Bowling Upper Body Posture

By: bowlingball.com, 2/3/16

If you are fine tuning your game in preparation for important competition, go back to bowling basics and check your bowling upper body posture.

Balance is key to bowling success. Start by double-checking your posture (a.k.a. body position) in your stance. Next, ask a friend to monitor your posture as you walk, swing, and deliver your bowling ball.

Presetting your bowling posture in an athletic position when taking your stance on the approach is the easiest method to establish good balance. If you can maintain that position as you walk to the foul line, your chances of making accurate shots certainly improve.

Simplify your body movement. Focus on reducing movement of your head, shoulders, and torso during your approach.

If the process begins with a well balanced stance position, it just makes sense to maintain good posture throughout your approach so you are in a well balanced position when releasing your ball and sliding into the foul line area.

Since you are already a highly skilled player, you know how to set-up on the approach. You can, however, pay attention to small things such as placing more body weight on your foot which will not be used when taking your first step.

It is important to begin your approach smoothly and consistently each shot and avoiding a sudden weight transfer from one leg to the other as a key to a smooth transition from step to step.

Another little key is your spine angle. