I tried the swing slot today and now I'm a believer. My accuracy was greatly improved. I could only do two of the three things - lean to the right above the waist; take the first step with the non-slide foot directly in front of the slide foot.

The third thing, which was just too much to include in my first practice session, was the balance arm.

My back still aches, but I'm sure it'll get used to the extra demands. Just a muscle ache, not a slipped disc sort of ache.

Anyway, I was really in command of my spares with the swing slot, so I really think it will give me 20-30 points within the next month, and that would take me over a 200 average (in practice bowling on THS). Maybe then my wife will stop beating me with her White Dot....

The Swing Slot


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Great article. I been trying the free swing with some limited success. Doing the tightrope walk really make it work smooth as my hips had been getting in the way. I had to close up my stance alittle to be able to do the tightrope. but with a little practice I was hitting my mark consistently. Thanks for posting that.

Thats good to hear kkeys and SpareMe, keep working on it and it will become more and more of a value to your game.

sk8, you have helped me before. Is this "swing shot" something youwould promote to those new to the game?

The swing slot is very important. But I do not think its something that a bowler needs to think about. You should not have to "try" to keep the ball in the slot. If you are trying to keep it in there you are trying to muscle it. With a free swing, the best thing a game can have, the swing should never get out of the slot. Without muscle there is no way for the ball to get out of a straight path, its a pendulum and the only way a pendulum can change direction is from an outside force. I would just make sure your push away goes towards the target, then leave everything else alone. You can pay attention and make sure your body is in a good position to allow a close swing, but making a close swing will just add other problems.

As long as its all set up at your stance, and within your first couple steps there should never be a reason to pay attention to your "swing slot", gravity does that for you.

I totally agree with the swing slot and recommend that being one of the first things to teach. One problem I had which took me a while to correct is pulling the ball down from the back swing. Gravity is definitely the key to doing the work - less stress on your body too. The looser I am, the more speed I get out of my ball - basically, the less I muscle it, more speed, more accuracy.

One other thing I did in conjunction with the slot is the drop away/hinge - which Slowinski has also written about. It's improved my game and my wife's game immensely - her average moved from 124 to 173 in one year.