How to Bowl: Getting Started

Welcome to The National Bowling Academy. I'm Eric Vermilyea, and today I'm joined by Pat. He's gonna help us out with a little tip today. We're gonna basically start from the very beginning, how to bowl. What do you start with and how do you just simply hit the pin on the front to knock some pins down? So I'm gonna enlist Pat here. I'm gonna have him start by standing at the foul line, facing back towards the settee area, away from the pins. So we're gonna start with just the basic four step approach. It's kind of how you start bowling, it's really basic, really simple to start with. So go ahead and take four normal walking steps back towards the settee area. Go right ahead. All right, now go ahead and add about another half a step or so, this is gonna allow for that slide at the end. Then go ahead and turn yourself back around. So now this is roughly your starting position. If you wanna look behind ya, you'll notice these rows of dots back here. These are all used for alignment. So you'll kinda notice how far in front of the dots you are, and that's where you're usually gonna start. So now you've got your starting position. So the very first time we bowl, just to knock the pins down, we're gonna want you to start right in the middle of the lane. If you look at these dots, you'll notice there's one that's bigger than the rest of 'em. And that's the one that's on the 20th board right in the middle of the lane. So go ahead and start right around that 20th board. It's a good starting point. From there, you want to look down the lane at the headpin. It's the pin that's right in front of ya. From that headpin, just kinda draw a line back towards where you're standing, and you'll see some markers on the lane. These are called arrows. There's seven of them out there and you kinda just look at the one that would be roughly between yourself and that headpin. So for you, roughly that third one from the right. The third arrow. Okay, so that's gonna be your targeting spot right there. So all we're gonna do, we're in the starting position. You've got your target to aim at. So let's go ahead and roll the ball over that target and see if we can get that pin in the front. So to get in the proper bowling position, I want you to go ahead and pull your right foot back just a little bit. Since you're right-handed, you're gonna start stepping forward with the right foot. This'll get you in a walking position to start with. Now that you've got the footwork started, go ahead and bend your knees a little bit, and then just kind of lean forward from the hips. Just a little bit. This'll get your whole body in an athletic position. It'll get you started actually to make an athletic motion, you know, cause it's a walking motion, the throwing a ball. You do want to get an athletic position to go. So once you've got your feet and your hips and your shoulders all kind of set up, now, go ahead and hold the ball just a little bit out in front of ya, with your forearm parallel to the ground. And this is just a really basic, really simple, starting position. So from here, we're just gonna take your first step with your right foot, and push the bowling ball at the same time. This is the key timing point for a four step approach. The ball goes the same time your foot goes, then your steps two, three, and four follow, and out from this point, all you're trying to do is roll the ball straight down the lane with your thumb in front of your fingers and follow through over that third arrow target. Go ahead and give it a whirl and see what happens. All right. Not a bad effort. So just kinda to recap. Again, we took four and a half steps from the foul line back towards away from the lanes, to get your starting position. Align yourself in the middle of the lane, off the big dot, the center dot on the 20th board. Draw a line from the headpin back towards yourself through the arrows, to pick your target to aim at. Get yourself in a good starting position with that right foot pulled back, the knees slightly bent. lean forward from the hips a little bit, get the arm parallel to the ground. And at the same time you step and push, like so. Then from there you just simply follow through with your thumb leading your fingers straight over your target. All right, well done, Pat. You're on your way to many strikes. So thanks for joining us today. Hope this tip helps you knock a few more pins down.