Question about balance arm in front of body on backswing?

[Hammer]

I saw this move on a video about backswings of the pros and where the balance arm shoiuld be at the top of the backswing. The video shows the balance arm in front of the torso with the thumb pointing downwards. As you swing forward the shoulders rotate the balance arm to the side at the release with the thumb still pointing downward. This move, because of the rotation of the torso on the forward swing, gives more power to the ball with the hand at the release. Being a non-pro I wondered if I should try this. So I did at practice. It takes a little time to get use to it but I did.

Just out of curiosity I looked into a full length mirror to see what my shoulders did when I made this move. To my surprise my shoulders are almost in a straight line but not quite at the top of my backswing. Because I get more power into the ball at release doing this my revs have picked up.

The trick with doing this is you have to make sure your wrist doesn't break back coming into the forward swing and you have to stay behind the ball with your hand at release. If you do this you get some good revs and hook action on the ball.

At first I thought that I shouldn't mess with doing this because I am not a pro. The problem was my old swing kept trying to keep my shoulder square to the foul line on my backswing. That only gave me bad accuracy and too many pulled shots.

Doing the balance arm in front of me on the backswing with the thumb pointing down doesn't seem to be a problem for me. That torso rotation doing that sure makes me feel like I am putting a lot more power into the ball at release and those revs are really reving when the ball comes off of my hand.

Does anybody else here do this or do you try to keep your shoulders more square on the backswing? As far as I am concerned it doesn't seem to give me any problems. That video that I got this from has been posted on this forum several times. I think it is called 10 pin bowling featuring the pros and the different moves they have when they bowl.

[bowl1820]

I saw this move on a video about backswings of the pros and where the balance arm shoiuld be at the top of the backswing. The video shows the balance arm in front of the torso with the thumb pointing downwards......

Here's from a post awhile back, which refers to the thumb down part. It helps a lot.

Trailing Arm Tip
Heres a trick from Kegel to help you keep from pulling shot's.

One of the best ways is to keep the trailing arm back, but even with your shoulders.

To do this have the thumb of your non bowling hand turned down and slightly pointed toward the approach behind you.

This will help lock your arm and keep your shoulder from rotating and help keep your balance in check.

When you watch the pro's keep a eye out for them doing this.

http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w89/aloarjr810/bowlingxtras/thumb_pos.jpg

[billf]

I do this. When combined with the proper spine tilt it really helps to get more revs, accuracy, speed control and really helps to open the shoulders up.
Keeping the shoulders square to the foul line is one of the oldest lies in bowling.

[Hammer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5nnDbV0znE

This is the video I was talking about. There is a section on this video that says balance arm forward with thumb pointing down. You can tell in this video some pros keep the balance arm a little forward and to the side and others bring the balance arm in front of them with the thumb pointing down. That is the one I practiced using and use it on league nights.

[GeoLes]

Does this help?

http://bowlingknowledge.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=206&Itemid=62

[sukeetoshyoo88]

i think this kind of just comes naturally.
i never realized i did this, until i took a video of myself.
like norm duke said, put your balance arm out there, and just forget about.

[Tampabaybob]

Having your arm out front a little will help you to open your shoulders on your backswing. Bring it back to the left in your downswing, besides helping to maintain your balance should give you a little more speed and possibly more revs. If you can get used to doing this, over the long rung you should see added performance. Also try to keep that left hand thumb facing the floor. It'll help stabilize you as well.

[Hammer]

If you have never done this move before try it in practice to get use to it. Maybe for years you kept your balance arm out to the side on your backswing and forward swing. So when you do this for the first time it might give you an uneasy feeling. You might feel off balance. When I first started using it I would have to think about it as I made my approach. Not too long after my balance arm would go in front of me automatically and then to the side where it should be on the downswing. You can try dry runs without a ball. Get into your finish position with your slide leg in front of you and your balance leg behind you. Now with a forward tilt to your body put your balance arm in front of you with the thumb pointing down and your bowling arm behind you at the top of you backswing and rotate your shoulders as if you are making your forward swing to your release position. Make sure also that you have some upper body tilt to your ball side because your ball should pass under your head as you are reaching your release position. Doing this will give you the power you need to put into your shot and will give you better balance at the finish.

[Mike White]

I do this. When combined with the proper spine tilt it really helps to get more revs, accuracy, speed control and really helps to open the shoulders up.
Keeping the shoulders square to the foul line is one of the oldest lies in bowling.

I wouldn't classify it as a lie.

The thought was that to create accuracy the shoulders had to be parallel to the foul line, and the less moving parts during the approach the better.

You have to consider, back then it wasn't common to have a negative angle release.

[got_a_300]

I wouldn't classify it as a lie.

The thought was that to create accuracy the shoulders had to be parallel to the foul line, and the less moving parts during the approach the better.

You have to consider, back then it wasn't common to have a negative angle release.

I'll have to agree with Mike on this as back in the early days of bowling you had guys
like Ernie Schlegel, Earl Anthony, Mike Durbin, David Ozio and others that kept their
shoulders square to the foul line as they were more or less down and in strokers with
not a lot of hook on the ball as were a lot of the Pro women bowlers back in the day.

[K3ntFIN]

Keeping the support arm out in front also minimizes elastic tension in the shoulder area that would cause the whole swing to be 'rubberbanded'. Try for yourself, stand up straight, put your left arm straight out to the left and then swing your right arm and see what sort of max swing you can achieve. Now move the left arm out in front of you and let your shoulder area move with the swing, quite a lot easier and not nearly as much stress on your joints and ligaments.
Back in the day, square and straight out was the best knowledge available and worked for the style and equipment available. It still does in some circumstances, but the 'new' way is a lot more forgiving once you get used to it.