I was talking to a coach about getting a new bowling ball that hooked more and he said that he would look into drilling a ball like a left hander because I throw a backup ball. Is this a good idea?

Let me first welcome you to the site Ellen.

As for your question, the coach is right. If you are right handed and throwing a back up ball it is hooking like a left hander bowler and should be drilled accordingly. If not you will be fighting to get the ball to hook. I occasionally bowl with a back up bowler in one of my leagues and all of his bowling balls are drilled for a left hander and he is a righty. Most pro shops would know to do drill it that way if you tell them you are a backup bowler. They will take the measurements on your right hand but drill them on the side of the weight block for a left hander.

Its the only idea and you should be aiming for the 1,2 pocket from the left side of the lane. Unless you are going to unlearn the backup ball release. Which by the way, can be done and has been done by several of my students both male and female. They all are doing well, with a standard release and scoring higher. All of them were older then you and a think probably more ingrained in the back up release, so yes it was difficult, but not impossible.

Erin

Ellen,
I don't know how serious you are about your bowling game but the fact that you are on this forum tells me you are serious. Let me say that if you have any aspirations on becoming really good, you need to rid yourself of your backup ball and learn to throw a hook ball.

The main reason why the backup ball is so prevalent among women bowlers is because their arms are constructed in a manner that encourages a backup. The key to rolling high games in bowling is to string strikes, something that is hard to do with a backup ball because of lack of power at the pins. A backup bowler shoots a lot of spares.

So if you decide to stick with the backup ball go ahead and have it drilled for a lefthander. You might even develop a reverse hook which is somewhat better than a backup but is a strain on the arm and is difficult to control.

If you decide to develop a hook ball here are some pointers:

1) get used to using the 2nd arrow from the right as a target to break the habit that a backup bowler has of using the left side of the lane.

2) In the stance, the ball should be held to the right inline with the shoulder with the wrist straight and firm. Overemphasize the hand position for a hook by having the thumb at 9 o'clock and the fingers at 3 o'clock(suitcase grip). If more exaggeration is required have the thumb at 8 o'clock and the fingers at 2 o'clock. The result will be a weak hook which is ok while breaking the backup habit. Once your arm is trained to throw a hook you can learn to throw a more effective hook using a more powerful hand position.

3) Make sure the pushaway is straight out from the shoulder. If you were used to holding the ball in front of the body instead of towards the side, the pushaway probably went to the right before dropping the ball into the downswing. If you were to continue to push to the right when the starting position of the ball is in front of the shoulder, the armswing will end up behind the body resulting in rotating the elbow inside out resulting in the backup again. Again push the ball straight out from the shoulder to initiate a straight backswing.

4) Watch the shoulder. If the shoulder drops too much, the elbow could rotate clockwise which we are trying to avoid.

5) While learning to break one's self of the backup ball, the inside of the elbow should be facing the body at all times thus keeping the thumb in a 9 o'clock position.

Thanks for the pointers John. I have a bowler I have been trying to help break this habit, I had her throwing straighter but not very consistently. Last time we spoke she said she was going to go back to throwing backup as it just works for her and was what she is used to, and I don't have the coaching knowledge to really know how to break this habit successfully. I'm going to print out your pointers to give to her and see if she wants to try again.

I threw a few hooks in practice, but it feels really strange to me. I've been throwing a backup for years though, so I guess it would take time to devolve. I'm just really scared of my league average dropping even more.

Oh, and thank you for your advice

If you want to change to a more conventional release, do it in the offseason, during the summer. Just bowl fun leagues if you bowl on at the time. While I don't need to change my release, I am planning on doing a major overhaul to my approach once the season is over. That way I can be ready for the serious leagues come the fall.

Alright, that sounds like a pretty good idea to me. I'll try to grab a coach or someone else to help me during the off session because hands on coaching is always best. I really hope this improves my game from just spare shooting (I've been doing quite a bit of that) to more strike shooting in due time.

Thanks again!


Oh, and by the way, I'm really starting to like it here, you all seem like really nice people

Welcome, Ellen. If you follow the suggestions posted here......I still can't guarantee you will be on TV. But, we'll try.

BTW, what school?

Its difficult to make any drastic changes during league, much less at the end of a long league season like winter bowling season here in the US. But during the summer would be a great time to work on new things. You might want to consider holding off on a new ball until then, so it doesn't have to be redrilled. Right now if the ball you are using is not drilled for a back up release, then you may want to have it plugged and redrilled accordingly until you are ready to learn a new release.

What are you throwing now and what weight?

Erin

I'm throwing a really old Ebonite Magnum Reactive (don't think they make it anymore) for a strike ball and a new plastic Ebonite Maxim for the spares on the left side; they are both 14lb.

Welcome to the site Ellen, I like your attitude toward coaching, I wish you luck.

If you are already able to throw a hook in practice, that is half the battle, some women have anatomy problems, their arms bend at odd angles that prevent them from hooking the ball at all. By you saying you can hook it means that you should have a relatively easy time making the transition.

Some women when they stand with their arms straight at their side bend at an angle to their body, this forces the arm and hand to come in from an outside to inside angle instead of the opposite. One other piece to the weird anatomy puzzle they usually have double jointed elbows to go along with the odd elbow angle. It takes a long time to learn to hook the ball for these women and a lot of patients, because there are two more moving parts that need to be accounted for in the swing.

