Physical Game Drills to Improve Your Bowling – Part 3

In my last two articles, I covered the swing drill and the slide drill. The third and final drill in this series of my top three physical game drills covers the ball start drill.

I use this drill a lot with beginning and advanced bowlers alike, and everyone in between. One big advantage of this drill is that it is one of the few drills that can be done at home, because it doesn’t require much space or that you release the ball.

The ball start drill

While not quite as versatile as the slide drill, the ball start drill can be used to correct several different elements, and influence several others. As its name implies, the focus is most often on the pushaway direction (please note that I use the terms “ball start” and “pushaway” interchangeably), but I often also use this drill to correct footwork, like the crossover step. Both of these things influence overall footwork direction, timing, and even spine tilt.

In my last article, I mentioned how I avoid using the term “one-step drill” because it gets confused between the first and last step. In the case of the ball start drill, I don’t like calling it the one-step drill because for bowlers who take more than four steps, the drill needs to include all the steps leading up to the ball start, so it could involve two, three, or even four steps.

The video I’ve prepared below shows me doing the ball start drill with a youth bowler from my league. While this drill is easier to do with a coach helping you, it is entirely possible to do it alone, provided you are giving yourself the correct cues and getting ...