3 Basic Adjustments, Part 2: Axis Rotation

Welcome to part 2 of the “3 Basic Adjustments” series. Today, we are going to look at adjusting axis rotation. What is axis rotation? Axis rotation is the difference between the direction the ball is spinning and the direction that it is traveling down the lane, and is determined by how far around the side of the ball your fingers get during the release. During the skid phase, axis rotation remains relatively constant. As the ball enters the hook phase of its roll, the direction the ball is traveling starts to change as the ball grabs the lane – it moves left for a right-hander. At the same time, the friction causes the rotation of the ball to start moving to the right. Picture turning the steering wheel of your car, and then relaxing your hands. The car turns in the direction of your wheel, but your wheel also straightens out. Once the ball is traveling in the same direction it is rotating, it is in the roll phase, and its axis rotation is 0 degrees.

While the most versatile pros can change their axis rotation to virtually any angle between 0 and 90 degrees, we are going to work on learning 4 different release keys that will give us a pretty broad range of axis rotations to work with. What we are going to do to change our axis rotation is concentrate on driving towards the target with a certain finger. To give this the best chance to work, follow-through has to be long and low. You will need to reach out to the target, letting the ball roll off your hand. In addition to driving with a specific finger at the release point, I will provide different finger positions that can be used in the setup, which will help tweak some of these releases further.

3 Basic Adjustments, Part 1: Speed

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.