Practice hooking the ball, but wait until you feel comfortable with throwing a hook before using the hook in league.

One of the best bowlers in my league throws end-over-end. If that shot isn't working, he goes to a backup ball as his 'B' game.

So, the backup shot can still be useful for you, even if you learn to hook the ball in the normal fashion. The key is to throw the shot from the left edge of the lane, so the backup action 'hooks' the ball into the 1-2 pocket, just like a down-and-in shot from a left-hander. Generally, the left side of the lane has less traffic, which means more consistency and fewer adjustments (once your ball is drilled properly and your mechanics are down).

Obviously, there are advantages to having a big ol' hook, too.

Well my question sort of falls under this area except that due to a child hood injury and the way my arm bends I actually throw a decent hook with a back up ball, usually standing over the 2nd arrow on the left letting the ball skid out 3-5 boards to the left before it hooks back in toward the pocket. I have a good amount of rev and my speed is around 12-14mph down the lane.

The problem I'm currently having is keeping the ball on the left hand side of the head pin my ball seems to roll out way to early unless I ramp up my speed ( 15+ mph )which takes a toll on my arm and kills my accuracy. I can sometimes remedy this by moving my feel to the right and throwing it towards the edge more but this forces me to throw across my body and my accuracy suffers big time.

I am in the market for a new ball ( currently using a 15lb Storm Dark Thunder ) and I was looking for suggestions on both a ball and drilling pattern that would take advantage of my natural motion and not force me to throw the ball as hard as I can.

Welcome to the site Alan.

Does your previous injury prevent you from throwing the ball with a normal hook, or is this just the way you prefer to bowl?

A backup bowler will do best with left handed drilling patterns this is probably why your ball is burning out.

I'd like to welcome you as well Allan. There's not much more to add to what CoachJim said.

It does prevent me from throwing a normal hook, it's painful throw it, I've had coaches try to "fix" it but I can't do it for more than a game before my elbow gets sore. My ball is drilled with a left handed pattern already and I've had some sucess but I am looking to break my average over 200. My main issue is I lose accuracy when I have to start throwing harder then I'd like.

You may never get to a 200 average with a back up ball, the most I have ever seen anyone average is around 185, not that it can't be done, Robert Smith won a pro tournament in Japan with a back up ball, and that young kid that made the Clash of the champions won some tournament or other and he tosses a back up ball, but those are the only two I can think of and Nelson Burton Jr had to go back to the early 60s to remember the last time he saw someone be even semi successful with a back up ball, but don't let that stop you. Maybe you can learn to bowl left handed?

If you are ever in the Washington DC area I would like to see if I could work with you on throwing a normal hook without hurting your elbow.

I can testfy personally that it takes a long time to switch from a backup ball to a 3/4 roller standard hook. As a teenager it took my brother an entire summer to reteach me. And there were many many times when I stood at the foul line doing the one step drill, sometimes not even getting any pins.

Erin

I've always wondered why it was that I so often heard that I could only take a backup ball so hard. My hook angle and speed (to me) seem to be very similar to what I see from more traditional throwing bowlers. Is it generally the problem I'm having where I just can't seem to consistently get the length before my ball starts hooking?

The problem with throwing a back up ball is the inconsistency of the release, one time you turn it more than the next because you can't rely on your thumb exiting the ball at the same point each time usually because of squeezing the thumb to try to control the release and when you squeeze the thumb and try to throw a normal hook that is probably what causes the pain.

I tend to think the pain is a range of motion issue. The bend of my right elbow is abnormal and I have a hard time turning my wrist over when trying to throw with a traditional hook. When I bend my left arm up at the elbow my finger tips come right to my left shoulder, when I do the same on my right arm my fingertips are a good 6 inches to the right of my right shoulder. When I follow through on my shot my arm goes out to the right.

I'm not trying to sound unwilling to change. I have went to a few different coaches because I had been told I'd hit a wall with the backup ball eventually, but it always seems to end up with me in pain and them telling me I should stick with what is comfortable rather then trying to change.

I guess I am just getting frustrated because I feel like I'm hitting this wall now ( around 185 avg ) but feel like I'm not far from breaking through. I keep thinking maybe its an equipment issue or its some little adjustment I need to make and I'll be there.

When you stand with your arm hanging by your side, can you make your hand face forward? Can you make it face left (towards you?) Can you go right at all? Obviously yes to the last one, I suppose, if you're throwing a backup ball. If you can make it face left, towards you, while standing there, there is no reason you can't learn a standard hook.

Yep that is what I was thinking. I am also thinking he has a stretched span and a ton of reverse pitch causing him to squeeze the ball and torque his elbow.

Allen, if you turn the wrist over you aren't doing it right anyway.

I am fairly sure I could have you throwing a normal hook in no time if you are willing to travel down to the Washington DC area, you can stay in my guest bed room.

Allan, have you ever seen Jason Couch bowl? His wrist stays in nearly the same position the whole time - he generates hook by actually rotating his arm at the shoulder. There are ways, and you would be much more versatile in the long run if you found one that worked for you.