Second Step of the Approach - Building Proper Bowling Technique And An Ideal Bowling Approach BowlersMart

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So We Discussed The Bowling Stance, The First Step & The Push Away

And, we’re off! Hopefully to a good start. With a solid stance, first step and push away, there is no reason why you shouldn’t be in a good position to move on to the second or third step in a five-step delivery.

This should be a pretty simple step. The bowling ball should start arcing down in a smooth and soft manner. The opposite hand comes off the ball, and the ball should be at, or slightly above, the ball-side calf.

There Are a Couple of Things to Watch for in the Second Step of Your Bowling Approach

Do not let your spine angle start to move too far forward or bend too much at the waist.

Too far forward at this step will put you in a bad position at the release point. Your chin should still be over the top of your knee and not in front of the knee.

Do not let your feet stop moving.

Ideally, the feet should be moving slightly faster than the swing. You want to be at a walking pace on the first step of a four-step delivery, and the second step of a five-step delivery, as if you were walking down the concourse of the bowling center. But on this next step, you do want to start building some momentum to the foul line. Think slow one….two…. then pick up the pace of three and four. If you have a five-step approach, it should be slow one…two… then pick up the pace of three, four, and five.

There are two tempos in the approach. Arm-swing tempo and foot-speed tempo.

The feet should be moving slightly faster than the arm swing. Moving the arm swing faster than the ball will make the ball arrive too early at the release point, and you will not have any leverage or power. This also is where people will give you the advice of “your feet are too fast.” Your feet really can’t be too fast. They can be moving too fast to start and not allow enough room for more acceleration, or the ball is moving faster than the feet.

In our next installment of “The Approach,” I will cover what I consider to be maybe the most important step, which is the pivot step.

If you have any questions about this blog or if there are any topics you would like me to cover, please email me at [email protected].