Feeling Your Bowling Ball

By: bowlingball.com, Originally Posted 1/29/17; Updated 2/2/21

Feeling your bowling ball varies with every bowler.

One bowler who tends to drop the ball behind the foul line when releasing it may not be gripping the ball firmly enough.

Another bowler may be squeezing the ball far too much resulting in being late with the release and creating excessive loft beyond the foul line.

A weaker person may have to grip the bowling ball as hard as they can while a strong handed bowler may have to barely grip the ball like holding a baby bird in the hand.

One key to being an accomplished bowler is to release the ball consistently at or near the same point at the bottom of the forward swing arc.

How each bowler develops this feel and technique of releasing the ball on time every delivery comes from good tempo, a good timing relationship between steps and the swing, and the release technique itself.

One key to moving toward gaining a consistent release point is having each bowling ball in your bowling bag fitting your hand properly and near identically.

Your pro shop professional faces the challenge of trying to make each of your bowling balls feel as close to identical as possible but cannot completely accomplish this every time you are fitted for a ball.

What you can do is to develop your own release technique where you begin by placing slightly more gripping pressure with your bowling fingers than with your thumb.

Maintain as close to the same gripping pressure throughout your entire swing cycle.

Do so from the moment you hold the ball in your stance position on the approach before your first step and during your entire swing cycle until your ball exits your hand.

Avoid forcing your release by thrusting your forward swing hurriedly in anticipation of releasing the ball.

If you tend to open your hand too soon and drop the ball behind the line on the approach floor, grip the ball firmly and delay your release until you feel your ball passing the toe of your sliding bowling shoe.

So much of bowling well comes from having good bowling ball feel, being aware of your hand in the ball and the feel you develop when your hand exits the ball.

If you are not typically “fussy” about how precise each ball feels in your hand then focus instead on applying the same gripping pressure with your fingers and thumb every time you swing and release your ball.

Other factors affecting feeling your bowling ball is the speed in which the ball exits your hand heading down the lane. By controlling and regulating your ball speed, your job regulating the loft distance becomes easier than if you change speeds every shot with no awareness of doing so. By controlling your ball speed and hand action at the moment you release your ball you will gain ball skid distance control and your overall ball reaction improves.

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