Duke Harding
09-11-2008, 11:01 AM
UPDATE: Some of the ideas & information expressed here may be considered outdated, because of current modern ideas & methods.
Now to continue my line of thought from PART 1...
Points so far:
In golf there was the ideal grip (about 2 1/2 knuckles of left hand showing to the straight on observer(for the majority of people(not all)). This was and is practiced by the the best golfers of the past and again now. But for awhile some golfers found they were overturning or hooking the ball too much! As a result many of them started using 1 to 1 1/2 knuckle grips to reduce turn! Funny thing happened along the way was that at that time many of the teachers started teaching this same weak grip to all levels of players even those that couldn't overturn or hook a ball if there life depended on it! (all of this happened in the 70s mostly)
LATERAL THUMB PITCH
Does any of this sound familiar to bowling? It should, because now bowling is in a similar phase. Bowlers are now trying to adopt many of the grip characteristics of the pros. Many bowlers are starting to go to lateral out and forward pitches of the thumb when their anatomy (as called for by the Bill Taylor tests) call for reverse pitches(due to span) and lateral under palm pitches as determined by coke bottle test. Many of these players couldn't overturn a ball if Pchee2 was helping them throw it.
An aside here( I am not Sawbones, nor his son(his name is HOSE). Why do I keep throwing in these golf analogies!??? The reason I do is because the anatomy of the two games is very similar. In golf the angle assumed by the back of the left hand when standing relaxed is the proper position to place the left hand and will lead to an effortless and golf swing that returns the club back to naturally neutrual or square with almost no effort or manipulation.
So it is with the coke bottle test. Where one's thumb points is unique and different for most but let's say over 90% of cases the thumb does not end up pointing to the index finger(lateral out). Also most bowlers are not guilty of hooking it or turning it too much!
In golf the problem wasn't really even one of overturning. The problem was really one of not having a strong enough grip (to supply forearm and club rotation)(in bowling the analogy being enough lateral under palm), and therefore the golfer sensing this on the way down would come in and swing or pull the arms to the left to get the ball started on line.
(The analogy in bowling being chicken winging). The bowler feels that he can not get the ball back enough if he swings his arm out away from his ultimate target(the pocket) and so therefore he chicken wings or pulls his armswing.
The proper lateral pitch (for his and your anatomy) instead allows the arm to pursue the intended starting line of the ball and feel(know) that the ball can come back. (Naturally another fault that will cause this lack of trust is not having the feet in the right place for the shot).
SPANS
Now let's talk about the proper span.
One of the thing's Bill Taylor say's that I believe is one of the most important things said in the book is that the ultimate test of the proper full span he recommends is that in this full fingertip one will feel during the backswing that the pressure of the ball should be near the joint of the last pad of the finger.
On the downswing the pressure should then cover the complete pad!
Read that again if you will please.
Finger pressure in the backswing should be. Near 1/3 of pad close to jointline.
Legend X = pressure, . = no pressure
...TIP
|-------|
|.........|
|.........|
|.........|
|xxxxxxx|
|xxxxxxx|
|XXXXXXX|
_________
Joint line
Finger pressure on the downswing
...Tip
|--------|
|XXXXXXXX|
|XXXXXXXX|
|XXXXXXXX|
|XXXXXXXX|
|XXXXXXXX|
|XXXXXXXX|
|XXXXXXXX|
|________|
Joint line
Get it!?
The too short span leads to pressure on the whole finger pad on the backswing and pressure ONLY on the fingertips on the downswing.
This is the final dialing in process on finding span length in the Bill Taylor method! I have found this is easy to do with shims!!!
Spans can be lengthened over a 1/16 th this way if one uses finger inserts.
MODERN LANE CONDITIONS and TODAY's DRILLING VARIATIONS
So why are SOME bowlers today going to Shorter spans than the Bill Taylor method, reverse pitch in the fingers, lateral out pitches for the thumb(even though the hand coke bottles for 1/8 lateral Under palm), and dramatic forward in the thumb.
Far different than the tables.
Great questions. For those who have never bowled on these tricky patterns put out the PBA I'll venture in to this, for our masters of the universe please bear with me!
The times I've bowled in PBA proams (one ladies, one mens's supposedly the shot for the tournament). has left me with this general impression. The patterns are made to embarass the area bowler.
Characteristics are good amounts of head oil, OB to the outside of the lanes, very little hold area, a two or 3 board break area that will hit the pocket at 45 feet.
