#Strike bowling how to

On the backswing, keep your arm straight and close to the body. Keep your eye on your target arrow the entire time and make sure you’re walking in a straight line. The four step approach is the most commonly used approach by the pros, but if the Fred Flintstone twinkle-toes thing works for you, then do it. Moving towards the direction you’re missing and aiming for the same arrow will force the ball farther down the lane before hooking into the pins. Yeah, that seems sort of counter-intuitive, but a righty bowler misses left because his ball hooked too early. If you’re missing left, move a bit to your left on the approach. If you consistently hit the pocket from that approach, you’ve found your strike ball. If you’re left-handed, your right foot should be placed just to the left of the center dot. If you’re right-handed with a slight hook, place your left foot just to the right of the middle dot. Use one of these latter rows to line up your approach to the foul line (which one you choose is determined by how many steps you take before releasing the ball). Before the foul line, you’ll see three rows of dots that parallel the lane–one row right before the foul line and two rows a bit back from it. Because most lane oil is in the middle of the lane, throwing your ball on the outside will give it more traction down the entire lane. Lefties, aim for the second arrow from the left. If you’re a right-handed bowler, aim for the second arrow from the right. Instead, pick one of the arrows in the middle of the lane and aim to have your ball roll right over it.

The pins are your target, but you don’t want to focus or aim for them. Use that girl ball without shame.įocus, but not on the pins. Many pros these days have started using the 14 1/2 or 15 pound balls because of the advantage lighter balls provide. Heavy balls make pins fly in the air lighter balls make the pins hit each other. To bowl strikes, you want the pins to hit each other, and not just fly up in the air. And yeah, it’s fun to see the pins fly in the air when a heavy ball hits them, but if you want to bowl strikes, consider lightening up a bit. You want to show off your manly strength by hurling an 18 pound ball down the lane like the thunder god Tor. For a lefty, it’s between the one-pin and two-pin.Ĭhoose a lighter ball. The key to consistent strikes is to angle the ball into the “pocket.” For a right-handed bowler, the pocket is between the one-pin and three-pin. If you’re right-handed, aim for the ball to hit the pocket in-between the 1 and 3 pins. Changes in oil amount and pattern can cause your ball to break differently. Heck, the oil pattern on a single lane can change throughout the game. Why? Well, have you ever crossed the foul line and found yourself on your butt? That’s because bowling lanes are oiled and the amount of oil and the way it’s spread on the lane can differ from lane to lane. Flexibility and the ability to adapt are essential to consistently bowling strikes because every lane you bowl on is different.

#Strike bowling how to

I’m not bowling perfect games by any means, but I’ll get three or four strikes in a game now.Īnd so to help my fellow floundering bowlers, I offer a few tips on how to bowl a strike.īe flexible. With some practice, reading, and advice from guys who bowl strikes on a regular basis, I’ve been able to improve my strike ball.

So lately I’ve been trying to up my game. There’s nothing like seeing all ten of those pins disappear from the lane.

I liked going bowling with my friends and reveling in some manly camaraderie, but being a competitive guy, it was hard to enjoy a game while getting trounced by everyone else.Īnd I rarely got to experience the sheer joy and ecstasy of bowling a strike. Which is to say, for much of my life I was a pretty sorry bowler. Bowling has a long and thoroughly manly history.īut if you’re like me, then your contribution to this legacy of manliness hasn’t been anything to write home about.