♪ ♪ ♪ Hi, I'm PBA Champion and World
Masters Champion Chris Barnes. Let's meet our coaches for
the Increase Your Average DVD Collection. ♪ Close shot, and she gets it. [cheers and applause] Hi, I'm Carolyn Dorin-Ballard,
USBC Director of Coaching. ♪ She wanted it. ♪ Hi, I'm Kim Terrell-Kearney,
Assistant Coach for Team USA. ♪ Hi, I'm Rod Ross, I'm
head coach of Team USA. Yes, yes! ♪ [cheers and applause] Watch his
approach, it is surreal. Even at the highest level of
the sport, bowlers have all sorts of different ways
to get to the foul line. Whether you're male or
female, big or small, left or right-handed. But at the point of release
you'll find that the best of the best look very much the same. Balance and focus at the finish
position can make just about any approach the right one. ♪ Anytime someone talks about
improving their game, the physical game is at
the top of the list. What sets most pros apart
is their ability to repeat consistently, time after time. Our Team USA coaches are going
to put together a program from start to finish that will help
improve your foundation and make you more consistent
every shot of every day. ♪ Well, over time we've seen
many different ways and many different styles of
stance, or the set up. One thing you'll notice a lot on
tour is most of them look pretty close to the same, but
there are some pretty individual characteristics. Ultimately you just
want it to be comfortable. Coach Ross, though, will show us
a few different ways to get your stance and set up as comfortable
as possible and as consistent as possible to help you
throw your best shots. ♪ A lot of the inconsistencies
that we see here at the ITRC with bowlers relates
right back to the stats. We want to try to have balance
at the finish, but if you don't start with a balanced
position, the stance is hard to rebalance at the finish. With some small adjustments
we can give Terry a better starting position. We want you to start in a
balanced position as opposed to an unbalanced position. The stance, as you can see,
I can push you very easily and push you back. The issue that we have there
is all your energy and all your weight's going in reverse
instead of forward, up the lane towards the pins. So, what we want you to do is
get into your stance, flex your knees and get the weight onto
the balls of your feet, forward. So, now you're in a
very stable position. Now, it's going to enable you to
have more balance at the finish position because all our balance
and energy is going up the lane instead of the other direction. ♪ ♪ Now that we got your
balance better established on the balls of your feet, we
want to look at your alignment going up to the lane. What we have is very square,
the square of your shoulders and your hips and your feet. So, what I want you to do is I
want to take your bowling side, which for you is your right
side, and take your right foot slightly back, take your right
hip slightly back, and your right shoulder slightly back. Now, we want to keep the
ball in the same position. We want to keep the ball between
your chin and shoulder, it's still going
up to the lane. Just going to give you more
of a better athletic position, release the ball and keep
it on line going down the lane. ♪ ♪ Now we got your weight on the
balls of your feet in a more balanced position and we got
opening stance, we want to take care of this
ball placement. We talked about we want it
between your chin and shoulder, not outside the shoulder,
not in the shoulder, between the chin and shoulder. But we want to get it in a
balanced position so you can relax your hand more. As you can see, I can
push, try to resist and it's very hard to resist. What we'd like you to do is
pull your elbow slightly back, pull your ball a little bit
closer to you, keeping it in the same position between
your chin and shoulder. Now I can push quite
hard and you're in a better balanced position. Your hand's going to be more
relaxed on the ball, a stronger release at the finish
position and you're going to be better balanced. ♪ ♪ Okay, the next thing that we
want to address, Terry, now that you've got a very good
stance, we want to get into a very good start, initiating
the whole approach. What we want to do, now that you
got your ball closer and in a better balanced position, we
want to keep the weight of the ball on the center
of your hand here. We don't want to let that ball
get in front of your hand, we don't want it coming back. We want it nice
and centered here. Next thing we want to do is as
we start to initiate the swing, we want to have a nice, rounded
shape as we push away. We want it rounded, we
don't want to have sharp edges. A swing doesn't
have sharp edges, you want to have a
nice, rounded swing. So, we're going to keep the
shoulder back as the ball goes forward and it's going to
have a nice, rounded swing. We're going to synchronize
this with the very first step of your ball side foot. So, if you're a five-stepper
you'll take a step and then the right side, or the ball
side foot and the ball will go forward at the same time. If you're a four-step, we
need to initiate just with the right side. The right step and the right
hand on the ball will go forward and synchronize
at the same time. So, that weight will hit
your hand the same time that ball side foot
hits the floor. ♪ Now then, we got a good stance
on the weight of the ball. You want to make sure when you
go out here forward, when you start this push, that you keep
your hand underneath the ball to start, that keeps your
hand nice and relaxed. If you get out here and let the
ball get in front of your hand, now you're going to have to grab
that ball, you're going to have to grip it and pull it back. It's going to cause you
inconsistent swing and grip pressure throughout the release. So, we want to keep it nice
and balanced and rounded, the curve of your hand
underneath the ball. ♪ When talking about the approach,
there's many things that go into it, stance, push away, timing,
body position, finish position. In this segment Rod and Kim
are going to go through and tell you a few things
to look for and some tips on how to make your
best approach. Okay, now we're going to
take a look at the arm swing. It's a very important part of
a consistent delivery and accuracy going down the lane. You want to start with your
ball between your chin and your shoulder here in the stance. But you have two options. You can take the ball around
your body during the approach, or take your body
around the ball. We want you to take your body
around the ball and stance. So, if I take the ball in the
front and just push forward up the lane, go ahead
if you would, Steve. You notice it's going
to run into his leg. So, what we want to do with this
ball side foot -- the very first step of the ball side foot, is
to step in front of the slide foot to create a path for
this ball to drop in nice and tight to our body. If we don't do that, the ball
has to come around the body. So, if it has to come around the
body, when it comes back down the swing's going to have to
come back around the body again. This is going to create
inconsistency of our launch angles going down the lane. If you let go of the ball
early it's going to miss to the outside, if you let go
late, it's going to miss on the inside. The advantage of stepping in
front of your slide foot right here at the start will let
the ball drop into the slot. It's going to keep it
straight back, straight forward. If you let go of it early, or
if you let go of it late, it's still going to be in line. Okay, the keys for a good arms
swing is keeping consistency and the angles all straight
as we take the ball back and forward towards our target. So, as we initiate that start
and that push, we want to have that cross over step
so that we can keep that swing tight to our body. As the swing goes back we want
to keep it in line to our body to the top of the back swing. At the very top you'll notice
that the swing, the bowling ball and the head are all
aligned to his target. This enables him, at this point
you can just let the ball drop, not change direction, and it
will go to the target line. This enables a bowler to have a
nice, free swing, consistency at the release and control
his launch angles. So, the key here is at the top
of the back swing, we just let it rest and it's just like
it's coming down a ramp. Just let the ball drop straight
