Tips on Bowling Timing

What is good timing in bowling? Hi, I'm Leah Zahner a contributor with National Bowling Academy. In this free video, Gold coach Fred Borden explains how timing works for every style of bowler and what drills you can practice to improve this area in your game. We're going to do first off is we're going to have Greg throw his normal shot and then let's analyze why he does what he does. And then we're going to have him throw some different types of deliveries.

And we'll talk out each one of them so that you could start to choose the one that you feel will fit your personality and your game. So let's throw a natural shot first, Greg. And if you'll notice, he'll hold the ball down around waist high, right at waist high just a little below his waist. But very specifically, every time you're going to place the ball right in that position. Now we're going to make a delivery.

And the reason he's holding it down is because he's got a high back swing. So he needs to hold the ball a little lower. Very good. Great shot. And what happens here the person has a high back swing they hold the ball a little lower because their back swings going high.

We can't have a high ball position, a high back swing. We're going to start playing tug of war with our timing. We're gonna have force. We're gonna have tension. Tensions, a killer.

We need to have the timing set up for you. Now Greg if you would let's show if you want to slow it down what we're going to do, we're going to bring it up and we're going to have it out here longer which automatically shorten it up won't it. Yeah it will So we're going to bring the ball into a higher position and we're going to slow down the start a little bit. Let's say he was a little easier going not as athletic and just, just as shot-making player. Okay.

Now we're going to bring it up. See, now look where he's got the ball from being down here, up here, very high. And we're going to go out a little more. Nice and slow. Now that's very good for you people throw the ball too hard.

Bring it up and get it out a little longer. Delay, getting it into the swing. You want a little more part? Get it into the swing a little earlier. Get it up here and get it into the swing a little slower.

Ball position. And then the start. Those two things are key to setting up good timing right for openers. Now let's talk about the third thing. We have the ball position and the start.

Now let's talk about the third swing, your back swing height. Let's specifically watch his swing height. We're looking at his body build. He's got long arms. He's a lanky guy.

He's athletic, he's young and flexible. You think he's going to have a short swing? I don't think so. Look at that. How matched up that is and how athletic that looks and how free it is.

The reason it's free is he's matched up. He's got this ball position with that higher back swing. Okay. Now lower ball position, higher swing higher ball position, shorter swing. Who are you?

What's best for you and your game? Now we have two other things that we like to talk about. We have ball position height. Okay. And then we have the speed of the swing.

I want to see one here where you just get your fastest swing, that you can get the let's say the lanes are dry. And we're going to talk about this quite a bit in a little while, but let's really go with a fast swing. Watch his start here and watch the speed of the swing. See, just picked up the tempo. He picked up the movement of the swing.

Again, we go back to that M and M on Greg, the mechanics and the motion. That was your same position, but it's, it's faster more aggressive. Yeah get out there quicker. Exactly. Get it out there a little faster and get your body moving, get everything moving so you can throw it down the lane cause the lanes are burning up.

The lanes are dry. Now let's do the little slower position. Now here's the big key however, when we talk about this and here's what we hear all the time, Greg, and this is the misnomer. When I asked someone, well, how do you slow down? How do you speed up?

They said, well, I do it with my feet. Now we want to match em up. When you have that faster swing, the feet have to go faster. Don't they? Yeah And when you have the slower swing the feet have to be slower.

So let's try to match up the swing with the upper body and the lower body. It needs to match up to have perfect timing. We want to have good timing every day for the rest of our lives. So we have to have the top and the bottom match up. So let's watch the slower motion here with both the swing and the footwork.

Watch difference between the last shot and this shot Wow, how good is that? How good is that, boy is it nice when you have someone to do exactly what we wanna have done. Good shot, buddy. Good shot. There you have it.

Ball position height. Move that ball a little bit. To change your speed control. To change your swing, the speed of your swing the height for your back swing, the speed of your footwork. You put that all together.

You've got real good timing, but figure out which part of the combination is best for you. Where do you want to hold the ball? How far out, how fast you want to move it? Your backswing height, speed of your swing. The speed of your feet.

Now you've got the plan. At the close of the day Timing is where is the ball when you arrive at the foul line? When your left foot enters the slide, where is the ball? Well, early timing is when you get that ball in front of you. If I get this chair out in front of me boy it feels pretty heavy.

If I get that chair back here, now look at my body. Standing up. I've got late timing. Late timing means the body is in front of the ball. Early timing is the ball's in front of the body.

Now perfect timing is when that left foot hits. If I get in that perfect timing I could throw this chair halfway down the lane because I have my body in front of the 15 pounds or the 16 pounds. You want to plant your body at the line, the left foot hits and ball's back in this zone. Cranker, stroker or roller right in this area here is where the ball should be when your foot enters a slide coming in getting ready to make that release. When you work on your timing the cranker has a little later the stroker's in between and the roller is right there by the right knee.

So we have right knee back to waist high right in this area here, figure out which one works for you. You'll have natural timing. You have natural power and what'll happen is it controls the angle of your torso. Let's talk about that just for a second. If you throw more hook, I'd wanna be back here to open my shoulders, to allow for my hook.

Now I have perfect torso angle. Now, if I throw a little less hook now let me bring the ball a little closer. Now I don't have as much open angle of my shoulders. In a roller I'm a little more square cause I throw it a little straighter up the lane. Then I match my timing to match my style.

When you get that, you're on your way. Now you've got the formula to great playing.