Health and Wellness FITNESS


IT’S ALL IN THE WRIST A strong wrist aids consistency in your rev rate.


By Nick Bohanan I


t should come as no surprise that the strength in your hand, wrist and forearm (which are interconnected) is critical to your performance on the lanes. The same muscles affect all three. Strength in that area allows you to maintain a strong wrist position, which has a positive affect on your rev rate. It’s hard to have a high rev rate with a weak wrist because it requires that you get your fi ngers around the equator of the ball. A strong position is a neutral,


fi rm position, meaning your wrist is straight. Some bowlers, like Sean Rash, take the strong position to the extreme by coiling their wrist. He’s an exception. For the most part, however, you want to avoid coiling your wrist because the body’s natural reaction is to uncoil. Technique plays a role as well. If you get the ball too far in front of you at the pushaway, it’s going to be hard to prevent your wrist from breaking, and even harder to get the wrist back into a strong position once it does break.


And while a strong wrist aids consistency in your rev rate and release, you want to maintain a level of fl exibility so that you can be versatile in your axis rotation. This will give you better control of ball motion and allow you to adapt to changing lane conditions. Here are a few exercises that work all the ranges of motion of the wrist. They are easy to do at home, and because wrist exercises gen- erally don’t require much weight to be effective you can use simple household items, like a can of soup or even a broomstick.


Hold one end of a broomstick as if you were shaking hands, with the other end resting on the fl oor. With your hand down at your side, try to raise the broomstick off the fl oor so that it is parallel to the fl oor. Slowly lower it back to the fl oor. Try the same exercise with the broomstick behind you. You can control how much weight you’re lifting by mov- ing your hand up or back on the broomstick. The closer your hand is to the center of the broomstick, the less strenuous the exercise. Try three sets of 15 reps.


FITNESS, HEALTH AND NUTRITION TIPS TO MAKE YOU A BETTER BOWLER


THE WRIST MAKES THE MAN: USBC Sports Performance Specialist Nick Bohanan shows us some exercises bowlers can do to increase wrist strength.


Flexion and extension exercises work the bigger wrist and forearm muscles. Seated with your arm on your lap, hold a soup can or soft weight ball in your hand, palm up, and curl your wrist. Keep your arm fl at and your elbow still. Let your wrist drop down as far as possible, then curl it up as far as possible. This will allow you to use your full range of motion. If you are using a weighted ball, you will gain grip strength as well. Do fi ve sets of 15. It also helps to do exercises to strengthen your grip. Simply squeezing a tennis ball or softball


11 USBOWLER MAY 2012


is good. The soft weights are also good. The technique is a simple squeeze, release, squeeze, release sequence. Work on squeezing with your palm and fi ngers, not your thumb. Your thumb should be nice and relaxed. By increasing hand and grip strength, but disassoci- ating your thumb from the rest of your hand, you’ll improve your ball release. The ball will come off your hand a lot easier and quicker if you can grip the ball with a relaxed thumb.


— Nick Bohanan is Performance Specialist for Team USA.


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