Nesbit’s Lanes hosted a Bowl Like The Pros event on Sunday, for the second year in a row. Last year, the pros that attended were Norm Duke, Bob Learn Jr., and Mike Machuga. I worked mostly with Bob Learn, though I got a bit of time with Norm as well. Machuga spent the whole day with the youth, so I didn’t get to talk to him at all. They were showing some video of him at the session today, and watching it, my style is very similar to his, especially his swing and wrist position at the top of the swing. Too bad I didn’t get to work with him then. Oh well! Also present was Dale Niemela, a USBC coach, who did video analysis. The main focus of the classroom and on-lane portions are to get people into a free armswing with proper timing, so that was the main focus of the video.
This year, Norm and Bob returned, and we got Brian Voss as well. In addition, former touring pro and national title holder Mike Shady came down from Erie to do some video work as well. I really liked his coaching style, and will most likely be contacting him for future lessons.
The basic structure of the event was a short classroom period, where they discussed the modern stance, pushaway, and timing of each of the last 4 steps. After that, we split into groups. Those that had attended the one last year were sent to one side of the house with Norm to go over some drills quickly, the others stayed on the other side to go through them a little more in depth.
The Drills
The only drill we did was a 1 step drill. When I did this last year, I was having a real hard time with it – I kept falling off balance, and I just couldn’t get it. This year, I did much better. At first, because of the way I hold my ball, Norm didn’t think that I was holding it in my left hand, but I pulled my right hand out of it to prove it to him. He got the ball more in line with my shoulder, and that was about it. I was very balanced, very free with the armswing, and had a nice medium release going with the 1 step. Once he got everyone through that drill, he had each person bowl 1 ball while everyone watched. Then he would critique for everyone to hear, so that everyone could learn from the mistakes, and then move on. When it came time for my shot, he just said “That’s awesome” and moved on.
Lunch
By the time we got to the end, lunch was ready, so we all stopped for a bite. While this was going on, they stripped the lanes of the house shot and laid down 3 patterns in 3 parts of the house – the Viper where we were, the Shark, and the Cheetah. During lunch, I caught up with Norm Duke and asked him if he could go over something that he had done last time. He was talking about how he visualizes the lanes when he is building his target line and his approach, but I had not had a chance to write down what he said, and I missed/forgot some of it. He didn’t have time to go into it completely, but he did address it generally for everyone while we were waiting for the lanes to be oiled. Here is what he talked about this time around:
While some bowlers walk in a line parallel to their target to keep their swing on path, and when they get far enough left have to do 3 steps in front of the ball return, Duke (and some others) use a figure 8 swing to change their ball path. To do this, he pictures a “Y” on the lanes. For this example, we’ll say his target line is over 15, out to a breakpoint at 10. To build the “Y”, draw one line from the foul line, through 15, out to 10 at the breakpoint. The other line is drawn from the arrows at 15 out to 20 at the same distance as the breakpoint. It is towards that point that Norm pushes the ball in his pushaway. Then, the ball swings from inside to out, loops around (because his swing is free), and puts the swing at the correct angle to play out over 15 to 10.
The question that didn’t get answered is “Where do you line up your feet?”
The Viper
After this, we went back to our side, which had the Viper, and Brian Voss came over with us. It took him a while to make it down to our side. In the meantime, I found that my best line was using my Total Inferno with my regular release and medium speed over a target of 11-12 at the arrows, out to 7-8 at the breakpoint. While he was on the other end of our section, Bob Learn came over with the proprietor, and put tape on our pair from the foul line out to the arrows. One strip was up the 3rd board, and one was up the 12th. They want us in the area, so… there went my line! I tried to force myself into that area, and then just moved over a pair. Voss was there, and took a look at one shot. He had nothing bad to say, and was moving on, so I asked if he could watch a couple more shots where I tried to play different parts of the lane. First, I moved way left, trying a target inside 3rd arrow. I turned the ball early – he didn’t really comment on that one. Then, I tried moving left, playing a straighter shot. I went for the “Ring Finger” release from my earlier article on axis rotation. The line I tried was straight up 8, and it didn’t make it back up to the pocket. He liked that one, but I still had my hand in a strong position on that shot. That is, my fingers were on the inside of the ball until the release point. He had me try another one to cut down my rotation even more, starting my hand on the outside of the ball at about 15 degrees and just holding it there. I moved further right, but ended up pointing the ball a bit, and it crossed over. I actually liked the reaction I got out of it though, and will be experimenting with that release for my upcoming sport league this summer. Once we were through, I moved over to the other side of the house to take a shot at the Shark.
