Tips for Sliding?

[BowlingNewbie]

Hi friends!

I'm back begging for help lol! So I thought that I slide when I bowl, but I went bowling with my fiance the other day and she was saying that I plant my foot quite hard and don't slide at all. Which is probably why my left leg (I'm a righty) hurts everytime I bowl. My shoes are clean and have a good slide on them, but I just plant too hard I guess?

Any tips to get over that? Anything I can do outside of the lanes to practice sliding?

Thanks in advance!

[vdubtx]

What type of shoes do you have? What type of approach? If you are planting and not sliding, perhaps start your approach further back to hopefully initiate the slide to get to the line.

One thing I do at home on laminate floors is just have socks on and do an approach like you normally would on the lanes.

[swingset]

I'm a strange person to give this advice as I plant and don't slide much at all, but if you want to slide more practice without your ball and point your toe into the last "slide" step. Get VERY used to doing this and sliding without the weight of the ball in the swing. When you're comfortable with it, start with a 1-step swing/approach and work on nothing but the slide. Repeat, then do a 3-step and slide, repeat, then a normal approach.

It takes some confidence and a lot of work to get a slide. There are benefits to a slide, no doubt about it in terms of timing and stress on the leg, but there are downsides too...which can be inconsistency on the slide foot, being more sensitive to approach conditions, etc.

I prefer no slide, but I can slide if I want to.

[MICHAEL]

I have just started to learn to wear bowling shoes, and slide myself! NEVER slid before! In fact did that 300 game on league a few months ago, with a pair of sandals! I did get a nice pair of comfortable Dexter's! I think without a doubt the slide is going to help a bunch, and my new goal is to have a 210 average this fall! I am sure it will be a much better delivery, vs the abrupt stop style I was using. It will be interesting to see this fall how it all works out.

[bowl1820]

Hi friends!

I'm back begging for help lol! So I thought that I slide when I bowl, but I went bowling with my fiance the other day and she was saying that I plant my foot quite hard and don't slide at all. Which is probably why my left leg (I'm a righty) hurts everytime I bowl. My shoes are clean and have a good slide on them, but I just plant too hard I guess?

Any tips to get over that? Anything I can do outside of the lanes to practice sliding?

Thanks in advance!

Not having seen you on the approach it would be hard to say for sure.

But a likely cause of your not sliding is that your weight is shifted too much toward your heel. This has the effect of "putting the brakes on" and stopping your slide.

Try shifting your body weight forward slightly, putting more weight toward the ball of your foot. This will take pressure off your heel and allow more slide.