Bowling Towel Practice Tips

bowlingball.com, Originally Posted: 8/4/2013; Updated: 4/1/2023

There are two tips where you can use your bowling towel to help you control your armswing path and your loft distance.
For regulating your loft distance and to avoid dropping your bowling ball behind the foul line, do the following in your practice session:
Place a bowling towel on the foul line, where the center of your ball passes over when you make your delivery.
Make sure about 6 inches minimum of towels lies on the lane surface beyond the foul line, but no portion of the towel interferes with the boards on the approach, where your sliding shoe enters the foul line.
Deliver multiple shots clearing the towel with emphasis on not rotating your ball with your bowling fingers more than one inch of rotation.
Make complete follow-through swing motions each delivery without decelerating your forward swing.
This simple practice drill will help you develop loft distance control and as a by-product, will help you gain a consistent ball reaction.
Next, place your folded bowling towel under your bowling arm pit and keep the towel pressed into position by maintaining your bowling arm in close contact with your torso. This practice drill is to help you keep your forward swing tucked in close to your body trunk.
Make a series of deliveries and make certain to follow through completely and not decelerate your forward swing.

The towel will drop to the floor at some point during your forward swing, but you will feel the towel acting as a conduit between the inside of your upper arm and your torso.
By keeping the bowling towel pinned under your arm and by swinging and delivering your bowling ball, you will insure that your forward swing path stays under your armpit area and does not flare toward the outside of your shoulder.
Keeping your arm swinging your ball under your arm pit area on the forward swing will help you maintain an intended swing delivery path to your sighting target on the lane.
Using your bowling towel to help you practice loft and swing path control is an easy and simple way of self-training these techniques which are vital to success in bowling.