Quick Tip: Test the Bowling Approach Before Practice
Erik VermilyeaDescription
When beginning league or tournament play, starting out on fresh oil conditions can be tricky.
If you’re not ready when competition starts, you’ve already lost pins off of your set before you’ve even thrown a ball.
Every shot in practice time needs your best and most ready shot to gain a fair understanding of what the lanes are giving you.
One thing you can do to accomplish this is to test the bowling approach before your practice time starts.
In this Quick Tip, Coach Erik Vermilyea with Track demonstrates how to check bowling approaches.
First, get your shoes on and walk onto the approach. Then, walk up to the foul line and slowly do a short slide to the foul line.When you are comfortable with the short slide, then begin doing your full natural slide.
This test will determine whether the bowling approaches you are bowling on are sticky or slippery.
Depending on the test results, you’ll likely find yourself adjusting your shoes.
You can use a wire brush to get more slide from your shoes or if you have interchangeable shoes, you can put on a new sole or heel to achieve more and less slide on the bowling approach.
Remember, every shot counts. If you are not already testing the approaches before competition start now.
Check out these other great videos on equipment choices and learn more on interchangeable bowling shoes if you are considering an upgrade in performance.
A warm up routine is another great way to make every shot count before competition starts so be sure to check out how our coaches get ready.
We hope you liked this video from the National Bowling Academy and make sure you check out more free videos like it on our free videos page.
Hi there. Welcome to the National Bowling Academy. I'm Erik Vermilyea. And for today's quick tip, I want to pass along a little something you should do before you bowl, every single time you get to the lanes and that's simply, test the approaches. First thing, before you throw any shots, walk up to the foul line, walk up to the area you're gonna slide and slowly give it a test slide. Real slow to start with, then go ahead and kinda work your way up to your normal slide. Approaches are gonna change almost day to day. Humidity levels change, temperatures change, there could've been something spilled on the approach that wasn't seen. Could be some open bowlers that tracked some oil across the approach, making them sticky, making them slippery. Who knows what happens? But by checking them first, making sure everything's sorted out, everything's in order for you, you can assure that you're gonna have a good slide and not hurt yourself. If there is something wrong, you can certainly change your heel or sole, you can certainly take a brush to your shoe, scrub it a little bit and make sure the approaches are set. That way, when you're practice bowl time starts, you can devote that entire amount of time to getting loose, finding the right shot, finding the right ball, and not have to waste time trying to sort out the approaches. Or again worse yet, you went for that first slide, you stick, you fall face first, you hurt yourself. None of that stuff we want. So again, before you throw any shots, the first thing you should always do, get on the approach, check the approach, check the slide, make sure everything's good. It'll keep you safe. It'll help you knock down more pins.
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