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