down underneath the head to the release position. ♪ Now, we're going to take a
look at the finish position. It's a key component
in making a great shot. Very often we find players that
fall off this way and that and it's frustrating to them. But if we trace it back to the
beginning, we find that it's typically happening there,
that they're not getting a consistent start. A consistent start will
dictate a good finish. There's lots of different ways
to get to the line, but if we look at some of our great
players, our elite players on Team USA, you see that they may
get there in a lot of different ways, but at the end everybody's
in the same, balanced, committed, finished position. If we look at all of our elite
players, one of the few common things that we see they have is
great use of their balance arm and their trail leg. We want to counterbalance
all of the weight that's swinging alongside them. That's what's helping them
stay upright and in a great line towards their target line
that they're trying to complete. Having a great posture is
what allows you to have good leverage and a line. Oftentimes we'll see players get
a little bit too compressed with their waist and they're giving
away that good posture and good leverage that gives them
good ball roll down the lane. A good way to correct that would
be to make sure your shoulders stay in line with your hips. Don't let your head get
out in front of you when you deliver the ball. Okay, we have Steven here
in a great finish position. We start up top and we can see
his balance arm is in a nice, relaxed position
alongside his body. He has his core facing
his desired ball path. He has great knee bend, his
trail leg with his toe rolled is facing the side wall. oftentimes we'll see players
with their arm too high and that gets them to sometimes deliver
the ball a little too soon in the lane and get a
little too compressed. He's definitely in a position
that we really want to see to throw a great shot. Oftentimes players get a little
bit too compressed at the waist. This sometimes will relate in
a short armed follow through. But Steven here is going to get
so that he has a straight line from his head to his knee to his
foot to give him great leverage to deliver the ball
properly down the lane. So, for great leverage you want
to make sure you have a stacked position from your head
to your knee to your foot. That's going to give you the
best ball roll and the best follow through down the lane. ♪ Now let's talk about the
release, how you put your hand on the ball dictates how you're
going to release the ball. It brings it all the
way back to the start. A lot of ballers will just grab
the ball off the ball rack, put their hand on the ball and go
without paying attention to how they put their hand on the ball. We recommend that you kind of
get used to putting your hand on the ball in a
consistent, relaxed state. Pick up the ball with both
hands and put your fingers in underhand and roll the
ball onto your thumb. Don't take your
thumb to the ball. If you take your thumb to the
ball, you're going to have to grab, or grip that ball. Take that ball onto your thumb. It rolls it on, keeps that
thumb nice and relaxed, the hand relaxed. It's going to facilitate you
to have a nice, clean release. On the release, once our hands
on that ball in that release position, we want that
ball rolling off the front of our hand. You want to take your
hand through the ball, not around the ball. A lot of mistakes we see a lot
of amateurs make is they want to come around that ball trying
to give that ball spin or side turn, trying to
make that ball hook. You create hook by making
that ball go off the front of your hand. It will turn your hand. Let the ball turn your
hand and release, don't let your hand
turn the ball. We welcome you inside Cowboy
Stadium, a venue that bowling has never seen before. Learning how to read the lanes
can help the average bowler learn to zero in on the pocket
like the pros, whether you're bowling in the largest
stadium in the country, or in your own hometown center. [cheers and applause] He just needs one more strike. Top players know how to use oil
patterns to their advantage so the strikes keep coming. Is it his? Yes! [cheers and applause] ♪ Whether I'm going on a pro tour,
Team USA or my local league, lane play is often the
key to success for me. While I'd like to throw my best
shot every time, the reality is it just doesn't happen. But by using lane play and
making the right adjustments, I make those mistakes turn
into strikes there as well. We've all seen the
person that just can't miss. By learning how to find
your break point, making your adjustments, when, how and where
to do them, you too can be that person that everyone
in your league says, "Wow, you just can't miss." ♪ Most bowlers know about the
arrows, but knowing how to determine your break point and
how to adjust that break point is the key to creating
more room on the lane. In this section we're going to
discuss how to do these things so that you too can create
your most possible miss room. As Team USA coaches we get
asked quite often time how do we help get our
players lined up? We travel all over the world, we
have different types of patterns that they're always competing
on and you don't get a lot of practice time. So, are there any
secrets that we can share? Well, we commonly use this rule
of 31, it helps us decide where we want to play on the lane. So, we subtract the pattern
distance, 31 from that distance, and it gives us our
desired break point. So, that's the distance down
the lane, where we want the ball towards the end of the pattern,
and we just got to figure the attack angle we want
to get to that point. Right, and that angle is going
to be dependent on how you throw the ball, it's a
personal number. If you're high reverrated
player, then your feet are going to be further left, you're
going to hook to that spot. If you're high ball speed and
a little bit straighter, then you're going to get a
direct line to the pocket. So, even to the lane surface,
whether it's synthetic or wood is going to make us play a
little different too, right? Right, wooden lanes are going to
hook much, much more, certain synthetics are going to play a
little bit longer, so seem a little oilier then the pattern
is probably designed to play. So, you really want to
know your playing field. So that rule of 31, like a
house pattern is 40 feet long. Subtract 31, what do
we end up getting? We end up right around that
second arrow, a little bit, could be one board this
way, one board that way. Depending on whether it's wood
or synthetic, there's different brands of synthetic too. It's going to be plus or minus. That gives us a good starting
point so we can have very good practice sessions. We're not kind of guessing
where we're looking, this is what we want
to be looking at. Right, you don't have very
long so you want to make sure you practice wisely. You don't need to explore the
entire lane when we know that information up front. That's how it starts, but the
lane's going to change when we start bowling, is that correct? We got to be ahed of
the moves, really. Right, that's what
the better players do. They stay in front of the moves
and they watch their ball transition down the lane. They start to recognize when it
picks up a little bit too soon, starts to hook too early. They start heading a little
further left if they're a right-handed player where
there's a higher volume of oil, going to give them a little bit
more hold, sort of push through the front, won't
read quite as quickly. So, think of it as downhill snow
skiers and they're going down a slalom course and you have all
this nice, fresh powder and the first skier goes down,
they start cutting a path. Eventually as they start having
more racers go down you have a pretty defined path. Pretty soon you have to
get out of that path. Right, the friction, all the
balls going down the lane, those new balls, they're so
aggressive, they start to pick up some of that oil, so it
starts to dissipate. Get more and more burn, you want
to make sure you get out of that area so you get a
smoother surface to play on. Okay, the key is that we want
to subtract 31 from the oil pattern, kind of pay attention
to the lane surface that you're bowling on, whether there's a
high friction or a low friction. And be aware of those changes. Watching your ball
motion front to back. So, the break point is the first