The Shark
It was playing pretty tight. Some lanes were broken down a bit, and I was able to play the Big One between 3rd and 4th arrow out to 11 or 12, with great success. The ones that weren’t broken down nicely required the Infinite One straight up 10. Bob Learn was over here – he watched one shot and said “Great Shot”. I think they left the house shot on the pairs that were being used for video, because on those ones, I was really wheeling the Big One. The line for video was pretty backed up, so I went over to the other side of the house to see how the Cheetah looked.
The Cheetah
It may have been playing near the gutter when it was first put down, but the shot was shot by the time I got there. If the ball got outside of 5 it never came back. I only played a couple shots here before they announced that Norm had to leave early (probably going to the Roll to Riches event). So, I went to get his autograph and say thanks. Bob and Brian started signing then as well, so I hit them up and thanked them for their time and advice. Finally, the video area was open! Mike Shady, here I come.
Video
As I said, these were taken on the house shot, which was nice and toasty by this time. I was playing pretty deep, starting with my feet around 40 and playing 4th arrow or just left of it, letting the ball out to about 9. I took a shot for the camera, and we watched it in slow motion. He liked my timing a lot – good pushaway, good free swing, ball slightly late at the line. Then he asked me what I had been working on. I told him the pros all really liked what they saw – I had been working with Voss on adjusting rotation for playing different lines, and that Norm had mentioned the laziness in my balance arm. Mike agreed with those things, and went a little more in depth on the balance arm. He said that once I get it out on my pushaway, I can leave it extended in front of me to help open my shoulders when I’m opening up the lane. If I am trying to play straighter, I can keep that arm more to the side, which will square up my shoulders. So, that’s something to play with in practice. He was using Ebonite’s Digitrax software, so we checked a couple of things on that before we finished up. The first thing he checked was spine angle – I started out around 35, and slowly stood up through out my approach till I was at about 27 degrees at the finish. He’d like me to be closer to 27 the whole time, or move from a starting position at 26 to finishing around 28. However, I was starting with more angle than normal from the way we had been changing the setup, so that should be an easy fix. Next, he timed the acceleration of my downswing, and we found that I accelerated at the right point (about 6 inches before my ankle), which was cool – I thought I pulled the ball down more than that. I think when I get inside and need to turn it a bit more, I run into problems with accelerating it early, so now I have that knowledge if I feel it happening.
So, in summary, here are the things that I think I really need to take away from this day.
Stance
- Get both of my elbows tucked into my body, with the ball directly in front of my right shoulder.
- Make sure the weight of the ball is in my left hand. I get lazy with this sometime. I might experiment with opening up my left hand to hold the weight. Right now, I use a technique that Ron Clifton has shown in this article, where I make a sort of V with my thumb and forefinger.
Pushaway
- MOST IMPORTANT: Get that pushaway going straight to my target. When I do it right, it feels like I’m pushing it a little to the left. I have a tendency to pull the ball, and I just know it starts here. Once I knew to look for this as a culprit, I could feel it every time it happened, and I pulled the shot every time.
- Make sure I get a nice hinge motion with my pushaway to keep my timing/balance in tact. I have a tendency to push out and lock sometimes. Chris Barnes has a nice pushaway to think about for this one.
- Norm noticed that after my pushaway, I drop my left arm. I need to work on keeping it extended after the ball drops into the swing. As I was working with Mike Shady, he talked about using it as a tool – leave it in front of me to help keep my shoulders open, or point it at the left wall to square them up to the line.
Approach
- Nothing from the pros here, so I want to start experimenting with taking a step to the left, or a step to the right, and seeing what difference it makes in my ball path.
Release
- As Brian Voss said, and as I’ve been planning to do, I need to work on tweaking my axis rotation for playing different lines. I need to work on killing some hook while still retaining a powerful shot. When I am turning it more, I need to work on not turning it early.
Finish
- Norm wants my trail leg to be a little further back at the finish, so there is more distance between my knees. This will lead to more stability.
- I need to make sure I stay down and post my shot. I was doing it the whole time I was there, but when I get into other situations (tournaments, league) I get lazy with this sometimes.
