In a previous post, I mentioned that, according to Chris Barnes, there are 3 basic adjustments that every bowler should have – speed, axis rotation, and hand pressure. Today we’re going to look at ball speed as an adjustment.
As a pre-requisite for this adjustment (and also for getting to the next level in your game), your arm swing must be free. When gravity is controlling your swing, adjusting speed is a piece of cake. When you are controlling your swing, you will be hard pressed to keep a consistent ball speed to begin with, much less be able to alter your ball speed with any repeatability.
Ok, with that said, how do we change our speed? Throw harder! Just kidding. The answer lies in the setup.
Everyone has a comfortable starting height for their ball. That may be chest height, waist height, down by your legs, or anywhere in between. I would suggest that, to get “medium” ball speed, the ball should start in the stance around belly-button height – perhaps a bit higher. This allows for adjustment either way, depending on what the lanes are giving you. Think about it this way – if you start with the ball below your waist, where will you go when you need to slow it down? Your only option will be to control the armswing, and that is never what we want to do. Likewise if your default starting position is with the ball up by your shoulder. When you need more speed, what do you do? You can only muscle the ball.
So, we’ll say that the ball in line with the belly button is our medium If we need to slow the ball down a bit, say, to get a little more hook downlane, we can simply lower the ball in our stance. This will also shorten the length of our swing, so we will need to move up a bit on the approach. I have found that a good number is about 1 inch on the approach per 1 inch of height. If you move the ball down 6 inches, move up 6 inches on the approach. This will cause you to subconsciously take shorter, slightly faster steps, and your timing should stay in tact. If you need to speed the ball up a bit, raise the ball from your starting position, close to chest level. If you move the ball up 6 inches, move back 6 inches on the approach.
There is not much else to say about this adjustment except that, to get comfortable with the different speeds, you will definitely need to practice. The feeling of the ball coming off your hand is quite different when you change speeds by a couple MPH, and you will want to be very comfortable with the different feeling before you try to execute it in competition.
Video coming soon…