thing you want to determine when you're attacking a
pattern, whether a house pattern or a tournament pattern. The way we describe break
point is when a ball, for a right-hander, has reached its
furthest point right on the lane, and then makes its
turn back towards the pocket. So, it is the distance farthest
away or closest to the channel on your side of the bowling. So, as you can see on these to
charts here, our break point is going to be right here on the
bowlers on the top part, and our break point is going to be right
here for our bowlers down on the bottom part of the screen. It's the point farthest away
from the pocket where it's going to be turning and
going back to the pocket. Now we have shot tracking,
this is two different players playing the same break point. You can see up here we have
Ametria, she's going a little more direct through the front
part of the lane, so her launch angle is a little
bit straighter. And then down here we have John
Mark who has opened up the lane, he's got a higher rev rate, so
his feet are further left and he's circling to that
exact same break point. So, we are talking about
the rule of 31 down here, so we had a 40 foot pattern. As you can see down here, John
Mark, he's about 9 board down here, about 39, 40 feet. Ametria down here, she's about 8
board in the same type of area, where the ball's starting to
come back through the pocket. Completely different through
the front part of the lane. You have one of them playing 12
the arrows, the other one was playing 9 at the arrows. So, they're playing the lane
similar, but depending on their style of play,
they're playing down here. The break point's the same,
but they'll play the front part different because
of their speed, their rpm, their rev rate and the type
of ball they're using. ♪ So, now you've thrown a few
shots, you've determined where the hook is on the
lane and your break point, but where do you start? Now, on a time where you start,
I'm talking about your feet. If you're a straighter player,
you're probably going to be closer to the gutter,
playing a little bit straighter. As you have more revolutions or
slower ball speed, you may move in a little bit and move your
break point and your starting position a little
further away from the gutter. Here we'll see some examples of
some different types of players, and you can see which
players you match up best with. Here we have John Mark, he's
like a lot of bowlers that you see in a league. He's high speed, higher on
the rev rate and everything. He's trying to play lanes
too direct through the front. He's having a hard time
getting into the right side of the head pin. How can he apply that
break point rule of 31? Well, we have a 40 foot pattern,
so we want our break point to be right around 9 or 10, and with
John Mark's rev rate and speed, his launch angle, like you said,
is far too direct, so we would get his feet to move further
left, move his eyes maybe a two and one left. Two with your
feet, one with your eyes. That'll get you a steeper angle
through the front, but get you to the same break
point down lane. So, you know, it looked like you
were trying to play second arrow through the front part of the
lane, we really want, if you want to think of the
second arrow down the lane. So, we probably need you to move
quite a bit left, get it out to that point, so you can
get the ball to come back. Let's go ahead and
give it a try. Okay. Okay again, your feet look
like they're in a good spot, just don't have our
eyes far enough right. You're not getting out
to that spot that we're looking down the lane. Just kind of keep your
feet in the same place, let's move our eyes a little bit
right and try one more shot. Okay. So, now we can see, John Mark,
in three shots you got warmed up, now you've got a good
attack angle to the pocket. You've got a good place to
start, you have a good break point down the lane and
you're nice and flush. Now, remember, the lanes are
going to change, but you still are going to kind of want to
keep that same point down the lane, and you're just going
to be moving your angles through the front as
the lanes transition. Okay. ♪ ♪ Okay, now we have Steven. Steven is a player who is kind
of a medium to a firmer speed. Still had good rpms, but a
little more side rotation. He's going to have a little
more hook on the ball, but again he's
playing way outside. Right. Again with the distance that we
have in the pattern, we want it, I think with your speed and your
rotation, you're going to want to have much more angle again
through the front, get that same break point, I think that will
help you get a little bit lined up a little bit sooner. It's -- players see this quite
often, they like to see their ball hook, but your room for
error is not going to be there. You're going to have splits,
you're going to have washouts, you're going to have to be so
precise where you're playing. making the simple move coming
into that break point, we're looking down the
lane, 9 board and stuff, changing the angles through
the front a little bit. You're going to have more
room for error, your scores are going to increase. Let's go ahead
and give it a try. On that one there it looked
like the angle just got too far out again, so probably
just pull our eyes in just a little bit more because it
looked like, how far did it look like to you
that it got out to? It was easily out around
the first arrow, too far with my angle. Too far. So, yeah, your feet look pretty
good, let's just pull your eyes in about two or three
boards, let's give that a shot. in about two or three
boards, let's give that a shot. Excellent, in three shots. Yeah, I think possibly, Steven,
on the shot before did you move your feet only? Just my feet, yeah. Oftentimes we see that with
league bowlers, they move their feet only, which is a really
aggressive move, and it moves their break point an
equal amount down lane. So, we want to make sure, we're
trying to control that break point that we move our
eyes along with our feet. Right. Great shot. ♪ ♪ Okay, now we have a bowler, very
firm speed, kind of a lot of side rotation, but really
playing the lanes direct. How can we apply
that rule of 31? Well, 40 foot pattern, we want
your break point right around second arrow, 9 or 10 down lane. So, what we could see from
that reaction is that your break point was far too
far to the left. So, we've got to figure out a
way, making moves on the lane, to get your break
point in the right area. And we don't want to just
move your feet and your eyes, everything right. It looks like your feet are
probably pretty close, we just want to take your eyes right
where you're looking at the arrows, eyes right a little
bit so we can get the ball a little farther down the lane. That was really close on shot
two, where do you think she can move from there, coach? You know, I would maybe even get
your feet a one and one right. One with your feet and one
with your eyes to the right and let's see how that reacts. Good, now that move ended up
coming in a little high, so we're really close with our
eyes, so we probably just want to fudge a little bit with your
feet back to the left and we're going to be in a great spot. Good shot. Which is great. In four shots we
got you lined up. You're going to
have room for error. You're going to carry the
high hits, the light hits, you're going to be striking
quite a bit in there. That was a great shot. Thanks, Rod. ♪ ♪ Okay now, we have Theresa here
and her style, as we see with a lot of lady bowlers is a little
on the softer speed, kind of a good hand rotation on the side
and kind of a good medium revs. That was a very good shot there,
but if we apply the rule of 31 to this pattern, which is a
40 foot house condition pattern, how far out did the ball
get out there, coach? It got to right
around ten I would say. Yeah, so do you think she's
going to be able to strike a lot at this angle, or is that
going to be a one-time thing? Is this going to be the
place where we want to kind of line her up? She might be a little bit
too open to the pattern. Her feet are too far left and
she's circling it a little bit more than I'd like to see,
even with her softer speed. So, she's hooking the ball,
she's trying to cover too much of the board. So, if she kind of missed a
little bit, she's going to pay a lot of penalty. We don't want to be so dead
accurate right there at the arrows, you want to have two or
