PBA Xtra Malott fell prey to some of those bad
habits himself. He also sees those same tendencies in the games of house bowlers he watches in league back in his native Pflugerville, Texas. If bad knees are leading to bad scores for you, here are Malott’s observations about as how a compromised foundation may be affecting your game and what you can do about it:
rather than using their legs and letting today’s aggressive bowling balls do what they are designed to do. Malott says that bowling on bad knees is a sure way to make that problem even bigger. “It’s very easy when you don’t have your
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legs underneath you and you’re not able to use your legs that you find yourself using more of your upper body. I definitely felt myself doing that at times. As a professional athlete, I am able to recognize that a little faster than some. I needed to just let the arm swing and let things happen. That’s the biggest thing. Just let the arm swing and don’t let your upper body take over too much.”
FAST FEET Take it from Wes Malott: Bowling on bad knees hurts. Slowing down may help. Malott
suggests that slowing down your foot speed can alleviate some of the pressure
MUSCLING THE BALL House bowlers are notorious for trying to generate ball speed and hook with their upper body
WES MALOTT
you will put on your sliding knee at the release. “Keep your feet slow. I just tried to
figure out what it was I could do that would keep the knee from hurting as much. Granted, I wasn’t able to have as much knee bend as I typically would— and I know I don’t have that much knee bend anyway—but you fight through it the best you can, you adjust to it, and move forward. The knee surgery kept my feet slower, and I’ve just adapted to what’s been given to me.”
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True grit: Malott was able to bowl through chronic knee pain by slow- ing down his feet, and by making sure he wasn’t muscling the ball.
CONDITIONING If knee problems eventually landed you, too, under the surgeon’s knife, then
conditioning will be crucial to your ability to become competitive on the lanes again. For Wes Malott, recovery has been a long, trying road. “I have to continue to strengthen [my
knee] up so I have my legs under me. Because without legs, it’s very difficult to compete out there on tour. I don’t think I was as disciplined in getting [my knee] strengthened back up. Because I wasn’t using those muscles, now my knee has gotten extremely weak. I’m getting it built back up, but when it’s in pain, it’s hard to do that. But now that it’s finally 100%, I’m finding myself doing some exercises with the kiddos when we play baseball and get warmed up. I’m pushing them harder, and I’m pushing myself harder at the same time. It’s just things that you do to get back into form.”
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