Changing Finger Position vs Moving Laterally vs Changing Balls

[bobforsaken]

My strike shot consistency has improved dramatically as of late. For me personally, the biggest problem I seem to have is when I notice the strike shot starting to creep high and know I'm about to leave a 4 or a 9 pin, I'm not sure what adjustment I should make.

A 1 and 1 move seems to bring me from going in a bit high to a bit weak (or even too weak, leaving a 2 pin combo)
A 1 and 0 move seems to work once sometimes depending on the ball. Some balls go back high flush.. some start leaving 10 pins. Of course I know I can't repeatedly make 1 and 0 moves forever.
2 and 1 moves generally behave the same as a 1 and 1 where I start coming in weak..
3 and 2 moves are more of the same.

I've had a little success switching balls since many of my balls are very close to each other.. I can generally make a very slight ball down and stay in the pocket until the line dries out a little more and allows for a lateral move like a 2 and 1 or 3 and 2. (with the original "stronger" ball)

How do you all deal with this, or is this problem I'm experiencing because I'm a lower rev player? It seems like I may be able to adjust my finger position instead of changing balls to stay in the pocket, but I've not experimented with that yet. Are finger position/AOR adjustments pretty standard adjustments that I've been overlooking? or do most bowlers just make lateral adjustments and end up back flush?

[vdubtx]

I do make finger adjustments when I need to. I typically tuck my pink under which gives me a bit more revs and for me stops me from going too far around the ball. When I need to take a little bit off the ball, I untuck. I also vary the width of the span of the pinky and index finger to help take some off the ball as well. Putting index and pinky out further from ring and middle takes some revs off.

Check out Ron Clifton's tips on this: LINK

[Amyers]

I haven't really had a whole lot of success with making small moves in and keeping the same ball either. I tend to play more inside the 2nd arrow to 3rd arrow areas but I find my best two options are to tighten my line up (not let it drift as far out with out really moving my feet) Keeps the ball in the oil longer or to make a big move inside and ball up aggressively. I've tried finger position changes but the small ones don't seem to make much difference the larger changes do but I tend to be very inaccurate with them.

[vdubtx]

The finger position tweaks are subtle, but they do work.

[bobforsaken]

Thanks for the feedback. I'll play around with finger positions a bit during practice this week and see what kind of reaction I can get. I know in the past i've struggled to be accurate when I change from my base finger position.. but I may just need to press through it in practice.

[jab5325]

Finger position tweaks are great if you can do it without messing up timing/other aspects of your shot.

For many bowlers, finger tweaks lead to disaster.

[RobLV1]

Where is your "usual" starting position (feet/eyes)? Unless a whole lot of bowlers on your pair are using plastic strike balls, the line should be drying up pretty quickly, so a one and one or two and one move should not result in light hits. A couple of us in one of my leagues have taken to staying away from a found strike line during practice just to preserve it for another couple of frames. I'm also a lower rev player and typically end up moving anywhere from five to eight boards left with my feet and three to six boards left with my eyes over the span of three games.

One thing that you might want to try is balling up as you move left. Just make sure that you are opening your hips and shoulders to allow you to project the ball right to the break point as you move.

Personally, I do not recommend finger position changes to my students. I'd much rather see them keep the same feel on their releases, and learn to manage changing lanes with lateral moves and ball changes.

[bobforsaken]

My feet are usually between 15 and 22 and my eyes between 8 and 12 on a fresh condition. Depends on the day.. Same league same pair same night. Last week I was doing great 19 to 10 or 20 to 11 through all 3 games. This week I started 17 to 8 and ended 19 to 9. I'm not sure why, but I just have issues making a move from coming in slightly high to a nice flush hit, even with a slight 1 and 1 move. .Last night I did pretty well (653 series) without throwing a real stinker. My low game was 201. I made some ball changes from the Thug Unruly to the IQ Fusion or Optimus and was able to stay on a line a bit longer. Last game I tried changing finger positions. From my typical as wide spread as possible index finger (pinkie tucked) to the index finger spread only about a finger width. It gave me about 5 more shots on the same line after I came in high and left a 4 pin. I was then able to move one board left and go back to my normal finger position and ended out the game solid.