three boards of the arrows to be able to still hit the pocket,
so which way would we want to move her? I'd like to see her kind of
close down her angles a little bit, move further right. So, when you say close down your
angles, be a little straighter through the front. Straighter through
the front, more direct. So, pull her eyes a
little bit to the left, move her feet a little
bit to the right. Okay, let's try that. Okay, I like that through the
front a little bit more, but it still came up a little high,
so we want to fine tune that. Even though she struck on that
very first ball, I can see that she'd be struggling
as the game's going. So, what do we want to
do with her feet now? I would move your feet a little
bit left, keep your eyes right around the same spot, so maybe
move your feet one board left, keep your eyes exactly in the
same spot and I would think that it will compensate for the
amount of hook you saw in the back end. Because what we're looking
for is the overall shape of the shot, and it does look like the
shape is a little too strong on the back, so we just want to
move left with your feet. Okay. There we go. There we have a really good
shot, and that's going to give you more room for error, get it
in a little bit, get it out a little bit, carry more of your
pocket strikes, you're not going to pay for the little misses. Your style there, I mean, you're
a little on the softer side, you have a tendency
to want to hook. You're going to see a lot
of transitions over a lot of high speed players. They won't see the
lanes change so much. So, getting you in a good
spot down the lane as far as your break point. And as the lanes change you just
want to kind of start moving your angles in, both your eyes
and your feet at the same time. Great shot. Thanks. ♪ ♪ Okay, coach, we looked at
several different styles and tried to get them lined up. And what we've seen a lot
of different times on league bowlers, they either try to hook
the ball so much, or they're trying to play them too
direct on the lane, and they're playing the arrows. Right, and the important
thing is to figure out your style of play. If you're a high rev rate, a low
rev rate, if you have high ball speed, softer ball speed. All of these things are key
factors in how you want to attack that break point. And what kind of ball are
you using is going to weigh into the equation. The key is not where you're
crossing the arrows, too many players are where are
you playing the arrows. Where are you playing that
lane, where is the break point and how are we attacking
that break point. Right, and knowing that break
point based on that rule of 31 is key into high
scores right away. Because you can strike from
so many different angles and everything, but your room
for error is very minute. The key to playing that break
point, you're going to have a little more room for error
and you're going to have more consistent scores. ♪ How many times have you
been bowling in league or in tournament, think you've thrown
a great shot that suddenly goes high and you didn't expect it? The most experienced players,
that are the most successful, anticipate these lane changes
and are able to move before they actually happen. We're going to use some of the
most state of the art equipment available to us to explain
how and why lanes change. ♪ ♪ Okay, we are now on the
International Training Center's research side in front of
EARL, which with a ball motion study analysis was done and it
helps us getting to what we're talking about now, which
is lane patterns. Lane patterns, they put the oil,
it's an invisible playing field, but it's constantly changing. It is constantly changing. And one of the major factors
is simply the balls are going down the lane. And today's balls, what they're
made of, much duller surface, tend to almost act like a sponge
and they attract more oil, actually soak it up and the lane
will read as if there's much more friction as the balls go
down through the lane more and more throughout your match. So, what are some adjustments
that we can be doing? Well, a lot of times when the
lanes change, it has very much to do with the surface of
the ball the player's using. If they're using a pretty
aggressive ball, something that will absorb lots of oil, that
will pick up the oil, they're going to dry out much quicker
and you'll see much more of a change in reaction. Yeah, a lot of bowlers, the
lanes change gradually, but they'll all the sudden say,
"The lane's transitioned." It's because they've missed it, it's always
constantly changing. Well, we just want to be aware
of what our ball is doing. We want to make our
adjustments to the break point. Our break point is going to
pretty much stay in the same place, how we get to that
break point is going to be changing now. Very differently, yes, you
can do that with release, you can do that with surface
of the bowling ball. There's all sorts of ways you
can change your angle and the way the ball gets to
that break point, but we do want to control that spot. So, if the shape looks good and
the ball's starting to come up a little bit high, you may want
to make what we call a diagonal change, a two and one, which
will get the ball to the same place at the break
point down in the pins, it just changes our
angles to the front. Right, it will accommodate that
early hook that you'll see as the lanes change by moving it a
little bit more into more head oil, which will give the ball
a little bit more push, a smoother surface to play on. And when you're on tournament
conditions, when you're using the bowling's house conditions,
sometimes you don't want to do these two and ones, because the
shape looks really good, we want to do what are called parallel
moves in, which are like a one and one or a two and two,
because we just want to change where the ball finishes. Right, for example, two and two
would be two with your feet and two with your eyes
in either direction. So, you want to kind of
look at the shape of the shot. If the shape of the shot looks
good, it's just ending up in the wrong place, we want to
make a parallel move. If it looks like it's too much
angle or not enough angle on the back end, then we want to make a
diagonal move, and you just want to change where the
ball's going to finish. Right, often time league bowlers
make too many, what we call, abstract moves, moving their
feet only or their target only, and that really will change both
the shape and the break point. And then they end up getting
lost or they end up getting split and we have three or four
holes in the game, and all of the sudden that 200 or that 190
game ends up being 160 or 150. Right. Ask the experts, the quickest
way to improve your average and the answer is always
the same, spare shooting. A timely pick up can turn
catastrophe into triumph. He moves off that, and if
he gets a pinch fast, it goes light. Look out! Are you kidding me! Incredible shot. And on the other end of the
spectrum, sometimes the simplest of tasks can become
the biggest mistakes. He's got to make it. He's a good spare shooter,
but he's got to convert the 10 pin right here. Single pin spare. Misses it! He missed it! And Duke has won the US open. ♪ Everyone wants to throw more
strikes, and that includes me. But the quickest way to
improve your average is to be a better spare shooter. Johnny Petraglia once told
me that being a great spare wouldn't make me a champion,
but not being one would never give me a chance. Here's our staff and they'll
show you some different ways to shoot spares. Getting lined up on your house
pattern and throwing strikes is a great thing, just
like Ametria is doing. But one of the important things
to bowling is spare shooting. Something my dad
always told me, "Make your spares,
strikes will come." Spares are going to add pins
not only to the game you are bowling, but also to
your average at the end of the season. Those extra pins and making
spares is going to improve your game overall. ♪ We're going to teach you about
an easy sparing system that you can incorporate into
your game, no mater what level bowler you are. It's the 3, 6, 9 system. Now, the key factor on the 3, 6,
9 systems is you already need to be lined up and have
your strike target. Ametria is lined up. She has her left foot, as a
right-handed bowler, placed on the 18 board and her strike
target is the second arrow. For the 2 pin she is going to
move three boards to the right. That is now going to place her
