Quote Originally Posted by J Anderson View Post
I admit that I have not tried a two handed delivery because I strained the muscles in my lower back about 30 years ago and the way Belmo and Osku got their backs parallel to the floor made it look like I would be asking trouble by trying it.

As I think about it, most of the people I know who are middle aged already have some sort of physical problem, especially those who have worked blue collar jobs, or those who are “weekend warriors” going out and pretending their still 18 after sitting at a desk for most of the week. I have a feeling that encouraging kids to learn two handed is not going to doom them to a life of pain when they hit middle age. As a coach I don’t really try to push kids toward one style or the other, I just try to get them to execute their own style as effectively and safely as possible. I don’t mind if the experiment in practice, switching back and forth between the two. However once they decide to go two handed, I encourage them to use two hands even on corner pins.
I'm in that same camp. I never got really low to the foul line even when I was a kid, because I grew up bowling in a house that was all wood, with on-top ball returns, and oiled the lanes with a bug sprayer. And I wouldn't say they ever really covered the whole width of the lane when they did. The place stayed open 50 years and never had an honor score shot.

What that forced everyone to do was loft it to the rafters, so the style I became comfortable with was to be somewhat upright at the line, hitting up/leveraging the ball in order to clear the heads. I never knew how that permeated my game until the first time I was filmed while practicing, probably 10-20 years later, and while I thought I was getting down at the line, I really wasn't. Also by that time, the effect of those old baseball knee injuries were making it tough to get low.

Recently I've seen some instructional videos for two-handers that dial back a bit on the "you must get parallel" advice. I don't feel like my back is really a part of the delivery. My obliques, yes. If I get some mild soreness it's usually there. The only time I get back soreness is when I get too far forward and too far parallel, too quickly in the approach.

I may have said it above, but my son is learning to bowl and he can throw it either one- or two-handed right now. I'm not going to force him into either style; I'll let him pick. But if injury preservation is a factor, we shouldn't forget the various hand ailments that one-handers can get that two-handers avoid outright.

Jess