How to Put Your Hand Into a Bowling Ball
Scott PohlDescription
It doesn’t matter which style of bowler you are; how you put your hand in the ball has an effect on ball motion down the lane. It is important to note that when you pick up the bowling ball off of the ball return, you need to use both hands. Using both hands eliminates excessive squeezing or grip pressure. Eliminating grip pressure will allow your fingers to come out of the ball faster, helping to create more revs.
In this free video, Scott Pohl, owner of On Track Pro Shop, explains how you put your fingers into the ball and where you place the other fingers that aren’t in the ball. By learning this, you can manipulate where and when the ball hooks.
Two-Handed Bowler
The non-dominant throwing hand should be parallel to the dominant throwing hand in the stance. Your hands and fingers need to be close together when getting set up in your stance with proper ball placement.
If you set up with your hands and fingers further apart, you will have a weaker ball reaction.
Traditional Bowler
Most traditional bowlers insert their fingers into the holes and roll the bowling ball onto the thumb.
If you have a really flexible thumb or are double jointed you can try to put your thumb into the bowling ball first. You should decide for yourself which method is better.
If you want more axis rotation on the ball, try tucking your pinky in resulting in the knuckle touching the bowling ball. If you are trying to get a more end-over-end roll down the lane, position your fingers more parallel to the approach.
The goal when holding your bowling ball is not to squeeze. To help avoid squeezing, try to shift a majority of the bowling ball’s weight onto your non-throwing hand when in the stance.
Many lane play and physical game issues can be traced back to bowling ball fit problems. If you find yourself grabbing the ball to keep it in your hand throughout your swing, visit your pro shop and get your span checked.
For more great instruction, check out our Lane Play and Physical Game libraries.
Hi there, Scott Pohl. I'm a three time USBC Eagle champion, and what we're gonna show you is how to put your hand in the ball correctly and incorrectly. We're gonna give you tips on ways to improve this. Well, let's take a look at first how Adam puts his hand in the ball. First of all, you can see that his hand and fingers are very close together being a two-handed bowler. If he doesn't do this, a lot of the time what happens, the ball reaction is very weak. So by him having his hands together, he can get a really strong reaction on the bowling ball. Now let's show an example where his fingers on both hands are very spaced out, and this is actually an incorrect way to throw the ball. The result, the ball does not have as much rotation on it and it misses the head pin to the right. Now here we have Zach, who's a one-handed bowler. So Zach also picks up his ball with two hands. You'll see some people pick it up with one hand. What this causes the bowler to do is actually squeeze the ball very, very early, picking it up off the rack. Pick it up with two hands then place your fingers in the ball first. Thumb last allows for a much cleaner release. And what he likes to do is always put his fingers in the ball first. We're gonna show you, first of all, just a nice easy hand position. He's putting his hand in the ball, very simple without a lot of grip pressure, and throws it nice and simple. There's another way that Zach being one-handed can get a little bit stronger reaction on the ball. What he actually does, he tucks his pinky, and usually what this has to happen is he moves his feet further to the left, allowing for a much stronger and overall hook on the ball. Lastly, we're gonna show a situation where Zach is gonna play a little bit straighter and more end over end. So what he does, he puts his fingers with less turn on it and his fingers are facing much more even and parallel to the floor. All right, so there you have it. We showed you ways, not only a two-handed bowler but a one-handed bowler, how you can get your hand in the ball the right way, have good results. Get on the lanes, practice this.
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