feet on the 15 board and she is still going to use the
second arrow as her target to make the 2 pin. ♪ ♪ Ametria is now ready
to shoot at the 4 pin. To shoot at the 2 pin
she was on the 15 board. She will now move three more
boards to the right, which will place her feet on 12, but she
is still going to use her strike target of the second arrow, or
the 10 board to make the 4 pin. ♪ ♪ We are now going to
shoot at the 7 pin. Same system. Ametria is now going to move
three more boards to the right. She will now be lined up on
the 9 board and still use the second arrow, or the 10
board to make the 7 pin. ♪ ♪ ♪ The 3, 6, 9 sparing system is
also used for spares on the right-hand side of the lane. Ametria is lined up for a
strike on the 18 board. She is now going to
shoot at the 3 pin. She will move her feet three
boards to the left, which now puts her on 21 board and she
will use the second arrow to shoot at the 3 pin. ♪ ♪ To shoot at the 6 pin Ametria
will now move her foot another three boards to the left and
put her foot on the 24 board, still using the second
arrow as her target. ♪ ♪ ♪ Another sparing option
is using a plastic ball or a ball that doesn't hook. This is what our elite players
use most of the time because it doesn't hook, it takes the
lane condition out of play, so it doesn't matter
what you're bowling on. And once you find your sparing
system with the plastic ball, you can use that sparing system
no matter where you go. Theresa, one of our elite women
bowlers, always uses a plastic ball to shoot at all of
her single pin spares. She's going to
shoot at a 10 pin. Her starting area is the
35 board and she uses the 17 board as her target. ♪ ♪ Theresa is now going
to shoot at the 6 pin. She is still going to use the 3,
6, 9 system for her feet and use the 17 board as her target
because the ball does not hook. she's going to move three boards
to the right, now she'll be on 32 board and still use 17. ♪ ♪ We are now going to
shoot at the 3 pin. Theresa will move anther three
boards, which is six boards to the right off of
her 10 pin position. So, she will now be
on the 29 board, still using 17 as her target. ♪ ♪ For spares on the left side of
the lane using a plastic ball, get lined up making the 7
pin, then it's easy from there. Continue to move depending on
what pin you leave on the lane, three boards, six boards or
nine boards, still using the same target on the lane. We've explained two
sparing systems for you. The one using your strike target
and your strike ball with the 3, 6, 9 system. This is a great sparing system
where you bowl on a house shot, same shot every week,
things usually don't change. You also probably have a little
bit of margin for error, meaning you don't always have to hit
your target because your ball always hooks to your spare. That's okay. Using the plastic ball though
is definitely the option I would suggest for
tournament competition. Sometimes those lane conditions
can be a little difficult. Using the spare ball takes the
lane condition and the lane out of play and allows you to use
the same foot target and target on the lane to make the spares. Good luck. ♪ If you're having a good night
and throwing the ball well, you might be lucky enough to
only leave a few corner pins. Of course, that might not be so
good if you dread shooting them. Here are some tips on how to
make those pesky 7 and 10 pins, because well, USBC makes
it against the rules to shoot it this way. ♪ ♪ A great practice drill to help
you with your spare shooting, especially that dreaded 7 to 10
pin, that gives every bowler problems, is low ball. We have John Mark and Terry here
competing against each other in a low ball competition. In low ball what you want to do
is knock down the least amount of pins every time
you shoot at the rack. So, this is a perfect, perfect
time to practice that 7 or that 10 pin. Now, if you use a plastic ball,
it's probably a little bit easier because the
ball doesn't hook, easier to make
those corner pins. But you know what,
change it up a little bit. Use your strike ball. Try flattening it
out a little bit. This gives you another option. If you don't want to use your
spare ball, you have the option to use your strike ball. It's a game. It's practice, and
practice makes perfect. ♪ ♪ We all know that the 7, 10
and the big four can be virtually impossible to make. But a washout can be made the
majority of the time if you approach it the right way. I see most players approach it
in completely the wrong way. If you can leave the head pin
after throwing your strike ball, you probably don't have
any business shooting a washout by trying to hook it. By changing your strategy
just a little bit, you can significantly increase your
odds of making this spare. ♪ Like it's my job! Very common thing bowlers leave
now days is the washout, and most bowlers try to attempt
it using their strike ball and their strike line and try to go
to the opposite side and they rarely have success, maybe 10%. The reason bowlers don't have
very much success using their strike ball at the washout is
the angle of attack, or the angle that you have to hit that
head pin to get over to the 10 pin is very small. Think about it like if you're
shooting pool and if you had a pool ball or a ball sitting on
the center dot of the pool table and you're trying to shoot it,
or cut it into to the corner pocket of the pool table
to the right-hand side. Would you put your cue ball
behind the line on the right side or the left side to
try to make that shot? Of course you would put
it on the left side, it gives you a better angle. So, that's what we recommend
for you to do at the washout is throw your spare ball and
shoot it from the left. It gives you a better angle of
attack and probably, and most likely more success at
picking up that washout. When you're attacking your
spares, think of different angles you want to attack them
to give you the best options to be able to pick up that spare. Sometimes shooting from the
left will be more advantageous than shooting from the right. [crowd noise] An opening hand ball! [cheers and applause] Many of the sport's best will
tell you that a strong mental game may be the most important
trait a bowler can develop. Kelly Kulick overcame
unthinkable pressure to become the first woman to win a
title on the PBA tour. Five in a row, how
about that, America! [cheers and applause] Girl power! If he goes strike, 9
spare, Rhino Page wins his first-ever major. On the flip side distraction, in
this case a question about the shot clock used in television
shows can lead to a nightmare. Shot clock's already starting. I just got pins. Oh my goodness gracious. Patrick Allen wins. ♪ Omm. While bowling is largely
considered a physical game, the mental aspect is what normally
separates the top players. As Yogi Bear once said, "90%
of the game is 50% mental, or something like that." So, getting distracted and
losing your focus can be very costly at any level. In this section we'll talk about
ways to keep your mind focused and on task so that you can
perform at your highest level. ♪ There's a lot of talk
about pre-shot routines. Some are shorter,
some are longer. Mine, I wipe off my shoes, I
wipe off my ball, left shoe again, couple seconds about what
I'm doing, get up and throw it. You have some like Randy
Peterson and Walter Ray, get up there and
no time at all. Next we'll go to Carolyn
Dorin-Ballard who probably takes as long as anyone I know. [crowd noise] [cheers and applause] Kind of ironic, they've
asked me to talk about the pre-shot routine. That's something very
important to me, and it's a very important part of my game. It helps me mostly mentally. I'm going to tell you what I do
to put me into that moment where everything else is just a blur. Before I pick up my bowling
ball, the first thing I do is I close my eyes at the settee
area and I visualize my shot. After that I pick up my
towel and my rosin bag. I pick up my ball and I
wipe my ball off four times. This is the part that's
probably the most important, and I really can't
explain why, it just is. I close my eyes while I
am rotating my rosin bag and just squeezing it. I don't know why it helps me,
but while I'm closing my eyes I am putting myself in
a very positive place with positive thoughts. At the US open and the Women's
World Championships I can tell you what I was thinking about. I was thinking about my
husband and my daughter. That puts me in a
