PETE WEBER
one knowledgeable who is willing to watch you bowl for a while. Here’s what your second set of eyes should watch for:
MISSY PARKIN
STAYING ON BALANCE: Power play- ers tend to finish with their trail leg in the air. That’s fine, so long as the trail leg is providing proper balance at that point.
you’re leaning too far forward, but if you were shown a video verifying the error, you’d probably be surprised. Likewise, it’s hard to feel where
Bowlers fall off the shot all the
time, but rarely know why or how their shot was affected. They often rationalize that the ball is already gone, so their lack of balance didn’t affect the path of the ball. Not so. Something has affected your bal- ance leading up to the shot, and that will also affect the shot itself. Balance is critical in bowling.
Without it you will never enjoy con- sistency in shot accuracy or shot repeatability. Repeatability is much more diffi cult if you lack balance be- cause repeating the same mistake isn’t easy, particularly if you don’t even know what mistake caused the imbal- ance! Many of the symptoms that can lead to loss of balance are diffi cult to self-diagnose. You may never realize
your trail leg is at the fi nish, or where your non-throwing arm is during the release. Either could be fl ail- ing all over the place, but it’s un- likely that you would be aware. If something is throwing off
your balance, it needs to be diag- nosed so that it can be corrected. That’s why it’s so important to
have a second set of eyes watch- ing you bowl. Consult a certi- fi ed coach (
bowl.com), or a house pro. At the very least, fi nd some-
17 USBOWLER JULY 2012
STANCE To have balance at the fi nish, it would be wise to have balance in your stance. Make sure your feet are com- fortably apart. You should be relaxed with the ball between your chin and shoulder. Your upper body posture should be slightly forward, and your knees should be slightly bent with your ball-side foot slightly behind your lead foot. Strive for balance and comfort. POSTURE Check your upper body posture. If you start to lean forward with the pushaway it will create im- balance and your body will try to correct itself to maintain that bal- ance. The result is you fall off your shot. Your upper body posture should remain constant through the shot, which helps keep your body weight centered and allows for a steadier fi n- ish position.
TIMING Timing is another culprit. Timing is unique to almost every bowler, but you should be aware that you might have to slightly alter your timing to achieve proper balance. Timing also varies from step to step. You can have textbook timing in the fi rst two steps and then suddenly launch into your backswing or come down too fast. There are numerous variables with timing, which is why a coach and/or second set of eyes is
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