Save Your Bowling Shot At The Foul Line

bowlingball.com, Originally Posted: 9/6/2014; Updated: 3/22/2024

If you are averaging in the 140-150 range and feel you make too many mistakes at the moment you deliver your bowling ball, then save your bowling shot at the foul line.
There are a couple of tips you can focus on when taking your approach to make sure you are in a good position when entering the release zone so you make a good shot.
The two most common mistakes any of us make when trying so hard to make a good shot is to either raise up with our upper bodies or pulling away from the foul line while sliding and trying to release the ball.
It is important to remain as motionless with your body torso as possible when walking to the line and especially when entering your sliding step where you release your bowling ball.
Pulling up and out of your shot means you likely raised up from the floor out of a good posture position required in making good deliveries.
Raising up comes from pushing up with your legs and not maintaining the right amount of knee flex in both of your final two steps, particularly in the slide step.
Keep those knees flexed and stay down in position to make an effective shot.
The other tip is to make certain you do not pull your body away from the foul line by leaning back and straightening your forward body tilt just as you slide and are releasing your ball.
Pulling away from the shot is just as bad a raising up and out of position to make a good shot.
When you set up on the approach prior to beginning your walk to the foul line, double check your posture and lean forward with your upper body perhaps 10 or 15 degrees forward from an upright stance position.
You want to have the front portion of your shoulders directly above your flexed knee caps prior to beginning your approach.

It then become a fairly simple matter of retaining that slight forward leaning posture during your sliding step and while releasing your ball.
Being in a good athletic posture will help you remain motionless with your upper body when delivering your shot.
Stay down and don’t pull back from the foul line until well after your ball is delivered.
These keys will help you increase the percentage of good shots and help you raise your average, not your raise out of your shot. The strategy then becomes to save your bowling shot at the foul line. Top layers do it; you can too.