good, positive place. It makes me feel calm
and now I'm ready to bowl. I suggest that you put
yourself in a positive place. Negative thoughts is not
what you need before you walk on the approach. Negative thoughts will not make
you the bowler you need to be. So, remember, get a
pre-shot routine. It's going to get you
focused and get you to the point you need to be. ♪ See the ball, be the ball. Often visualization is a
big part of the mental game. And one of those big
choices can be targeting and how you look at a target. You have to make the choice to
physically focus on that target and we're going to see one of
USBC's most technologically advanced products to
show you how to target. Visualization is a really
important part of bowling. It starts way back in the
settee area before you even pick up the bowling ball. The great thing about
visualization is it's something you can practice at home. It's all about closing your
eyes, visualizing that perfect shot off your hand and watching
the motion as it goes down the lane, hitting the pocket. Rod, we have a great tool here
at the ITRC for visualization. Yeah, we have what
we call the goggles. The goggles is a neat innovation
that we have that we can actually see what a
bowler's looking at. So, even though a bowler is
visualizing what they want the ball to do in transition going
down, we can actually see what they're looking at, when they
pick up the ball and the motion the ball's making down the lane. The interesting thing that
we found so far is there is a distinctive difference
between mid-level bowlers and high-end bowlers. Our mid-level bowlers, their
eyes are all over the place. They kind of think they're
looking at a target and they'll jump off to the left, jump off
to the right, look up and down, and they'll swear they're
looking at their target. But when we get to advanced
bowlers and elite bowlers, what have we seen? With the elite bowlers,
usually what we watch is our break point from down the
lane towards the foul line. That allows us to watch
the lane, back to front, front to back. Very rarely do we
look side to side. And what's interesting as
we have seen on generations, different generations, somewhere
based on target and they stay focused on that
target at the end. Others, what we're seeing on
the new players are constantly moving back, every thing's
linear, front, back, up in the lane, nothing going
horizontal and side to side. One of the great things I
found with the goggles it really showed me on some of the shots
where I really thought I hit my target and I was getting my ball
to that break point, it showed me by fact that I was
not hitting my target. So, it brought out some
points that I needed to work on. We've actually seen, too, some
players have been very, almost, astounded how much
their head moves around. With the goggles on there we
can actually see how much their heads are moving around, some
players even close their eyes at the moment of release, they try
to get that extra stuff on the bowling ball and they
actually close their eyes. They don't believe it until
they actually see it on these goggles. Once their mind sees it, just
like the visualization, then they'll believe it
and then they can do it. So, actually, what you're
telling me is the goggles and you're telling me
I'm not perfect. Oh, wow, how do you answer that? ♪ Pressure situations. We've all been in them. It doesn't matter if it's for
your first 200 game, your first 300 game, a league
championship or the US Open. We've all been in them, we've
all failed in them at some point and hopefully we've
all succeeded in them. How you deal with these pressure
situations has a lot to do with how others view you
as successful or not. And largely, how much pressure
you feel is how much you make up about how
important that moment is. Ultimately you're still only
walking about 15 feet and trying to hit a
target on a lane. But many things like money,
title, teammates, trophy, all these things can add much
more to a particular situation. The most pressure I ever felt
was at the US Open and having to strike for a win on one
of the toughest patterns I've ever bowled on. But what made it the hardest was
all the surrounding things that I made up about it as well. Got to be a strike. Gets it! [cheers and applause] That makes up for a
bunch of them right there. Whoo! We're going to go with two of
the most successful players to ever play our sport and get
some of their thoughts on how to handle pressure situations. Beautiful shot. And she gets it. Oh, and she's right again
and the 7 goes down this time. Big shot, actually,
early in the match. [cheers and applause] Boy, you can hear
the crowd here, Marsh. Just pure, great
shot off her hand. Handling pressure. It's really funny. After a TV show and I would get
home people would look at me and say, "You look
so calm on TV. It looks so easy." You have no idea,
it's just not that easy. It really isn't. It's the one thing I struggled
with most in my game over the years. I remember when it
sort of changed for me. I had been working with a
sports psychologist and I'd been through a few. And I would just get on TV and
panic, being so afraid of making a mistake, disappointing my
family, my friends and I just -- I was almost paralyzed. I think working with Dr. Dean
Henets, and he's helped me really feel like I just had
so many regrets in the past. And it's so much better to get
home, look myself in the mirror and not feel bad about who I
was when I threw the ball. It's funny, you try to stay
as positive as you can, especially in those pressure
situations because you don't want to
make a mistake. But one of the things I found
was I got into the fact of being away from bowling. When the women's tour folded
I lost that mental toughness. You know, when you're used to
doing something all the time, like a pre-shot routine when
it puts you in that moment, it gets you focused. I lost some of my mental
focus, what was important. So, I came to the ITRC and
Kim and Rod helped me over the last year or so. I'm really trying to find out
where I needed to be at that moment to really help me excel. Right, and you know, I
think just staying present. That's one of the things that,
you know, in coaching I've found that getting players to
recognize that every shot counts, whether they're in
practice, in league play, in tournament play. To make every shot matter, so
when it comes down to it that you need to make that great shot
to win the Queens or the US Open or the Masters, or win your
league title, it's no different than what you did and what you
practiced over and over again. Listen to this reaction. Come on, CDB. Yeah! Well, we got her initials. Come on CDB. And it's really hard when
you're thinking that all these people are watching
you, oh my gosh, what are they going
to think of me? It's really not what
they think of you, it's what you think
of yourself. And one of the things I really
had to get the grip on again is that I am in the moment. I'm going to try the best I can. And if I fail, which is not a
bad thing, I realize what I did, I make the change. And hopefully I don't do
that again on the next shot. So, really, failure is
a learning experience. Although you may not like it,
it's something you really have to take notice of and just
make the right adjustments. Still gotta be aggressive. I totally agree. Let's see what happens. Beautiful. Kim Terrell-Kearney is the new
2008 US Women's Open champion. It's having that
good perspective. I think that's one
of the great things. You know, unfortunately
not having a women's tourney anymore, not getting to play
every single week, you know, you do, you get to go home and be
normal and realize, as much as it matters and it's how
you pay your mortgage and how you define
your success. It's a game, give
yourself a break. We all make mistakes. Sometimes we'll throw great
shots when it matters, sometimes we won't. Sometimes we're great,
sometimes we're not, but we're great in other ways. And really, the mental focus
and the visualization has really helped me, especially here at
the ITRC where we've done the goggles and worked
with Team USA. Taking a step back and realizing
that when I do make a mistake, don't think too far ahead. Think about staying
in that moment. It's one of those things. Don't think about the 10th
frame, I'm only in the third, because I miss the fourth
to the ninth frame and the game is over. So, that was
