Starting position and getting around the ball

[bowl1820]

Just some rambling thoughts here:

There's a old book "Bowling: Knowledge is Key" by Fred Borden in it there's a part where he talks about "vertical placement" (Holding the ball higher or lower).

In it he talks about not holding it higher or lower to increase or decrease speed. But use it as a way of controlling arm swing timing to match the tempo of your feet movements. Raising the ball retards the arm swing in relation to the feet movement, lowering the ball advances the arm swing timing in relation to the feet movements

So Bowlers with a naturally fast tempo, hold the ball lower to match up with their footwork. Those with a slower tempo, hold the ball higher because it retards the swing.

Now if holding the ball higher retards the swing, that would mean it would be basically a longer, slower swing. And so the higher you hold it, the longer and slower the swing be.

Now if your trying to increase speed , using a longer and slower swing wouldn't help. You would wind up having to accelerate your arm through that longer, slower swing. Not only To make up for the speed you lost with the longer swing, but to get that extra speed you wanted in the first place. That would mean adding muscle to the swing, but muscling isn't something we want to do.

Now if you increase or decrease speed using foot work (as Bryan O'Keefe's article suggests). then using a lower ball height for faster and higher one for slower makes makes sense, because it's just matching up the swing timing with the foot work. Plus you can still have a free swing, with no muscles involved to increase the speed.

It just seemed to me that you could infer from Fred's idea above, that if you wanted to increase ball speed by faster footwork. You would have to hold the ball lower. And that is the basic idea put forth by Bryan O'Keefe's article. Increase ball speed by holding ball lower with faster footwork. Hold higher with slower footwork for slower ball speed. So to me it would seem to support Bryan's idea.

It's kind of a old idea, now new again.

I know it got rambling there.

[billf]

It's not rambling when you put it in such a way so everybody can grasp the idea. As for the "push away" comment posted previously, if you're still using the push away instead of the hinge method, you are losing out. Rhino Page starts with the ball low and doesn't muscle it into the backswing.

[edpup316]

There is two angles in the video. It changes about 2:40 in and i missed and edit so you might see my gf's mom in there also. Let me know what you think!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmbmM...ature=youtu.be

[billf]

I saw the video including the left handed female. I stand by what I said earlier that you disagree with. That is a muscled swing, not a free arm swing. You force the last part of the back swing and come slightly behind your back. Two more factors in a muscled swing. You're three for three. I do like the ball speed.

[edpup316]

I agree that i muscle it at the end which for me is a big improvement from my fully controlled swing i use to have. Anybody else want to take a shot at me? I want to get rid of any flaws i have as quickly as possible.

[jimlc2001]

I did notice that you fell a couple times to the right when you really over muscled the ball. Not sure how to correct it, but slowing down my tempo usually resolves the problem for me.

[Tampabaybob]

The video does show you appearing to muscle the ball quite a bit. Part of your (perceived) ball speed problem is also the sped of your footwork. I agree with Jimic that you're falling to the right after delivery on a few shots. Try to maintain your balance on your slide foot until the ball drops off of the pin deck. "Usually" if you slow down your fist step, that can correct your speed.

Anytime you fall to the right after delivery, your feet are too fast and you're getting to the line ahead of your ball. If you fall to the left, your ball is ahead of you. Watch some others as they bowl and see if they fall one way or the other and you'll see what I mean. Your approach steps should be slow, slow, quick, quick. I think you're very close to being there, just a touch too fast on a few shots.

Ok, just watched the video again, and noticed that when you're off balance for right leg behind you is really kicking up hard. One of the shots, where your remain balanced, you didn't kick your leg as hard, and it stayed closer to the floor. try keeping your right leg a little lower ( if not even having your foot on the floor) and that should also help maintain your balance at the line.

Good video, try some of these ideas and post another video.

Bob