Hammer
12-13-2014, 11:25 PM
It has been unusually warm here in the Chicago area. Because of this humidty played a part in destroying my 3 games tonight. As soon as I went up on the approach to throw my first practice ball I noticed that my thumb was not sliding into the ball to good. It was kind of sticking on the way in and sticking on the way out. This just happened to be the problem on both of my balls. Needless to say you cannot bowl with accuracy with this going on. So I just bit the bullet and accepted what my fate was going to be for the night. I bowled a 154, 161 and a 164. Not too bad for the thumb sticking in both balls.
I just had lessons from a bowling coach in our house last week Thursday. Even with the problem I was standing more upright at the beginning of my approach, I was letting the weight of the ball do the work in the swing and changed my release like I was told in my lessons. To get used to not muscling the ball in the downswing I used an unusual thought to help me out. You folks have probably heard of the Olympic sport of curling where the players slide a weight with a handle on it down the ice to hit a certain target to get points. They have folks with little brooms sweeping in front of this weight to make it slide better.
Well whenever I would throw my ball I would think to myself that I was going to throw one of these curling weights at a target so I had to let the weight of the ball do the work instead of adding anything to it. I found that it helped me to swing the ball without adding anything to it with the muscles in the swing. When I did it right I couldn't believe the revs and the nice arc of the ball into the pocket. It hit hard also and this was with a speed of 13.5 to 14.5mph at the pins.
So come Monday I will be going back to the pro shop to give me a little more room in the thumbholes of both of my balls. It worked out okay for us tonight because the team we were supposed to bowl didn't show up and each of them got minus 10 points on their four averages. It will be nice to be able to get my thumb out of both balls cleanly the next time out. A sticking thumb is no fun when bowling. I am sure my average will change some from the 187 I went into tonight with.
I just had lessons from a bowling coach in our house last week Thursday. Even with the problem I was standing more upright at the beginning of my approach, I was letting the weight of the ball do the work in the swing and changed my release like I was told in my lessons. To get used to not muscling the ball in the downswing I used an unusual thought to help me out. You folks have probably heard of the Olympic sport of curling where the players slide a weight with a handle on it down the ice to hit a certain target to get points. They have folks with little brooms sweeping in front of this weight to make it slide better.
Well whenever I would throw my ball I would think to myself that I was going to throw one of these curling weights at a target so I had to let the weight of the ball do the work instead of adding anything to it. I found that it helped me to swing the ball without adding anything to it with the muscles in the swing. When I did it right I couldn't believe the revs and the nice arc of the ball into the pocket. It hit hard also and this was with a speed of 13.5 to 14.5mph at the pins.
So come Monday I will be going back to the pro shop to give me a little more room in the thumbholes of both of my balls. It worked out okay for us tonight because the team we were supposed to bowl didn't show up and each of them got minus 10 points on their four averages. It will be nice to be able to get my thumb out of both balls cleanly the next time out. A sticking thumb is no fun when bowling. I am sure my average will change some from the 187 I went into tonight with.