really important to me. Stop thinking ahead, sto putting
so much pressure on myself, because I did have a tendency
to beat myself up a lot. It was always me. It was always, why
couldn't you do better? Why are you making mistakes? And really, you helped me
take a step back and say, "You know what, it's okay. So, let's just move on
to the next frame and take one shot at a time." So you can make
educated decisions. When it comes to equipment you
want to have the right gear. If your hand doesn't come
out of the ball right, it can lead to some issues. [laughter] In addition to fit, ball choices
can also affect your score. Advanced equipment
is part of the game. And understanding it can be a
key to increasing your average. ♪ One of the most frequent
questions I get is Chris, what's the right ball for me? And the answer is, it can be
just about any one of them on a given condition
and lane surface. So, what we're going to do in
this section is we're going to give you the tools to make
that decision yourself by going through the ball types, ball
motion and surface management, and some lesser known factors
that can all contribute into that, what is the
right equipment for me. ♪ When throwing a ball down
the lane it goes through three distinct phases. Skid, hook and roll. Now, while we've all seen them
do this, we may not have thought about it in quite this way. In the first 20 feet or
so, the ball will skid. Now, as it gets down here past
the arrows, it goes into the hook phase, along where
your break point is. And then past these last range
finders now you want the ball to go into a roll, so it has the
least amount of deflection. Understanding your ball motion
is a key component to being able to understand your equipment. As a Team USA head coach we get
contacted quite often about what is the magic bowling ball,
what is the secret of equipment? To understand equipment in
bowling balls, you need to understand ball motion and the
phases that a ball goes through down the lane to the pins. We have three phases, the first
phase is called the skid phase. This is when the ball's coming
off the bowler's hand, it's on the front part of the lane
and it's generally about to the first 15 to 20 feet
maximum going down the lane. This is when the ball is
at its fastest speed and has its most axis rotation. The next phase is
the hook phase. The hook phase generally
starts about 20, 22 feet and continues down. We want to see it somewhere
down, especially in tournament play, somewhere down in
the 40, 45 foot phase. After that we
have the roll phase. The roll phase is when the
ball's going in a straight, linear line, and it's
rolling end over end. It's lost all of its axis
rotation and it actually is traveling the slowest speed. What we see a lot of time is the
skid phase ends up being about 30 to 40 feet and the ball
starts in its hook phase about 45 feet or so and the ball
never gets into the roll phase. The majority of time when you're
leaving those corner pins is 'cause the ball is still in the
hook phase, but not into the roll phase as it
goes into the pins. This pertains a lot to what ball
you're going to select and the surface on that bowling ball
and your equipment to be able to match up to the lane conditions. ♪ Ball manufacturers are always
looking for a better way to create a product
to help your game. But much like you would need to
know the difference between a sports car and a pick up, there
are so many different options today between plastic, resin,
dull balls, shiny balls, rgs, differentials, there's a vast
array of options out there. Rod's going to help you
determine which ball type is best for you. Now that we understand the
phases of ball motion let's get into the equipment and selection
and matching up for you. In front of me I have three
high performance bowling balls from different manufacturers. As you can see, I have a dull
one here on my left, kind of a medium finished one in the
center and a highly polished one on my right. These three balls will give me
distinct different motions going down the lane. Remember we talked about
that first phase, the skid. This one will give me least
skid, this one will give me the maximum skid. So, if you're a player that
has on the slower speeds, you probably want to be looking at a
ball that's a little shinier so you can get the
ball down the lane. On the other end, if you're a
player with very high speed or high rpms, probably want to get
a ball that's going to get into a roll earlier. They key is getting a ball
that's a match up to you. Even though these balls come
this way from the manufacturer shelf, we recommend that you
fine tune them to match up to your game. You can change the
surface on this ball. We can take this bowling ball
down and make it similar to this one, or even almost all
the way down to here. On the same end, we can take
this ball and shine it up. So, you can fine tune these
balls after you purchase them to match up to your game. Just because they came that way
from the manufacturer does not mean they're the best for you. Bowling ball cores, or
bowling ball dynamics. The engine, or the inside of the
bowling ball, has a lot to do with the motion the ball's
going to be doing down the lane. Please remember, the surface of
the bowling ball dictates the distance that you're going to
be doing the skid and when the bowling ball grabs. The core is going to dictate the
motion it does when it starts to change direction. On my left here I have
what's called an asymmetrical. An asymmetrical is the ball
core is not exactly the same all the way around. Think of it as a mug with
a handle on the side, it's not going to be the same. ON my right I
have a symmetrical. It's going to be just
like that Coke bottle or that Pepsi bottle. It's going to be exactly
the same all the way around. These two will kind of give
you slightly different motions. inside here in the
middle I have two cores. I have a very large core
and I have a small core. The smaller core creates
what we call a lower rg. It's going to be
more center heavy. To my right here I have a large
core, the weight's going to be closer to the
outside of the shell. How that relates to bowling is
that if you took an ice skater and an ice skater
has their arms out, they're spinning slightly slow. As they pull their arms in,
they start spinning faster. This would be the ice skater
with their arms out, this would be the ice skater then
they pull their arms in. The key is matching it up
to your style and your game. Your local pro shop
operator can help you make the proper choices. ♪ The easiest part of a
bowling ball to manipulate is the surface. It's the only part
that touches the lane. With a few Averlon pads, a
little bit of polish and a towel, you too can make
your break point sooner or later fairly easily. Coach Rod Ross and EARL
the robot will show you and demonstrate how to make
your old ball do new tricks. Adjusting the surface of the
bowling ball is done by using sanding pads manufactured by
several different companies that you can use on
your bowling ball. They come in a wide range of
grits, 360, even down to 180, up to 4000. The difference is the higher the
number, the larger the number the finer the grit, the
smoother it is going to be. The lower the number, the 180s,
the 360, the rougher it's going to be, the more it's going to
make the ball want to read early or pick up early. It's going to make it rougher. It's easy to adjust the surface
on your bowling ball if you just take one of your pads and just
slightly adjust the surface. You can see right off, now,
it is substantially duller. That is going to make the ball
act like the lanes are dryer. It's going to actually
make the ball read earlier. It's going to make the
hook phase start sooner. It's going to actually
be smoother as it goes down the lane. Let's take a look at EARL, our
robot and show you some of the differences with different
surfaces of the same ball going down the lane. ♪ [equipment noise] [equipment noise] ♪ Of course, the bowling ball is
the most obvious piece of the equipment puzzle, but there are
other, smaller things that can contribute to your success. Carolyn will be in the pro
shop showing you many of the ways pros and amateurs alike
can compare to be their best on the lanes. Welcome to the pro shop. The pro shop is located
inside your bowling center. You spent a lot of
money on your equipment. Let me give you some
