Spine tilt nothing new?

[sprocket]

You hear a lot about how important spine tilt is in the modern game but is it really anything new? Weren't there many bowlers from the past that used a lot of spine tilt? Earl Anthony comes to mind. Also Don Carter. How about Mike Aulby? I think there are many others as well. So even back 50 years ago there were pro bowlers with a lot of spine tilt and then there were those who were more upright.

Isn't that still the case today? Or is it that now the percentage who employ a lot of spine tilt is higher than in the past?

There's still so much than can be learned by great bowlers of the past. Earl Anthony still has a fantastic physical game even by today's standards. The only oddity I see in Earl's game is that he appears to have early timing. It's funny; Mark Baker talks about the bowling "timing spot" and how virtually all pros, male and female, get to the same timing spot when their sliding heel hits the floor. He says there are two notable exceptions one being Marshal Holman who has early timing and the other being Jason Couch who has very late timing. I don't know how he missed Earl Anthony unless I am wrong about Earl's early timing. His downswing appears to me to have been well into the release zone when his slide heel hit the floor.

Anyway I'm getting off topic. Spine tilt: I say it is nothing new and works now for the same reasons it worked in the past. Maybe the discussion is about the types of roll used by bowlers in the past with spine tilt. Was it more the strokers? Did the crankers tend to be more upright where as now the crankers have more spine tilt?

Discuss....

[bowl1820]

Is spine tilt new?

No, I'd say just the amount and the reasons for doing it are.

I have a old Fred Borden book from the mid. 80's where he recommends a 15 degree tilt ( with a 20 degree knee bend), this was to help maintain balance and to help generate forward momentum.

Then I have a Don Johnson book from 73, while he doesn't mention tilt directly. If you look at him and the students in the pictures, they all a forward tilt just not as pronounced as they do today.

40-50 years ago they were wanting lift on the ball like rob said in another thread, so they didn't use a lot of forward tilt (Now They didn't want you ramrod straight either). Plus they didn't really have"crankers" like today, meaning bowlers who were putting 300-400-500 rpm on a ball.

[RobLV1]

What a great question! It's not a coincidence that two of the bowlers that you mention; Earl Anthony and Mike Aulby were both lefties. Traditionally most lefties utilize what is now called "roll timing," timing that used to be called early. Their roll was created, in part, by their forward spine tilt. The crankers of the past stood more upright with very little spine tilt because they needed to lift or "hit up" on the ball, to get the extra revolutions that they were trying to impart with their late timing (now called "leverage timing"). With the advent of modern bowling balls and lane conditions, lifting the ball is no longer desireable because it tends to create very inconsistent ball reactions. To keep from hitting up on the ball, and also to make sure that they are able to project the ball down the lane, modern bowlers have incorporated more forward spine tilt that increases all the way through the bowler's approach and continues through the release.

Rob Mautner