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Thread: Teaching my son-technique question

  1. #1
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    Default Teaching my son-technique question

    So growing up in my mid to late teens (over 20 years ago) I did a lot of bowling. Taught myself to bowl with house balls using just a fingertip grip/no thumb and spinning the ball as much as possible. Actually got pretty good and at my best could regularly break 200 at least once every trip to the lanes.

    So fast forward to now and my 15 year old son has gotten really interested in bowling and is looking to possibly join league/school teams in the future. I've taught him the same technique and in the last 6 weeks he's gotten pretty good at it. He's even had a 201 game and can get up around 160 to 180 most games. A nice lady at the alley let him pick from a box of used balls and he ended up with a Hammer "Blue Hammer" ball that we're guessimating weighs around 14# or maybe a little more. I've got a couple of other used balls coming in to play around with before we tried to buy a nicer one for him.

    My question is: should he keep on working with this style? Or should he (we) learn to learn to roll the ball with thumb in? He's new to the game and I'm covered in rust so starting over wouldn't be a huge deal to me. What do you guys think? Would it be better for him in the long run?

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    High Roller Phonetek's Avatar
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    For me I couldn't score squat without a thumb. There are times I wish I could with all my thumb issues. I doubt if I started from scratch I'd use the no thumb technique. I'd no doubt go "new release" before no thump or even two handed. That's just me though, I'm not sure what would be right for you guys. I'm not qualified to say.

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    We've dabbled with the two handed style some and it feels so unnatural to both of us. I kinda feel like I'd prefer to learn to throw the ball, thumb in, rather than what I'm doing now. It's very hard to get low on the release and I've learned I don't slide at all. It's all arm with my current roll.

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    High Roller Phonetek's Avatar
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    There are some great instructional videos on here and youtube. Bowl1820 the site mod posts tons of them. He just posted one the other day on the new release which I'm pretty sure I'm going to try. I'm still a little on the fence about it but I think I will. Check it out and see if it's something you'd be interested in learning. It seems to be the direction the game is going these days, the old days are gone. BTW, the dialog is in Japanese but it's subtitled. I just muted it and watched. Here is the thread to the video

    http://www.bowlingboards.com/threads...-Lowdown-learn

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    Oh ok! I see what you were talking about now.

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    I tried a couple of times without a thumb and it was ugly. Never again. We have quite a few in our league that bowl without the thumb. I'm guessing maybe 5 or 6. None are very consistent and I have to think it is because of the thumb. The one had a 300 about 2 months ago but his average is about a 180. We have one on our team. His average is 180 and he can throw the occasional 200 but he is very inconsistent. He doesn't get many strikes because he misses the pocket alot but is good with picking up spares. Me and a fellow bowler were just talking about this a couple of weeks ago and he said he doesn't think a no thumb bowler can ever have an over 200 average. I'm sure there are some (not counting 2 handed bowlers). All I know is of the 5 or 6 we have I think the highest average is about 180. That is a pretty good average but when you consider out of about 100 bowlers in our league the league average is probably closer to 200, well they are all below average then. But so am I so I can't criticize.
    Last edited by boatman37; 03-15-2018 at 05:31 PM.

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    Being someone who has bowled a TON of frames (back in the day) with no thumb, I can tell you that getting my hands on a properly drilled ball has me agreeing with you. I don't know that a no thumb roller couldn't be really good, but I do feel like thumb in gives more control just from the short time I've been trying it.

    House balls lead to bad habits

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dice View Post
    Being someone who has bowled a TON of frames (back in the day) with no thumb, I can tell you that getting my hands on a properly drilled ball has me agreeing with you. I don't know that a no thumb roller couldn't be really good, but I do feel like thumb in gives more control just from the short time I've been trying it.

    House balls lead to bad habits
    House balls do lead to bad habits, usually for people who use their thumbs because the holes are so large, people have to squeeze. Then we they finally get their own ball, they think the thumbhole is too small because they are squeezing and can't get the thumb out cleanly.

    The beauty about bowling is you can bowl your own way and own style. I would say bowl which ever way you want to as long as you don't have any physical issues with it. Also when bowling with the thumb in, I would assume that your overall rev rate will most likely go down. Also you may want to check out Tom Daugherty. He's a current pro who bowls one handed without using his thumb. Although, he does shoot his spares using the thumb.

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    I am far from an expert but is seems that if people always stuck with the traditional way you would find out what may work for an individual. look at all the different styles in the PBA. not too many years back everyone would scoff at bowling two handed. plus there are many variations on a particular style. If it works for you then there is nothing wrong with it but you may find that using your thumb will eventually improve your game even more.

    one thing i would like to mention though, at least for me having a good fit frees you up from worrying about dropping the ball, relaxes the arm and helps to create a more relaxed arm swing and improved timing.
    Last edited by bdpeters; 03-16-2018 at 11:33 AM.

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