TIPS AND TRICKS TO MAKE YOU A BETTER BOWLER ////////////////////////////////////// One-Step Hustler
Count to One The one-step approach is a
valuable practice tool, but for at least one legendary bowler one step was all it took to separate foes from their pock- etbooks. Raised in Germany in the
late 1800s, John “Count” Gen- gler perfected the one-step approach playing nine-pins. “I developed my one-step
SHORT BUT SWEETThe one-step drill, as shown in the video above, can benefit your game in a number of areas, giving you a better feel for armswing, release and balance.
bowling ball swing your arm without using extra muscle to get your arm to swing the ball, you’ll realize the benefits immediately. The drill itself won’t make your swing looser. You can muscle the ball if you want, but that’s counterproductive. The benefit of the drill is to get used to letting your arm swing loose. This drill can improve your release, not only when the ball is released, but how the ball is released. You can practice getting the ball on the lane sooner, lofting the ball a bit, being behind the ball more, being on the side of the ball, or simply releasing it
earlier or later. The single step limits the number of moving parts in your approach and allows you to focus on certain aspects of your release. One of the biggest benefits is the timing of the last step with your downswing. As soon as the ball starts dropping, your slide foot starts forward. You can better understand the sense of timing and how that final step is supposed to feel. If you allow the ball to swing loosely,
you can focus on getting into a low, balanced finish position. If you fall off the shot, it’s a good indication that you tried to use too much muscle and
delivery to cut down the mar- gin of error, since everything varied so much in Germany,” he once said. Upon discovery of the Amer-
ican tenpin game while staying in Paris, Gengler, who used a fingerless ball, quickly became one of the game’s great match- makers. He moved to America at the turn of the century and toured the country hustling the best bowlers he could find, to great fanfare and with even greater success. The dapper hustler gambled on bowling for more than a decade, and even averaged 224 over a 60-game home-and-home match against Buffalo’s Frank Caruana. And all it required was a
single step.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ////////////////////////////////////// November 2012 17