Unsure of new advice ...

[Konvict1982]

So after rolling my first 600 a few weeks ago I fell into a slump for 2 weeks and didn't break out of it until just this past Sunday/Monday night in league. Not only did I break out of a slump my overall game improved drastically. Now this occurred after talking to a friend of our Monday night team's captain who was subbing with us (225+ average). He was giving me pointers and advice on what to practice and how to practice that week and everything worked beautifully shooting a total of 4/6 games in the 200+ range for league where I normally have maybe one a week.

He came back and subbed for us again this week and was impressed with my improvement I believe and after i lost my focus in the last game and stopped hitting my spares he gave me advice for practicing this week. His advice for this week was that I need to keep my shoulders square instead of dropping my right shoulder. Now i have been working on dropping my shoulder for a smooth swing for the better part of 6 months to get it where it is now and was under the impression that I needed to drop my shoulder to get that smooth swing I have now achieved. The guy who has been giving me advice however says that keeping my shoulders squared will increase my accuracy.

Everything else he has suggested has worked for me but I am not sure about squaring my shoulders since I have done practice drills at home and it doesn't feel natural. I plan on giving it a try today when i hit the alley for practice but just wanted to see if there is any truth to accuracy improving for most bowlers when they square their shoulders or if the majority of bowlers are dropping their shoulder.

Something else to point out the guy giving me advice is older and has a slower more relaxed approach and release but is deadly accurate.

[Joker]

a lot of pros today will drop their shoulders to get "more room" to swing the ball from left to right. Its common and a lot of people feel more comfortable than the old school style of squaring up their shoulders. That being said, its more difficult to be as accurate with open shoulders because your arm swing is free and theres a lot of variables, take golf for example. If you open your shoulders you can get more distance, but theres less room for error. Thats why often times pros will close up their shoulders shooting at their spares because it increases accuracy and sometimes will close their shoulders up when they want to play a straighter line esp when playing outside.

[RobLV1]

Not dropping your shoulder is advice coming from the time of the dinosaurs! It goes right along with following through to the ceiling, and "hitting up" on the ball to increase your rev rate. There are loads of really well-intentioned high average bowlers who give out free advice to "help" other bowlers. The advice is undoubtedly well-intentioned, but detrimental to the modern game.

[Konvict1982]

a lot of pros today will drop their shoulders to get "more room" to swing the ball from left to right. Its common and a lot of people feel more comfortable than the old school style of squaring up their shoulders. That being said, its more difficult to be as accurate with open shoulders because your arm swing is free and theres a lot of variables, take golf for example. If you open your shoulders you can get more distance, but theres less room for error. Thats why often times pros will close up their shoulders shooting at their spares because it increases accuracy and sometimes will close their shoulders up when they want to play a straighter line esp when playing outside.

Maybe that is what he meant since he gave me the advice after i started missing my spares. To square my shoulders when shooting my spares to improve accuracy not all the time though. Also he did mention I could play more down and in if I squared up in stead of hooking the lane.

[Aslan]

I've gotten the "square your shoulders" advice as well from the more old school type of coaches.

I think the main difference isn't squaring your shoulders, it's having your shoulders parallel to the foul line at the release point (not over-under rotating). Opening your hips and shoulders is very common in the pro game...but like Joker's golf analogy...there is a risk for amateurs that you'll have problems. I used to really open my shoulders in golf, like a John Daly kind of swing...and virtually every pro told me not to do that, not to break my front elbow, etc... Not because you CAN'T do it and get more power, etc.. But because the average beginner shouldn't add another "moving part" to their swing.

But hey, if you can get 4/6 200+ games...I should be getting advice from you...not the other way around.

[Konvict1982]

I've gotten the "square your shoulders" advice as well from the more old school type of coaches.

I think the main difference isn't squaring your shoulders, it's having your shoulders parallel to the foul line at the release point (not over-under rotating). Opening your hips and shoulders is very common in the pro game...but like Joker's golf analogy...there is a risk for amateurs that you'll have problems. I used to really open my shoulders in golf, like a John Daly kind of swing...and virtually every pro told me not to do that, not to break my front elbow, etc... Not because you CAN'T do it and get more power, etc.. But because the average beginner shouldn't add another "moving part" to their swing.

But hey, if you can get 4/6 200+ games...I should be getting advice from you...not the other way around.

Well the first week the advice he gave me was on how to loosen up and rather than throwing at my mark to just throw towards my mark. In other words don't focus so hard on hitting my mark but instead focus on just making sure the ball moved in that direction. Also he told me to slow down a lot on my spare shots and again throw towards my spare instead of at it. I think this allowed me to get out of my own head and quit over thinking it.

This past Monday his advice seemed to be more towards accuracy on my spare shots in the last game where I started either tugging or over compensating and missing my spares. He basically said squaring my shoulders would help with accuracy and take away some of the tugging on my spares.

[striker12]

konvict1982 I have been told the same thing to not drop my shoulder and square up more on my spare shooting and since I have, my spare percentage has gone up I hit more 10 pins then I use to, I would miss the 10 on the left or right side and when I got told that It actually helped out.

but just do this on your spare shooting not on your strike shots do what you are doing know for your strikes shots you are doing very well.

[Konvict1982]

konvict1982 I have been told the same thing to not drop my shoulder and square up more on my spare shooting and since I have, my spare percentage has gone up I hit more 10 pins then I use to, I would miss the 10 on the left or right side and when I got told that It actually helped out.

but just do this on your spare shooting not on your strike shots do what you are doing know for your strikes shots you are doing very well.

I will find out later today when I take my 9 y/o to practice with me. Plan on warming up shooting at 10 pins my current way then working on squaring up shoulders in 2nd game while shooting 10 pins and last game I will go all out and see what happens.