Training Recommendations for Younger Individuals

In my last article, I discussed training recommendations for older bowlers. This month, I want to address what the younger bowlers should be focusing on off the lanes.

In the last few years, I have noticed an alarming number of young bowlers wearing knee braces, wrist wraps, and using athletic tape to alleviate pain in their muscles and joints. This is unbelievably saddening to me, as athletes of any sport at that age shouldn’t be experiencing so many of these issues. Of course, in contact and reactive sports, you are going to see injuries no matter what. But, with bowling, these types of issues are absolutely preventable. This leads me to believe that many of these young bowlers are just uninformed about what they should be doing off the lanes.

Injury problems among so many youth bowlers is one of the main reasons I felt that more awareness about fitness for bowlers was needed. The future of our sport relies on the younger generation. If so many of them are injured before the age of 20 and can’t bowl competitively any more by the age of 30, where do you see our sport going?

Prevention of common bowling-related injuries

So, how can young bowlers avoid injuries that can impact their careers down the road? Just like with older adults, the answer lies in functional strength training. The demands of bowling place repetitive stress on the knees, hips, torso, and shoulders. This repetitive ...