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Like it or not, as we age, balance becomes an issue with which we will all have to understand and master. Some people may be prone to balance issues due to a past injury or a chronic condition. At some time in our lives, we may have had an inner ear infection which affected our equilibrium. We were off balance for some reason we just didn’t know why? Alas, the doctor figured it out and cured us, thank goodness. Some of us may be on medication to correct a balance problem. Believe it or not, vision problems can also cause us to lose our balance. There could be a myriad of reasons for balance issues as well as a myriad of remedies for those problems.

Where does balance affect the bowler?

Balance is used on each and every shot, from the moment you pick up the ball, to taking the stance, to the start, during every step of the approach, and especially throughout the execution of the finish. When you are in the stance you are really distributing weight properly so you can have a good start. That may mean placing the weight back on the heels and then just as you are starting, transferring the weight forward.

I believe balance training is critical to any successful athlete. Remember that we bowlers are athletes; don’t let anyone tell you different. Ask the Pros who bowled in the World Series of Bowling about being physically fit athletes. They couldn’t be there without balance. Without good balance, they don’t score.

Here is one technique or “drill” which can be done in any environment to help you deal with balance issues. I recommend it be done in the quiet of your living place so you can concentrate. Simply stand in a position of “relaxed” attention with feet a normal distance apart for you, toes in line, arms at the side. Letting the arms relax, lift only the right heel, keep¬ing the right big toe just barely touching the ground with no weight on the toe. This will cause you to shift weight to the other foot. The big toe is just on the ground to help you balance. Count to 5 slowly using the cadence “1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, etc”. After the count of 5, lower the heel to the ground. (May surprise you how “less than easy” this little drill re¬ally is when done correctly!). Repeat with the left foot. When you’ve done the drill with both feet, that is one set. Do 3 sets.

During this drill, the arms should not be flailing out to the sides like a bird to help you maintain bal¬ance! They should remain just hanging by the sides. During this drill, always breathe normally. Don’t hold your breath. Once you have done 3 sets, repeat the 3 sets, but this time close your eyes. You will feel things you did not feel when you could see. Again, breathe normally and always remember to keep weight off the big toe.

Excerpts from Jack Schmid’s Feb 2010 article in BTM

It’s actually past time to start preparing for the USBC Championships. You should have started years ago! Actually, I’m only kidding a little bit. Getting lined up as a team is pretty important. Remember the Six Shot System™ of lining up? It is in the November and December 2007 and January 2008 issues of Bowling This Month. So how can this apply to a team event since it’s quite likely (slight understatement) that not all of you will get all six shots? What if you’re in a tournament that doesn’t treat bowling as a sport or bowlers as athletes? You know the type: five minutes of practice with ten people on the pair, or worse yet, one or two balls on each lane, or the ultimate insult, no warm-up between events in the doubles and singles portion of your competition, no matter how long you have had to wait.

As an athlete, even if you have never participated in any sport except bowling, you know that athletes warm up their bodies before participating. Baseball players stretch, run, poke at a few balls with the bat, have a little fielding practice, and work on their scratching and spitting techniques before every game. Football players stretch, run, work on their chest bumping skills, and hit each other in the head with their helmets. (No comment). In all athletic endeavors, even recreational players warm up before participating for score.

I only need a game or so to get loose

You absolutely cannot be a tournament bowler and need a lot of time to warm up. You can’t afford that in league either, of course, but in tournaments, it is devastating. It is not, “Let me warm up and then I’ll worry about finding the shot.” Warm up is shot-finding time. If you must, you can roll a couple of games before the tournament starts either in that house or in a neighboring one. Sometimes this isn’t possible or at least, it’s very inconvenient. You will really be better off as a tournament player to develop a quick warm-up system. It won’t hurt you any in league either. Anyway, complete your stretching routine and check to make sure all your equipment fits well today.

Although it is possible for teams that have never bowled together to win an event, it would be pretty unusual. It is much more likely that a team that has been bowling together for years would be able to get lined up faster and execute well together. They know each other’s games, can line up off one another, and they trust each other for input about lanes and ball reaction.

