Graaille

PROBLEM NO. 4 INCONSISTENCY TO THE TARGET

Once again, this problem is mostly a physical issue with different causes. But the most common is a change in your timing.

Alterations in your timing--even slight ones--can cause your direction to the target to change dramatically. If your timing is a little late, you're likely to throw the ball farther right because your shoulders haven't squared to the target when your body has reached the finish. If your timing is a little early, you'll probably tug your shot inside of the target, because your shoulders have closed past square as your body reaches the foul line.

Another flaw in your physical game, an inconsistent swing path, can also cause inconsistency to the target. If your swing varies, it will show up in the direction by which the ball leaves your hand and travels down the lane. The swing that causes the most inconsistency is the type that wraps too far behind your back on the backswing, which naturally causes you to have to wrap it back around on the follow-through. Doing this causes you to continually change direction, so it hurts your accuracy dramatically. The important thing to work on is letting the swing move relatively straight back on the backswing and keeping the ball close to your body on the forward swing. A consistent swing will improve your accuracy to the target.

One more factor in your physical game that can affect your consistency to the target is your release. To be accurate to the target, you must release the ball in the same way on each shot. If on one shot your hand is in a strong position and you get through the shot well, and on the next shot you turn the ball early and get your hand on the side of the ball too soon, you'll get two different results. Keeping your hand pressure consistent from shot to shot is important, too. If on one shot you grab with your fingers and on the next you let the ball fall off softly, you'll change the direction and the nature of the ball to your target.

Additionally, in respect to bowling balls, a proper fit is important to your accuracy. If you have to spend a lot of energy and use a lot of tension to hold on to the ball, it will affect how well you repeat shots--in a night's time, you'll straggle to make consistent shots if your ball fit is improper. Again, work with your pro shop operator to develop a grip that's right for you.

Finally, your consistency to the target can be affected if you're playing in the wrong area of the lane. If you choose to line up in an area where the heads have very little oil or are spotty, your ball may start hooking before you can even see it. (I'm assuming you're focusing on the arrows farther down the lane.) When this happens, you may think you're pulling the ball, because it often rolls inside of the target. In this case, if you move to a part of the lane where the heads have more oil, you may find that your accuracy improves. By improving your accuracy to the target, you increase your chances of pocket shots--and anytime you can hit the pocket more often, you have an opportunity to throw more strikes and improve your scores.

By troubleshooting your own game, you can be more solution-conscious and less problem-conscious. This helps your frame of mind and gives you more confidence. Competence equals confidence, and now you'll have more of both.

PROBLEM NO. 5

MY RELEASE IS INCONSISTENT

If I had to pick one area where I receive the most questions, it's the release. So many people complain that their release is not strong or consistent enough. For most, it's apparent once the ball leaves their hand whether or not they're happy with the shot. If the shot isn't what they wanted, most people put the blame on their release.

There's an equation that helps in this regard: T + S = R (Timing plus Swing equals Release). In the grand scope of things, the release is dependent on what came before it, namely the timing and swing. You may be able to identify a "bad" release, but in most cases it is caused by something that came before the moment of truth. It's important to explore the relationship between timing and release, and swing and release.

Your timing is likely the No. 1 factor in determining your release, for several reasons. The first is what happens to your body at release with early or late timing. Good timing is created when your body leads the swing slightly going into your final step. This allows your body to be in a powerful position, with the arm continuing to swing strongly all the way to the finish. If your swing leads the body into the release area, you'll have nothing to swing through, and your arm and release will feel weak.

In many cases, the hand will turn inward early, causing energy to "leak" out of the release. Usually this means the ball will hit the pins a little flat and leave weaker hits like the 5-pin, the 5-7 split, the 4-5 split, or a weak 10-pin. With early timing, you will often feel like you've dropped the ball. Your shoulders will be closed at the point of release, making you miss your target to the inside. All of these things make you feel like your release is the problem, when actually timing is the culprit.

With late timing, your body leads the arm into the finish by too big a margin. Your body sets up strongly at the finish, but will have to wait too long for the swing to come through. When this happens, you will feel like you have to pull the ball through the release area, which causes excessive shoulder rotation in the release area so that the ball is projected in varying paths. You may feel as if you're sending it way right if you get an "early" release and way left if you get a "late" release.

In both instances, you probably get what feels like a "handful" because you have to use a lot of energy to get the ball through the release area. With this later timing, you also may hang up in the ball a little at the release point because your hand is pulling the ball through this area, trying to get back into time. Your whole body braces with this late timing, and often you will pull up and out of the release area because you are using so much energy to get the ball through the swing. This affects your release dramatically.

Your armswing can also affect your release. It has a big influence on the direction the ball takes as you release it, but it also affects how it comes off of your hand. The forward swing is the most important part of the motion in relation to the release. As the ball starts from the top of the swing toward the release point, many people run into trouble. It's crucial that your arm stays close to your body; in fact, your upper arm needs to feel like it works in closer to your body. If your upper arm works away from your body, your hand will get to the outside part of the ball early and you will lose a lot of strength out of your release.

You may have been told once, "Stay behind the ball." What that refers to is your hand staying in a position where your fingers are at 6 o'clock, not 3:30. If your armswing rotates away from you on the forward swing, your hand cannot maintain a "behind the ball" position. You already will have given up part of the strength in your release because you "turned early." To keep your swing on line, as well as keeping your hand in a strong position going into the release, it's important that the swing stay close to your body as your arm moves forward.

The speed of your swing is another important factor. Many bowlers allow their arm to swing at a speed that doesn't match their footwork. A fast swing, especially when it isn't timed well with your feet, will often lead to the ball coming off of your hand with very little separation between the thumb leaving the ball and the fingers leaving the ball. It feels like you miss the release. Keeping the speed of the swing matched up with your footwork is very important.

The height of the swing can also cause problems. Sometimes a low backswing will cause you to decelerate on the forward swing just so your body can get to the line ahead of the ball. Your body knows if you let the arm swing at a normal pace from the top of this low swing that the ball would beat it to the release, so it just slows the swing down. When this happens, you will have difficulty getting through the ball with as much power as you would normally have. As you decelerate, your hand will usually grab more of the ball and your wrist will want to collapse, because the speed of the swing is not keeping the ball up in your hand as well as it could. This results in a weaker and more inconsistent release.

Another cause of release inconsistency is varying grip pressure. If on one roll you grab the ball tightly and the next time you let your hand relax, you will get two different releases. One ball may hook a lot and the other may not hook at all. It's important that you have enough grip pressure to keep a hold oh the ball, but you don't want to squeeze too hard. It's much like holding a bird in your hand: If you squeeze too hard you will kill it, and if you let your hand relax too much the bird will fly away. There has to be enough pressure to hold on to the ball, and that pressure needs to be consistent. When you develop a consistent grip pressure, you will enjoy a more consistent release.