hints as to how you can maintain that equipment. It's kind of like
having a car. You have the car, you need to
get the oil change so that you can maintain your vehicle
for as long as you want. Same thing with
bowling equipment. When you get to the pro shop,
ask your operator what you can do to get the oil off your
ball and get the surface back to as clean as possible. They have a lot of cleaners
out there that will be available to you. One of them is a wipe. You just take it out of the bag. And as you're wiping the
surface of the bowling ball you'll see it will look wet. It will dry really quickly and
you'll notice that oil line on the ball will be gone. How often should you do this? Well, I suggest you do
it every time you bowl. If you bowl once, twice, three
times a week, at the end of every week, clean your equipment
and that will maintain it for a long time. Why clean our ball? Why maintain it? You know why? When that oil gets on this
bowling ball, it continues to soak into the bowling ball. Guess what happens? The ball stops hooking. And as you know, you don't
want your ball to stop hooking. Seek your local pro shop
out, they will have the answer. What we used to do in the old
days is sand the ball way down to a 180 grit and then
bring it all the way back. And that took the oil off of
the surface, but with today's bowling balls,
things have changed. Your pro shop operator will help
you decide what's best for the equipment you have. Something you can do on your own
is use a spray cleaner that is available in the pro
shop, or a microfiber towel. Just by wiping off the surface
of that ball, it will take the surface oil off but it will
not take that oil that has soaked into the ball out. If you're just getting ready to
purchase your brand new bowling ball, make sure you go to your
pro shop operator and have them fit you properly. You don't want to just
go anywhere to get your bowling ball drilled. If it has been suggested to you
to use a wrist device, and there are many wrist devices out there
on the market, this is going to help you hook the ball
a little bit more and keep your wrist firm. Please make sure that pro shop
operator measures you and fits you with the
wrist device on. It will then fit you properly. If you're going to spend all
this money on your equipment, I want you to have everything
necessary to perform to the best of your ability. The biggest problem I see
whenever I travel the country is bowling shoes. The house shoes, or lower
performance shoes, have the same sole and heel. It does not allow you to grip
to the approach and get a good slide into the foul
line to create leverage. I suggest a higher
performance shoe. Each shoe is going to
do something different. One shoe is going to
have rubber on it. You will be able to create a
great power step with this shoe. It will then allow you to slide
into the line, create really good leverage to
execute your shot. No matter whether I'm bowling
league, going to a tournament, especially an open championship,
you will never see me without my accessory bag. And my accessory bag has
everything in it that I will need to perform
to my highest level. I will always bring my thumb
tape, which I will use on top of my thumb so
that I don't cut. And because my skin is
dry, it covers my skins so it doesn't get raw. Glue, to glue in my grips. I'm always changing my
grips, so I always have a bottle of glue with me. Bowling tape. I go through thousands of
pieces of bowling tape. This helps me create the feel
I need with my bowling ball so that I can throw it
the same every shot. Extra soles and
heels for my shoes. I never know what surface or
approach I'm going to be bowling on, so I need to be
prepared with my bowling shoes. And lastly, always
have a pair of scissors. This will help you insert the
bowler's tape into your thumb and also help you
insert your grips. Lift it straight up and
keep your heels on the floor. Bowling isn't only about the
time you spend on the lanes. There are many opportunities
to improve your physical conditioning, help prevent
injuries and work on specific bowling related movements in the
gym or even in your own home. By taking a little extra time
off the lanes, your time on the lanes could prove to
be much more fruitful. ♪ While there's lots of things
we do to help us be successful while we're on the lanes,
there's a few things you can do directly before, after, and even
while you're at home to prepare for success while
you're competing. ♪ 499, 500. After bowling over 50,000 games
in my career, I can tell you it takes its toll on your
body in many different ways. But there are exercises you
can do to keep your body in peak physical condition
and to help prevent injury. Coach Kearney is going to help
look at a couple of things that can help you
perform at your best. How many times at the st art of
league night have you seen guys up on the approach doing jumping
jacks or running in place. I bet not very often. But what we've found with
our studies here at the International Training and
Research Center with our sports performance specialist and
going up to the Olympic Training Center, that bowling is a sport
that requires dynamic warm-ups. Dynamic meaning getting your
core and your heartbeat going. We want to get you moving
and ready so that we use our practice time wisely. Let's take a look at some of the
exercises we have our teams do before a competition. We'll do some jumping
jacks, arm swings, in front and also alongside. We do squats and lunges. We do a squat here, making
sure we keep our heels down and feet shoulder width apart. Anything that can get
your heart up and running. We'll do leg swings side to
side, alternating with each leg. And then we do them in front. All of these in an effort to get
your body going, nice and loose and ready to make great shots. Get yourself lined up
much, much quicker. Now that your competition is
over we recommend what we call static stretching, something
that was very common in the past, everything that
I was always taught before I went bowling. That static being bending
over, touching your toes, some of these movements. Much better suited for the end
of the night just to bring your core down, your
body temperature down, and also to prevent
a lot of injury. ♪ We've given you many pointers
that you can do on the lanes to help make yourself
a better bowler and increase your average. But there's many things you
can also do on your own time and even at your own home that can
help keep that progress going. Some release drills
you can do at home to help develop your release. You can utilize a Nerf
football or a softball. The Nerf football has been
around quite a while for teaching releases. It has you rotate the ball. The issue that a lot of us have
with this is it makes you come around that football and it
actually creates what we call that flying elbow, makes
them overturn the bowling ball. The drill that we would like to
recommend is using a softball. First of all, when you grab a
softball to toss it, you do not want it with a tight fist. This is like
gripping a bowling ball. We want you to hold it in
your hand and keep your thumb relaxed, keep it out. Start by just tossing it to
yourself, get used to rolling your fingers, keeping
your thumb relaxed. As you advanced, start learning
to turn it sideways by still keeping your hand
underneath the softball. This is the release you want to
do when they talk about coming from the inside of the ball
you hear a lot of times on the PBA Tour. This is the release
that they are using. Now, we brought Steven in. Steven has a very good release,
but we're going to work on some drills where he can accelerate
his release training at home. I'm going to give
you a softball. I want you to just toss
the softball to yourself. You notice right off the bat
Steven grabs it with your thumb. That's what we're talking about. You don't want to grab it with
your thumb, you want to keep your thumb relaxed off of it and
just toss it to yourself using the middle part of your
hand and your fingers. That separates those muscles
between the thumb and fingers, so you can keep a nice, relaxed
grip, but still get a lot of rpms on the bowling ball. The next drill we want
to do is some side turns. So, as your thumb's
relaxed, come underneath, turn it sideways. As you practice this, you'll
incorporate it into your release and you'll have a stronger
release out on the lanes. ♪ ♪ ♪
