Ambidextrous

[J Anderson]

In order not to hijack the "Changing balls for fun" thread I will reply to the questions about switching hands over here.

Fordman1 wrote:"I don't know where Janderson bowls but on the pro bowlers allow bowlers to switch hands during league play. Even switching from week to week isn't legal. If you have to switch because of injury you must establish a new avg. The league must also approve the switch".

I bowl in two USBC sanctioned leagues here in Fairfield, and one that isn't. Some years I bowl both sanctioned leagues with the same hand, sometimes I will bowl one left handed for the season and the other right. I can understand that switching hands in the middle of a game might be considered an unfair advantage as far as making certain spares. Even in my unsanctioned league where I don't think anyone would complain, I do not switch in mid game. I fail to see why it should require a vote by the league board of directors for someone to switch back to their natural hand after recovering from an injury. Given computerized record keeping there is little extra work involved in having second average for the other hand. I would for the sake of the secretary's sanity use the same hand for a whole set.

Aslan cliff notes: I abide by the USBC rules when I have to, wish I could go by the PBA rules.

[Tony]

I bowled left handed for a year and a half, I was informed that there was no switching or switching back without informing the league and getting approval. Of course the approval was not an issue but I am certain that switching back and forth game to game or night to night would have been an issue with other teams as I was in a sanctioned league. Several bowlers noticed I had switched and asked the league president, enough that he had it printed on the recap sheets for a couple of weeks so everyone was aware. I had 2 averages / handicaps in the system with the middle name of left and right to show the difference. The league president and bowling center general manager reviewed the rules to ensure that we were in compliance. According to them, once I switched all games must be bowled with the left hand and once I switched back all games must be right handed, any deviation would result in forfeit of the game.

Of course if it were legal I would at least consider shooting 6/10 pin spares lefty, it would certainly be a higher percentage shot for me.

[billf]

Our association with the help of the center, keeps all variations seperated even two handed. The USBC no longer differentiates for two handing as rule 118B states a bowler can go from one handed to two handed at any time they so desire and back again at will so long as they stay with the same dominant hand. How that is really any different than using either hand isn't real clear to me. I don't see any "unfair advantage" as long as the opportunity exists across the board.

I haven't bowled left handed since I purchased my Dexter Tanks. I'm fairly sure that if I had the SST8s instead I would still bowl at least one league left handed. Heck, if I knew as much about targeting then as I do now I would never have went right handed.

[RobLV1]

There are several rule differences between the USBC and the PBA. Changing hands is one, as outlined below. Others include reracking: the USBC allows unlimited reracking, while the PBA limits reracks to two per game, and in the PBA rules, reracking must be the first order of business; once a bowler has picked up his ball, he cannot rerack. Yet another concerns bowling on the wrong lane: in the USBC, no ball thrown on the wrong lane counts, whereas in the PBA a ball thrown on the wrong lane does not count if it's a strike, but anything less than a strike counts towards the bowlers score.

[J Anderson]

Our association with the help of the center, keeps all variations seperated even two handed. The USBC no longer differentiates for two handing as rule 118B states a bowler can go from one handed to two handed at any time they so desire and back again at will so long as they stay with the same dominant hand. How that is really any different than using either hand isn't real clear to me. I don't see any "unfair advantage" as long as the opportunity exists across the board.

I haven't bowled left handed since I purchased my Dexter Tanks. I'm fairly sure that if I had the SST8s instead I would still bowl at least one league left handed. Heck, if I knew as much about targeting then as I do now I would never have went right handed.

Before taking the Bronze class I felt the same way about two-handers being allowed to switch back and forth form two hands to one. After learning that the second hand is only acting to keep the ball on the dominant hand through the swing and is completely off the ball at release I understand that it's really just a different technique. In a way saying that a two-hander had to use two hands on every shot would be like telling Norm Duke he couldn't throw a slight back-up ball at the ten pin..

[NYMIKE]

I believe the reason USBC does not allow hand switch is to deter sandbagging, in my league last year the top bowler was doing it at the end of some games, he was decent on his left hand but no way he be averaging 190. Nobody blew the whistle on him, this year my league merged with another league, and there are more old timers, they would not allow him this. That bowler recovered my shoes that I forgot and returned them to me. Also when he did it against us we were beating his team badly. His explanation was his shoulder is hurting. He is kind of a swimming pool shark, he would not join another league on another night where 190 is a minimum.

[J Anderson]

I believe the reason USBC does not allow hand switch is to deter sandbagging, in my league last year the top bowler was doing it at the end of some games, he was decent on his left hand but no way he be averaging 190. Nobody blew the whistle on him, this year my league merged with another league, and there are more old timers, they would not allow him this. That bowler recovered my shoes that I forgot and returned them to me. Also when he did it against us we were beating his team badly. His explanation was his shoulder is hurting. He is kind of a swimming pool shark, he would not join another league on another night where 190 is a minimum.

I can see where if you had only one average for right and left handed, the games bowled with the non-dominant hand would cause the average to be lower, giving you an advantage when using the dominant hand. You would be at a disadvantage for the non-dominant hand.

[fordman1]

If you go to bowl.com and if you are lucky enough to find anything there. Look for rules and rule 118b/1 in commonly asked questions will give you the answer to bowling with a different hand during bowling.

There is also some mumbo jumbo about two handed bowling.

[billf]

Before taking the Bronze class I felt the same way about two-handers being allowed to switch back and forth form two hands to one. After learning that the second hand is only acting to keep the ball on the dominant hand through the swing and is completely off the ball at release I understand that it's really just a different technique. In a way saying that a two-hander had to use two hands on every shot would be like telling Norm Duke he couldn't throw a slight back-up ball at the ten pin..

I still don't really see a difference lol. I have no issue with the current ruling allowing two handers to go back and forth at will just as I see no reason that people should have to stay with the same dominant hand.