Bowling - The Trailing Leg

Bowling - The Hood Ornament by Susie Minshew

One of the vital necessities of a shot in bowling is that the trailing leg and hip get out of the way of the descending ball. Well, there's a duh, huh? It's a survival instinct thing. You don't want to hit yourself in the butt with the ball so you get it out of the way! This is known as clearing. Now there are ways to clear the hip and there are ways to clear the hip and get a great shot off. Some people simply turn sideways while others swing the ball around the hip. Either one of those will work in preventing gluteus maximus bruising but won't do much to promote good shot-making or accuracy.

One of the tasks the trailing leg performs is that it provides your power. That's right. It is the drive leg, the one that helps you put the oomph in your shots without the grunt. This leg is also pretty important in your ability to be balanced at the foul line. There are some people who, although they do not foul, are hardly balanced. All their weight is on the sliding leg with their rear end and trailing leg up in the air, looking like a hood ornament or the decoration on a fountain. Sculpture-attractive but not very bowling functional. I know there are several players on the Tours who do not use the trailing leg for balance. This article is not about them obviously, but rather about the rest of us.

Although this may seem slightly out of order, I'd like to talk about what you would like to see at the foul line and then how to get there. A good finish position (when I use this phrase, I am always reminded of my friend from Denmark who told me they did not call it the finish position in his country because they did not want to be constantly reminded of Finland) is one that allows you to deliver the ball the way you want where you want. In other words, you are solid and balanced and leveraged. You will be able to deliver the ball where you want the way you want anytime you finish like this.

Let's look at how to get there. As the ball starts into the downswing, the right foot (for a right-hander) is fully compressed and the body is moving forward just like the ball is moving forward. The right knee bends and moves left to a position behind the left knee or even farther left. The space vacated by the right knee is filled by the ball as it is on its way to delivery.

When the right knee bends, the left knee will bend. This will lower the hips and get you into the proper position for a smooth onto-the-runway (lane) laydown point with the ball. The right leg continues to go left clearing the hip for the armswing.

This is very difficult for some people. It's almost as if the more you think, "Bend, knee!", the less bending it does. There are a couple of ways around this. One is not to think about your knees at all but rather about lowering your hips, almost as if you were halfway into a chair. The other is that if, AFTER the power step compresses, the RIGHT knee bends, your left knee will bend (it has no choice – try to bend one without the other…) and you'll be able to easily get the weight transfer to occur as well as be more leveraged. It's just a matter of semantics and as you know, sometimes taking away the focus from what you can't do and phrasing the task another way causes the light to go on.

Some people keep the trailing leg straight. This causes them to be very upright at the line as well as causing a loss of leverage. Although quite a good impression of the Statue of Liberty, it is not very effective for delivering the ball. After the push forward with the trailing leg, the knee remains straight, never bending and following you to the line. You'll find that one of the key reasons for not bending the sliding knee is because the trailing leg straightened out.

This straightening of the trailing leg can cause all the weight to be borne on the sliding leg. It can also cause a severe loss of leverage as you are now too stretched out to perform even if your foot is in contact with the approach. (If most of the weight stays on that right leg, it can also cause the torso and head to be behind the sliding knee.)

Looking at you from behind and calling your head 12:00, your left (sliding) foot should be at 6:00 and a 7:00 position is okay for the trailing foot. However, so are some variances of it. If the foot is at 8:00 or 8:30, that could be okay as well. The real issue with the trailing leg is the hips. Whether the trailing leg is at a 45 angle to the body or a 5 angle to the body, the hips must stay perpendicular to the intended ball path. When the move with that foot and leg is too violent, the hips tend to swing too far open. Think of them as though they were a door to the lane. The hinge is always the non-bowling side. Open would mean the right hip is farther back than the left and closed would mean the right hip is farther forward.

If the hips are open too far, the shot is weak. The speed may be decreased and/or the shot may miss to the right or you will try to compensate by bringing the follow through across your body. If your hips are closed because there is not enough movement with the trailing leg, the shot will be weak or miss to the left, or cause you to try and compensate for the error which will affect accuracy and roll.

One of the best tricks for creating more power from the lower body is to bring the right hip forward at the moment of delivery. This creates incredible power on the shot. The move is not a big one. It's rather subtle actually. Experiment with this in your own game to see if you can feel the difference in the power it helps you create. Thanks to International coach Ron Hoppe for that tip.

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