To be continued!!!!
Now to continue my line of thought from PART 1...
Points so far:
In golf there was the ideal grip (about 2 1/2 knuckles of left hand showing to the straight on observer(for the majority of people(not all)). This was and is practiced by the the best golfers of the past and again now. But for awhile some golfers found they were overturning or hooking the ball too much! As a result many of them started using 1 to 1 1/2 knuckle grips to reduce turn! Funny thing happened along the way was that at that time many of the teachers started teaching this same weak grip to all levels of players even those that couldn't overturn or hook a ball if there life depended on it! (all of this happened in the 70s mostly)
LATERAL THUMB PITCH
Does any of this sound familiar to bowling? It should, because now bowling is in a similar phase. Bowlers are now trying to adopt many of the grip characteristics of the pros. Many bowlers are starting to go to lateral out and forward pitches of the thumb when their anatomy (as called for by the Bill Taylor tests) call for reverse pitches(due to span) and lateral under palm pitches as determined by coke bottle test. Many of these players couldn't overturn a ball if Pchee2 was helping them throw it.
An aside here( I am not Sawbones, nor his son(his name is HOSE). Why do I keep throwing in these golf analogies!??? The reason I do is because the anatomy of the two games is very similar. In golf the angle assumed by the back of the left hand when standing relaxed is the proper position to place the left hand and will lead to an effortless and golf swing that returns the club back to naturally neutrual or square with almost no effort or manipulation.
So it is with the coke bottle test. Where one's thumb points is unique and different for most but let's say over 90% of cases the thumb does not end up pointing to the index finger(lateral out). Also most bowlers are not guilty of hooking it or turning it too much!
In golf the problem wasn't really even one of overturning. The problem was really one of not having a strong enough grip (to supply forearm and club rotation)(in bowling the analogy being enough lateral under palm), and therefore the golfer sensing this on the way down would come in and swing or pull the arms to the left to get the ball started on line.
(The analogy in bowling being chicken winging). The bowler feels that he can not get the ball back enough if he swings his arm out away from his ultimate target(the pocket) and so therefore he chicken wings or pulls his armswing.
The proper lateral pitch (for his and your anatomy) instead allows the arm to pursue the intended starting line of the ball and feel(know) that the ball can come back. (Naturally another fault that will cause this lack of trust is not having the feet in the right place for the shot).
SPANS
Now let's talk about the proper span.
One of the thing's Bill Taylor say's that I believe is one of the most important things said in the book is that the ultimate test of the proper full span he recommends is that in this full fingertip one will feel during the backswing that the pressure of the ball should be near the joint of the last pad of the finger.
On the downswing the pressure should then cover the complete pad!
Read that again if you will please.
Finger pressure in the backswing should be. Near 1/3 of pad close to jointline.
Legend X = pressure, . = no pressure
...TIP
|-------|
|.........|
|.........|
|.........|
|xxxxxxx|
|xxxxxxx|
|XXXXXXX|
_________
Joint line
Finger pressure on the downswing
...Tip
|--------|
|XXXXXXXX|
|XXXXXXXX|
|XXXXXXXX|
|XXXXXXXX|
|XXXXXXXX|
|XXXXXXXX|
|XXXXXXXX|
|________|
Joint line
Get it!?
The too short span leads to pressure on the whole finger pad on the backswing and pressure ONLY on the fingertips on the downswing.
This is the final dialing in process on finding span length in the Bill Taylor method! I have found this is easy to do with shims!!!
Spans can be lengthened over a 1/16 th this way if one uses finger inserts.
MODERN LANE CONDITIONS and TODAY's DRILLING VARIATIONS
So why are SOME bowlers today going to Shorter spans than the Bill Taylor method, reverse pitch in the fingers, lateral out pitches for the thumb(even though the hand coke bottles for 1/8 lateral Under palm), and dramatic forward in the thumb.
Far different than the tables.
Great questions. For those who have never bowled on these tricky patterns put out the PBA I'll venture in to this, for our masters of the universe please bear with me!
The times I've bowled in PBA proams (one ladies, one mens's supposedly the shot for the tournament). has left me with this general impression. The patterns are made to embarass the area bowler.
Characteristics are good amounts of head oil, OB to the outside of the lanes, very little hold area, a two or 3 board break area that will hit the pocket at 45 feet.
To be continued!!!!