Now by bowling together, I don’t mean your “tournament team”, the one that gets together once a year for a reunion, where the bowling occasionally gets in the way of the partying. A true tournament team is a team that bowls together in league as well as tournaments. In fact, the purpose of bowling league together is to sharpen your tournament skills. Regardless of whether there are five or seven of you, any lineup change is either transparent in terms of its impact on the team or planned, depending on what is called for by the environment and the lane.
It is always your job to get lined up quickly. Whoever finds it first, wins. In a team event, this strategy is no different. In fact, you have a bunch of people to help you get the job done. You should all know each other’s game well enough to make good judgments about what you’re seeing today versus what you usually see. For example, if the shot your down-and-in person throws hooks earlier than normal, you should be able to tell if it was pulled or the lane/ball interaction caused the earlier than “normal” move.

JANUARY 2006 BOWLING THIS MONTH
by Dean Hinitz

“Nature’s way is simple and easy, but men prefer what is intricate and artificial.”
–Lao Tzu

There is a reason our eyes are drawn to certain athletes as they perform. Watching John Daly cream a golf ball, Barry Bonds hit a baseball, or Tommy Jones strap on the first shot of any game all have some things in common. First is undeniable raw power that you could hook a voltage meter to. Second is the near flawless execution of movement in harmony with what the laws of nature demand.

Usually we think of these qualities in terms of the physical game…and we should. Virtually all of the coaching help offered in this magazine is designed to get you and your bowling ball delivery integrated with gravity, the lanes, and the pins. But few athletes appreciate that there are mental game frames of mind that will set you up to maximize this physical game training. The intention of this month’s work is to prepare you to harness maximum technique in order to learn the power in your own natural bowling.

The beauty of natural bowling is that once you learn how to move in this way you will have a fallback mechanism to find the ultimate athlete who lives inside of you. Gymnasts, martial artists, and golfers are just a few of the athletes who rely on the principles to succeed. When you look at the top bowlers it should be easy to see nature’s basics at work. Now let’s get them working in you!

“Greatness lies not in being strong but in the right use of strength.”
–Anonymous

Natural Bowling Principle #1
The most efficient mental and physical paths are defined by nonresistance.

Bowling presents everyone who plays the game with challenges. If it didn’t, we wouldn’t do it. Problems might include limits to your physical game, untamed fears or focus problems, problems with teammates, or some other issue in the physical environment like approaches or oil patterns.
When life knocks on the door with a problem or limitation there are four ways you can approach the issue:

A) Surrender. Some people seek peace of mind by thinking or saying that they are helpless to do anything about their skill level. They believe that they have no options for responding to various competition conditions, or their ability to receive coaching and improve.

B) Ignore the situation. In a classic variation on the ostrich in the sand approach to life, many bowlers keep doing whatever they always do, even if they are failing to achieve desired results, going against what life tells them is easiest or best. The results always involve unnecessary struggles, but the energy required to raise your head and look around is, for many, too exhausting, painful, or unnerving. So bowlers often choose to adopt everything that is familiar, sacrificing what is really called for.
“From pushaway, to third step, to leverage at release, anyone who is athletic enough to be familiar with grace and correct movement, can intuitively see that what they are doing is both beautiful and natural.”

C) Resist what the ball, lanes, or life is telling you about your game. This state of affairs occurs when bowlers are clear that their game is supposed to be played a certain way, with their favorite equipment, or on the preferred part of the lanes, with just a few mental game tools. As the lanes, or the lane man, changes, bowling “death” can occur.

D) Make total use of natural forces. This is what makes bowlers as diverse as Tommy Jones and Lynda Barnes such a joy to watch. Simply put, their games are in harmony with gravity/life. From pushaway, to third step, to leverage at release, anyone who is athletic enough to be familiar with grace and correct movement, can intuitively see that what they are doing is both beautiful and natural. They use gravity by letting the ball drop itself into the swing, letting the natural swing dictate the ball path, and waiting for the ball to want to return to earth, getting their bodies ready to apply leverage when the ball hits the bottom.

“Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you cannot grow”.
–Ronald Osborn

Natural bowling Principle #2
Development follows demand.

In a nutshell, if you do not take on increasingly difficult challenges you will not further develop as an athlete. If you put yourself in high demand situations, you open the door for maximum gains. If you put yourself in teeny demand circumstances, you open yourself to teeny, or no, gains. Change in demand can look like tougher oil patterns, bowling anchor, entering a higher-level competition and etc.

When you do this, you will also have to have a tolerance for perceived failure. If you were a weightlifter who could bench press 150 pounds for eight repetitions, you would maintain a certain fitness level. However, if you bumped it up to 175 pounds you might only be able to do four repetitions. This might feel like failure at first, but you would realize that by increasing demands of yourself, doing a bit more than you were comfortable with, you have some stutter steps along the way.

In order to do this with maximum effectiveness, challenge yourself in small increments outside of your comfort zone. For example, if you are new to competition, do not start with entering a PBA regional. Start at a level that will stretch you, not demolish you. If you have never played an inside line, start with the third and fourth arrows, don’t necessarily play the Robert Smith line off of the left gutter cap.

More than anything, keep the natural process of all learning in mind. If your intention is to improve, virtually everything you do is a stepping-stone. If you can fully embrace this perspective you can enjoy both a sense of humor, and mind soothing patience as well.

Natural bowling Principle #3
Balance works… everywhere.

Balance is obviously key for the start, middle, and finish of the shot delivery. But, remember this is a principle, not just something you need to practice at the point of delivery.

Sometimes you hear about bowlers who practice hundreds of games per week, week after week, with few or no breaks. At first blush this seems like an admirable commitment. But all things in nature require down time for healing, recovery, and for learning to metabolize. Endless and ceaseless training is a prescription for burnout, injury, and locking one into the current skill level.

Look at your food, alcohol, and exercise patterns. Out of balance in any area of training or living will have uncomfortably predictable results. The same is true for balancing your reliance on outside feedback versus your internal and intuitive knowledge of how to play. Overdependence on either is like operating with less than all of the intelligence available to you.

“An overnight success usually takes about ten years.”
–Anonymous

Natural bowling Principle #4
Growth and learning happen as a matter of progression.

You really do have to crawl before you can walk. Frustration with progress is often a result of thinking that getting better looks more like a lightning bolt, than like the natural cycle of the seasons of progression. Natural order is a law of learning. Humans are funny. They believe that they can bypass the rules.

It is good to set goals. But remember they are goals! Bowlers often treat goal setting like they are making wish¬es with a genie in a bottle. Then they get upset when the wish is not granted immediately. Or worse yet, they think that once they experience the acquisition of a skill, that they should never have a down day, or lose the handle on their execution once they make some gains.

Here is the deal. If you are getting coached, and you are practicing, and you are bringing your best to your bowling efforts, then whatever happens on the lanes is a perfect step in your progression. That’s it folks. Any frustration or self-punishment you generate in your mind is needless flogging. Nothing is gained. And the negative self-talk is a reflection of arrogance, in that you think you do not have to behave in line with the principles of life and learning.

The equation for improvement is: time practicing + intensity of focus + accurate feedback (from coaching, self-awareness, and ball/pin reactions) = progress.
These are the rules. I don’t make them up; I’m just here to remind you about them. Life dances us, we don’t dance life. The principles stand as follows:

• The most efficient mental and physical paths are defined by nonresistance.
• Development follows demand.
• Balance works…everywhere.
• Growth and learning happen as a matter of progression.

Let’s break these down simply. If you are experiencing some aspect of your bowling as grating, clunky, or filled with strain, then you are in resistance to the forces of nature. Your physical game should have a sense of flow. Your mental and emotional game should reflect mature acceptance of condi¬tions, results, and processes of growth, learning, and life.

You only get better by slightly overloading your comfort zone, skill level, and conditioning. Doing what you are already good and competent at can be fun and rewarding. And it is important to fortify a sense of mastery periodically. But if you do not bring yourself to stretch beyond your comfort zone, and you may need to tell your coach to push you, you will likely stagnate at exactly your current game play level.

Balance, first, last, and always, will save your game. It will also save your peace of mind. It is easy to spot great balance in the physical game. But it takes discipline to highlight balance as one of the keys to all athletic exercises. Less common is an individual’s attention to balance in all other aspects of life. Look at your training schedule. Look at your attention to your internal sensing of what feels natural and connected, in addition to the feedback you may get from others.

Look at your emotional reactions to great and poor exe¬cution and results. These reactions should reflect balance as well. If life can jerk you around the block emotionally, your mind will lose its reflective and learning qualities. Meltdown is the likely outcome, and the little kid in you ends up feeling kicked around.

Finally, you have to recognize that life happens in order…natural order. Set your goals, get your vision straight, and then accept that every path has twists, turns, rewards, and obstacles. Some gains will come quickly; some will seem to take forever. As hard as it may be to accept, the direction of your progress is generally more important than the pace of the progress.

There is a recipe for the process of progress. As noted above: set your goals, set aside the time to train, show up with pure intention in the moments of training and competition, integrate feedback from within and without, and voila’, we have an excellent work in progress. Remember the four principles; they will immeasurably enhance your progress! By the way, if you are not laughing along the way you have missed some of the best parts of the journey.

There you have it. Throw in liberal doses of great physical game instruction and you can be a natural bowler. Like a garden that is well watered and fertilized, you will have prepared yourself for your own natural game to flower! The result is as individual, unique, and fun to watch, as you are.

Source material contributions and quotes drawn from Millman, D., “Body Mind Mastery”. New World Library. Novato, CA. 1999.

Dr. Dean Hinitz is a clinical sports psychologist in Reno, Nevada, a bowler, former competitive gymnast, and black belt in Japanese-style Karate. You can email Dean at: hinitzlimited@aol.com

Leftie Steve Fuhrman answers these questions…

The track on a ball is affected by your release, the oil volume and length on the lane, the ball surface, and the weight block. For the most part all you can control is your release and to some extent the ball surface. The other factors affect your results but are not under your direct control. That doesn’t mean you can ignore them; it means you have to take them into account in what you need to do to be effective.

A high track generally indicates that your hand is more “up the back” of the ball resulting in a more end-over-end roll. Chris Barnes is known for this kind of track and it can be very effective, especially on difficult lane conditions. A medium track indicates that your wrist is more involved with the release around the side of the ball which results in more of a side roll.

All things being equal, a medium track has more hook potential than a high track. I say potential rather than actual hook because hook is due to many factors such as ball surface, weight block, rpms, ball speed, and friction on the back end of the lane. A medium track is often considered the most versatile track and is a very good release for most lane conditions.

There are many different types of tracks and there isn’t one that is always better, but one is usually most effective with respect to control and ability to strike. The short answer is that you want to try to “match up” to the lanes. If you happen to match up so well with the lanes that an ok or errant shot still strikes the pros call this “cheating” because you have such an “unfair” advantage over someone else who has to throw the ball much more accurately to get the same result. It’s not really cheating it’s just an expression the pros use to say that someone is matching up extremely well and they will have to try to do the same or get left behind in the scoring pace.

Since there isn’t one type of track that is better for all conditions, you have to decide what track works best for you on the conditions you bowl on. If you are bowling in one bowling center all the time on a standard house shot, then you can experiment and find the one type of release that works best and stick with that. Most bowlers have one natural release, which results in one track. However with practice you can vary this to the extent that you work at it.

If you bowl in more than one center or bowl on sport conditions like you see at the USBC Open or the PBA Experience leagues then you may find that a high track will work best. On sport conditions generally “straighter is greater” and being behind the ball and “leading with your ring finger” will give you a higher track with less hook and more roll.

As with tracks, asymmetric or symmetric weight blocks aren’t better or worse, just more effective. An asymmetric weight block provides a greater chance for flare or “wobble” when the ball rolls down the lane. As the ball flares or “wobbles” down the lane it tries to align its rotation with the direction the ball is traveling. The flare usually causes the ball to hook earlier than a ball with less flare, which is what you would see with a symmetrical weight block.

If you have a slow or medium speed, you probably don’t want an asymmetric weight block unless there is a lot of oil on the lane; otherwise the ball will have a tendency to hook early and perhaps roll out before getting to the pocket. The pros call this having a shot “get tired” and guess what? That’s a big reason why you can leave 7 pins.

Right now I’m not sure I’m the best person to answer the question about carrying 7 pins. I left 18 of them last Monday night in 3 games in league, but at least I picked them all up.Two of them were “weak” 7 pins, which is when the 4 pin lays down in the gutter. The rest were “ringing” 7 pins, where the 4 pin flew up and around the 7 pin.

Weak 7s are caused by the ball hitting too far behind the headpin or too much on the 2 pin, which causes the 4 to swing out wide toward the gutter and miss the 7 completely. This could be from a shot that rolled out or is just too light. If there was just one reason, it would be easy to fix. Generally I would move 2 boards left with my feet and one board left with my mark if I leave a flat 7. You will have to find an adjustment that works for you. I encourage you to experiment and keep track of what adjustments work for you, especially when bowling at the same center, as an adjustment that works one night has a good chance of working again on a later outing.

Ringing or solid 7s are caused by the ball hitting the pocket at too flat of an angle. This could be due to going too straight to the pocket or by playing too deep, or being a touch fast. It could also be that the ball is still hooking when it gets to the pocket, rather than going into a roll.

As I left 16 of these the other night, you could say that I didn’t do a very good job of adjusting. The problem was that my normal adjustment of moving one board right and slowing down caused the ball to go high. Moving two boards right with my feet and slowing down left another ringing 7. Some nights you just won’t “match up” well.

My plan for next week, if I have the same issue with 7 pins, is to change my hand position more to go from my normal high track to a lower more medium track by changing my thumb from being at 12:00 (as seen from behind the ball) to going to more like 2:00. As I bowl mostly on sport conditions and only sub on house shots, I’m not as comfortable with coming around the ball as I used to be when I only bowled on house conditions, which are way more conducive to a larger hook. Also because of the drier conditions, I have fewer choices in my bowling ball arsenal, which is why I’m resorting to hand positions rather than switching to a ball that hooks less — I’m already throwing my ball that hooks the least.

Remember that the proper motion for the ball down the lane is skid, then hook, and then roll. If the ball doesn’t get into a roll at the right time (right varies by lane and center, and even sometimes by shot), then you can leave a 7 pin or another pin on the back row much more often than you like.

Getting to the pocket is essential, but being able to make small hand positions, or adjustments on the lane is critical to improving your carry. The pros, both men and women are masters at knowing what adjustments to make while they are striking, rather than when they stop striking.

For the rest of us my suggestion is to find one thing that works for you, whether it is to change your hand position, ball speed, or location where you stand or throw, and master that option first. When that doesn’t work, try another option, including changing balls. My personal preference is to change location first, ball speed second, change balls third, and change hand position fourth. Through years of trial and error I found that I have better scores when I go with my strengths, but I do also practice my weaknesses because more often than not the lanes want what I’m not best at.

One of the most fascinating things about bowling is there is no right answer, and you don’t have to be perfect, just close enough to strike. Once you get “dialed in” the strikes seem effortless. When you are not “dialed in” you can be in for a long night of 7 pin spare practice.

I’d much rather a beginning or intermediate student of mine have a single release and hand position that they master and move their target and/or feet position on the lane, rather than modify their release. In my opinion it’s better to be able reproduce one shot as best you can than it is to try to modify how you throw each shot. Again, it’s all about what works best for you, not what works best for most.

I hope these answers help and also spawn more questions. Also if you want to improve your game consider contacting a USBC certified coach nearby, as they have the knowledge and skill to help you reach your bowling goals.