Ball Speed Questions

[Strike Domination]

Is it wrong to alter your speed my changing your cadence to the line? As opposed to raising or lowering the ball in your stance. Some people say you should keep the feet slow for the first step(in a 4-step), but obviously different things work for different people. For me, starting off slow actually does help me feel more in control of my timing. It keeps my push away slow so I can manage exactly where and when the ball drops into the swing. I have not always bowled like this, just came across the method recently. I just notice that it becomes slightly easier to post the shot this way, and that's something I'm not too good at to begin with.

The problem for me is the ability to increase my ball speed. I normally throw probably 15-16mph off my hand, and that's a little slow to me. I would like to be at around 17mph with the ability to go back down and increase it even more. I was recently taught to use my power step more in order to increase my speed, but after doing it for a limited time, I'm starting to think that's something I should be doing whether or not I'm trying to change my speed. I think I really wasn't using it much at all before.

So I'm just looking for some advice, input, etc and maybe what you guys do to solve your speed issues. I know my swing used to loop a little bit to the left at the top of my swing(I'm right handed) so assuming I still do that maybe that has an effect on ball speed. If it's necessary, I can try to get some video of how I'm bowling these days if there's going to be other factors in determining ball speed other than what's been mentioned.

[Maine Man]

Just a tip from something I do to change speeds, and more specifically, to increase speed. I take a bigger first step when I want to increase my foot speed to the line, which helps to delay my timing a bit to generate more downward force on my backswing, thus increasing my ball speed in the process. If I want earlier timing and / or slower speed, I just take a smaller first step which keeps my strides shorter, and my swing more compact, keeping the ball on a slower even plane on the downward stroke. I hope this helps, good luck!

[Graaille]

My talking to a couple of coaches and some articles I found indicates that if you have a free armswing, the way to generate more ballspeed would be to increase your overall tempo - including your footwork. Earl Anthony espoused that to the point where when he practiced increasing ballspeed, he would attempt to throw at least 30 shots that were within .1 mph of each other, then increase it by another .1 mph. The philosophy of increasing your ballspeed by fractions at a time is more of what I'm trying to get across by this example - if you're currently 15 mph off the hand, speed everything up just a tad by holding the ball a little higher in the stance, and increasing the tempo of your overall approach. See if you can be consistant at 15.2 mph for an entire game. Repeat to be consistant at 15.4 mph, and so on, and so on. If your goal is 17-18 mph off the hand, it's easier (I think) to increment slowly than to start attempting to jump larger amounts simply because you start changing fundimentals - perhaps muscling (consciously or subconsciously) to try to 'force' the faster speed.

One trick I've heard Coach Borden and Coach Edwards say is to put your approach to music. Find a song you like that has a tempo that fits your current speed on the approach. Then find 5-7 songs that are each a bit more uptempo than your 'baseline' song, and start putting those in your head when you practice to sort of trick your body into following the song instead of trying to feel it yourself. Of course, this works both ways too, if you're a bit amped during league or tournament competition, you can think of a slightly slower song on the approach if need be to slow things down if you're putting the ball past your breakpoint due to adreneline.

Just a thought.

[Coach 3G]

I'm guessing since you are asking the question of how to deal with altering ball speeds you aren't happy with your current approach. If that is the case you probably should explore alternatives. I don't think there is any right or wrong way to do anything in bowling. There are fundamentals and commonalities between bowlers that bowl at the highest levels, but within those bowlers they all have their own unique way of accomplishing the task at hand. Find something that is comfortable for you and commit to it, practice it, and own it.

This is what I do to alter my ball speed and it is also what I teach students. I simply vary my speed by changing the ball height in the stance. The higher ball position generates more speed and the lower ball position generates less speed. I am in the habit of using 3 different ball heights, but am working on a 4th and a 5th height to give me some more variation. The key is to have different reference points you use to hold the ball at certain heights (i.e. chest, waist, etc). This is overly simplified for this post, but hopefully you get the gist of what I do.

Coach 3G

[Strike Domination]

Thanks a lot guys.

Coach, I like the fact that you mentioned there not being right or wrong in bowling for most things. Personally, I like Maine Man's approach to it the most because I'm very comfortable holding the ball waist high and bad habits creep into my game more when the ball is higher than my stomach. I will try it his way and see what happens. By the way, you were mostly right about me not being very satisfied about how my game has been going lately.

[Piggy1918]

Just curious, how are you guys measuring the ball speed? I am a new bowler who hasn't joined a league yet, do leagues record this kind of info?

[Graaille]

leagues don't record it, but it can be a good thing to know. If you bowl in a house that has a Quibica system, it will show the ball speed on the monitor. If you don't, there are other ways that involve <dun dun dunnnnn> math along with a stopwatch. For the entry level bowler, you can just watch and see how your speed compares to others around you. Slow, medium, faster, and rocket are sometimes perfectly adequate methods of describing speed.
Slow - ball takes longer than 8 seconds to get from your hands to the pins. Usually only achieved by the under 7 and over 70 bowler.
Medium - ball takes between 4-7 seconds to get from hand to pins
Fast - ball takes between 3-4 seconds to get from hand to pins.
Rocket - ball takes between 1.5 - 2 seconds to get from hand to pins. Usually only achieved by pros or high school/college males who are showing off to attractive females.

[mrbill]

I call it TEMPO..
I think of a song before I get to the Line and use the Tempo of that song to guide my speed..