Technique Another reason you may need your
pitches to be more forward is that you could have a flexible thumb — precisely the reason Ross recommended that Parkin adjust her pitches. She, too, has a flexible thumb. Ross says bowlers with flexible thumbs
“are the ones that can put their thumb in first and bowl quite well, and hold on to the ball. That flexibility means you can push on the socket at the base of your thumb and it will collapse toward the palm of your hand. It almost gives the appearance of double-jointedness. “For pitches to work, that socket
needs to be locked,” Ross says. “If that socket collapses anywhere during the swing, then the only thing holding the ball onto your hand is the size of your thumbhole.” Perhaps you’re keeping the ball on
your hand by squeezing it, imploring yourself to “just let go of it” or “get the ball of your hand” to heed the advice of those coaches who have told you to relax your arm swing. But that, as Ross explains, is the thing about this term “release” that is tossed around so much in today’s game. As Ross explains, you’re not
necessarily letting go of the ball. A properly drilled ball, with pitches that accurately match your needs, essentially lets go of you. “‘Release’ is a bad term. You’re not
really releasing the ball. The release is the result of everything else — the swing, the
approach — and it should just come off your hand,” Ross says. “If you’ve ever seen Chris Barnes balk, when he tries to take his ball off his hand, he has to pop his fingers out of the ball before he takes his thumb out. That’s be- cause the span and pitches on his ball are so tight, he throws the ball off his hand. He doesn’t think, ‘Let go of it.’ He throws it,” Ross explains. “And when he deceler- ates or balks, the ball just doesn’t come off.
“Very few players can get to that level, but he didn’t have that when he was in college, and he didn’t have that when he first went on tour. It’s been developed over time.” That is one of the lasting impressions
Ross makes in our podcast — that pitch adjustments must be made gradually, especially if you’re more of a once-a-week league bowler. Alluding to five-time PBA Tour titlist,
Bill O’Neill, who adjusted his pitches from 1/8 forward to 1/2 forward, Ross says “it depends on how advanced the player is. The big jump that Bill made, he will prob- ably stay at 1/2 for quite a while now. But he is a very talented player. If Bill were just a league bowler, we might have just gone to 1/4 and then 3/8. It would have been a progression over time.” Be sure to listen to our entire
conversation with Ross, who shares much more about how to determine if pitches are a problem for you, and how best to rectify it.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ///////// April 2015 15
TIPS AND TRICKS TO MAKE YOU A BETTER BOWLER
A MATTER OF INCHES: Parkin first thought moving from 3/8 reverse to 1/4 forward was “crazy,” and this pitch gauge makes it easy to see why. “That’s a 5/8-of-an-inch change. That’s a lot,” Ross says.
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