.
Can any solid conclusion be drawn? I doubt it. If you had a buck for every discus-
sion about the merits or demerits of various star bowlers, bowling balls, drilling, pins,
lanes, and lane conditioning you could travel around the world a time or two.
There remain many loose ends. Almost all would admit that soft conditions and the
tremendous scores may have done some damage, but the scoring brickyards are
just as damaging, aren’t they? Popcorn pins might be terrible, but are trees any
better? Some leagues, centers and bowling groups might be out of touch, but don’t
we have bowling segments that are out in space? And on and on it goes. If the
answers were simple, there wouldn’t be any opposing opinions.
Getting back to super stars… Some of today’s top scorers are criticized because
they don’t have the style, ball, mental attitude or whatever of some of the great old
timers. You look at the records and some of the junior bowlers already have better
stats than fabled Hall of Famers. So the beat can go on in a ridiculous way. You do
what you have to in order to obtain the best results in the era in which you perform.
Let’s give credit equally all along the time line.
And for those of you who are just too critical of today’s bowling, just remember that
20 years from now those will be the ―good old days!‖
Helen Duval’s Bowling Tips
Idle Bowling Thoughts
By Chuck Pezzano
Storm Bowling Products
will provide each Pepsi
Youth Championships state coordinator with a certifi-
cate to use as a fundraising tool this season. The
certificate can be redeemed for any ball from the
Storm line.
