Bowling with Leverage
by David A. Leverage
David A. Leverage is a Former exempt PBA Player, Silver level certified coach,
an ASU Bowling Alumni member, A 6 time PBA titleist, has (40) 300 games
and owns 2 Phoenix area Pro Shops.
Do you have an offseason summer practice program?
If you do not, you need to get one. The summer is the best time to work on your game and make the necessary changes to make yourself a better bowler. Many people do not bowl league in the summer so there is no pressure to shoot big scores in league or tournament play. Thus the summer is the best time of year to make changes to your game.
Spare practice
Practice? Practice? You want me to practice? YES!!! And I want you to dedicate some time to practicing your spares! Too many people take spares for granted but as a PBA member I can tell you I have seen many many bowlers (including myself) miss a cut here or there by less than 10 pins. Most people say "if I could have carried that 10 pin in the tenth frame, I would have made the finals". How about instead if you would have made that 4 pin in game 2 you would have made the cut! The point here is if you make more spares, than you do not need to rely on your strikes as much. So for starters lets try this on for size. The next time you have a practice session, take out your spare ball (YES, YOU SHOULD OWN A SPARE BALL) and on the first shot shoot at the ten pin and try to take it clean out of the rack. Then on your second shot make a regular strike shot. This way you work on your spares and you also get twice as many shots for your money! For the lefthanders shoot the 7 pin on your first shot.
Comparing your balls to each other
Whenever you switch from one ball to another in the hopes of hitting the pocket and striking, you MUST know what that new ball is going to do BEFORE you throw it. So the next time you practice take out 4 balls and have a little bowl off between them. On the left lane put in the computer the names of the 2 balls and do the same for the other 2 balls on the right lane. Now bowl 4 games at one time using all 4 different balls. Then whichever 2 balls score the highest, take those 2 balls and have a roll off between them for the championship. This will teach you the difference between those 4 balls and how much more or less those balls will hook in relation to each other. This way the next time you make a ball switch, you will have a MUCH better hypothesis as to what those balls are capable of doing. It will also give you more confidence when you make the ball switch.
Practice your accuracy
Remember that Spare ball we talked about 5 minutes ago? Well go grab it. The next thing I want you to try is to strike with your spare ball. In todays game we are given far too much room for error with the high tech reactive bowling balls. So the next time you practice shoot a whole game with JUST your spare ball. This will tell you how accurate or inaccurate you really are. It will also force you to possess a better release which will improve your shots when you go back to a regular strike ball. You will also leave more spares than normal giving you more spare practice.
Practice different angles
Huh? Now what I want you to do is bowl an entire game without moving your feet. Huh? For instance...stand on the 15 board for every single shot throughout your game regardless of what you leave. All of your spares and all of your strike shots. Next game do the same thing but do it from the 10 board or the 20 board. This will teach you to look at the lane from different angles.
Striking out on the 10th frame
How many times have you had a great game going only to blow it in the 10th? You're not alone. Here's a drill you can do with your friends while you are practicing. Grab a scrap piece of paper and bowl a game against your friend but only the 8th, 9th, and 10th frame. Perfect score here is 90. The idea here is to get used to closing out the end of a game and getting used to setting up the 10th frame in the 8th and 9th.
Hopefully some of these little practice drills will help spice up your practice and give you a few things to try the next time you work on your game. Make sure you get a practice partner too! Its a lot less boring to practice when you can do it with or against someone else.
Reg tag line here
Thank you to the head coach of the Arizona State University Men's Bowling team, Jordan Nassberg for some of these drills as these are some of the drills we worked on before I got an exemption onto the PBA Tour in 2007.
"TEXT the Coach" As a new feature if you are having a problem and need a quick answer to that problem, send me a text message during your next practice session, league session, or tournament and I will do my best to reply in a timely manner. Text to 6025505788.