Article Contents

  • 1. What is over-turn?
  • 2. The cure
  • 3. The hard cases
  • 4. Planned failures

In Part One (July Issue), I shared with you what I think are some unique ways to break the habit of turning the ball early. (To revisit my video on early turn, click here). Most, but not all, bowlers who suffer early turn also tend to over-turn the ball. Remember that the turn we are speaking of is axis of rotation (the direction the ball spins) and not rev rate (how fast it spins).

What is over-turn?

Over-turn in bowler slang is going around the ball too much. I would describe over-turn in a slightly more technical way…putting more axis rotation on the ball than the oil pattern requires. We normally think of bowlers who over-turn the ball as bowlers who produce 90 degrees or more of axis rotation and in general that is true, but sometimes 45 degrees is too much. I will mostly stick to the 90 degree bowlers, but the principles are the same if you want to learn to throw less than 45 degrees.

Rolling the ball with 90 degrees of axis rotation is not always bad. There are conditions where I teach my clients to throw 90 degrees to best match up to the oil pattern. The ...

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Ron Clifton

About Ron Clifton

Ron Clifton has been coaching at the professional level for 25 years. He conducts “Advanced Bowler Training Clinics” across the U.S. and is the inventor and manufacturer of Ron C’s Magic Carpet for thumbholes. Ron can be found on the web at www.bowl4fun.com.