Improving Your Feel at Release

In this month’s article, I’ll touch on a topic I haven’t previously addressed in my writing: the physical game and drills that can help you improve it. You might wonder why I haven’t discussed this topic before if it’s so important.

The reason is that this can be a very hard topic to illustrate in words, but I will do my best with analogies to make the information easier to understand and implement. Before we get started talking about a bowler’s physical game and areas of improvement, let’s talk about items in our everyday lives that require maintenance and attention.

Nearly everyone has a car or at least understands the basics of how a car works. What makes a car an automobile rather than a carriage or a wagon is its engine. A vehicle’s engine isn’t a single part; it’s a complex system made up of hundreds of components, each relying on the others to produce the power needed to move the car. If the engine isn’t properly maintained with regular tune-ups, the entire vehicle is likely to fail and become inoperable.

This is much the same as your bowling game. Your technique is a combination of individual movements, and it’s extremely important to fine-tune all of them so your physical game—the motor—doesn’t fall apart on you.

Unlike in decades past, the modern physical game has evolved, and there are different styles and releases that can create an incredible amount of power with little effort. However, even with these styles, practicing and fine-tuning are required for consistency. You also want to be able to release the ball in more than one way to create versatility for the variety of conditions that are found in the modern bowling environment.

This month, we’ll dive into the drills I recommend for both one-handed and two-handed bowlers to help you focus on the basics and really hone in on the areas that I feel are often overlooked. I’ll also highlight a couple of simple ...