Tucking the pinky of your bowling hand to the first knuckle can cause the ball to hook a little more. When you first try this, it might feel as if you’re going to drop the ball. Keep after it. You’ll learn to do it and find that it gives you an alternative ball reaction. You might want to wear an adhesive bandage across that knuckle for a while as a callous might develop. Keep in mind this is an adjustment. If your ball is hooking too much or too soon, untuck! You also might want to untuck it on your spare shots.

One caution here about tucking the pinky. With some people, tucking the pinky can put strain on the ring finger. If you try this and notice your ring finger beginning to hurt, either have your pro shop professional shorten the ring finger span very slightly (for instance, by 16ths until the pain stops) or stop tucking. The added hook potential is not worth an injury.

Opening and closing your shoulder can indeed generate more speed but it certainly can cause some unique problems and complications to your game as well. If you don’t get it closed in time, the ball is late in the swing. If you close it too early, you’ll pull the ball. It’s much easier to just have ‘free’ swing and one less thing to worry about in your timing mechanisms.

To help keep your wrist firm, try pressing the tip of the index finger of your bowling hand hard against the ball. This will keep your wrist firm without tightening up your whole arm.

When someone on either side of you is ready to begin their approach, don’t rerack. Wait until they have delivered their shot to press the reset button. The pins being reset are in their line of vision.

Your non-bowling arm is almost as important as your bowling one. It helps provide balance. Your non-bowling hand and arm come off the ball at the end of the push off and should go out to the side of your body to help offset the extra weight you have on the bowling side of your body. If you don’t get that arm out to the side for balance, you’ll tend to fall off the shot. Having this arm even with your body or slightly behind your torso with your hand waist high or higher and about 18″ or so from your body will provide the counter-balance you need. ‘Textbook’ says not behind your body. Tell this to WRW Jr. or to Carolyn Dorin-Ballard, both of whom have their non-bowling arm about 90º to their back at the finish position. Do what works!

Another very important component of the non-bowling arm is the position of the thumb. If your thumb is up at delivery, there could be a tendency to roll the shoulder forward. It is usually more effective to have the thumb down. Check which one you do and then try it the other way. You will find turning the thumb up or down can give you some options you didn’t know you had!

Put your hand in your ball to make sure it fits today. Some people swell as they bowl and some shrink. There is never a reason to make bad shots thinking that as soon as you swell up your thumb will fit and everything will be wonderful. You’ve gotten a bad read off those shots and wasted your effort. Tape is much much cheaper than playing the wrong shot. If it’s cold outside, your thumb is probably small and you might need to add tape until it swells. If it’s hot and humid, your thumb might be big today. Remember that your thumb size can change but your thumbhole cannot. The size of the thumbhole is easily regulated with tape. Since we can never afford to give shots away and normally your opponent is not going to wait for you to figure it out, it seems a good plan to put a piece of tape in, make good shots, get a good read, swell up and take the tape out.

Another important loosen up technique in to put your hand all the way in the ball and swing it back and forth three or four times. Your thumb feels one way in a ball not in motion and entirely another in the swing. Don’t let the first time your shoulder feels the weight of the ball to be when you mean it. Your first shot should be about ¼ speed. By about the 5th or 6th shot you should be up to full speed. No athlete in any sport starts out at full speed. That’s what warming up is all about, gradually allowing your body to get into the athletics of your sport. (I’ve often thought I could have a lucrative part-time job throwing everyone’s first three shots.)

If you want to get the ball into an earlier roll than normal, target the dots, which are 7′ out on the lane rather than the arrows. The first time you try this you might feel like these dots are right in your face by the time you get to the foul line. They’re not, of course, but it is how you feel. Be careful not to allow your head and torso to go down when learning to look at the dots. Your head and shoulders must still say up.

I see this constantly and wish I didn’t see it at all, ever. It causes so many problems – poor roll, squeezing the ball, killing the shot, dropping the ball, no backswing, grunting at the foul line, etc. Unless you are making a rather sophisticated adjustment, you should always put your thumb completely in the ball. Sometimes people are afraid of sticking in the ball and don’t put their thumb all the way in. Your hand was measured by your pro shop professional and your span gauged with your thumb all the way in. If you don’t put it all the way in, you won’t be able to free swing the ball, will have to control it, and the pins always know when your armswing is tight. I understand that a very common reason for not putting the thumb all the way in the ball is that you can’t because you are so stretched. That’s another article.

Put your fingers into the ball first and then your thumb. Putting your thumb in first will usually have you feeling like the ball was drilled for someone else! Super tip – This sometimes works well for straightening the ball out for your spare shots.

If you want to get the ball into an earlier roll than normal, target the dots, which are 7′ out on the lane rather than the arrows. The first time you try this you might feel like these dots are right in your face by the time you get to the foul line. They’re not, of course, but it is how you feel. Be careful not to allow your head and torso to go down when learning to look at the dots. Your head and shoulders must still say up.

Some people have success learning this by pretending they are looking at their target through the bottom of their glasses (regardless of whether you wear any or not although it doesn’t work very well if you wear bifocals!) or that they have a glass of water on their head they cannot spill.

To get more comfortable looking at the dots, try looking a foot or so in front (closer to you) of the arrows for a few shots. Then go two more feet and two more feet until you are comfortable looking at the dots. Although these dots are not on the same boards as the arrows, they are still great targeting aids and are generally used when you need to get the ball rolling earlier or when you need to decrease the distance you put the ball out onto the lane. The dots are on 3, 5, 8, 11, 14, 26, 29, 32, 35, and 37. So if your target is the second arrow, you might want to look one right of the fourth dot. That is, of course, if you are trying to lay the ball down on 10 and be at 10 at the arrows. If you’re trying to swing 10, you might want to look at the fourth dot. That would put your laydown point on 11½ or 12. The ball would be on 11 at the dots and 10 at the arrows, etc.

I see this constantly and wish I didn’t see it at all, ever. It causes so many problems – poor roll, squeezing the ball, killing the shot, dropping the ball, no backswing, grunting at the foul line, etc. Unless you are making a rather sophisticated adjustment, you should always put your thumb completely in the ball. Sometimes people are afraid of sticking in the ball and don’t put their thumb all the way in. Your hand was measured by your pro shop professional and your span gauged with your thumb all the way in. If you don’t put it all the way in, you won’t be able to free swing the ball, will have to control it, and the pins always know when your armswing is tight. I understand that a very common reason for not putting the thumb all the way in the ball is that you can’t because you are so stretched. That’s another article.

Put your fingers into the ball first and then your thumb. Putting your thumb in first will usually have you feeling like the ball was drilled for someone else! Super tip – This sometimes works well for straightening the ball out for your spare shots.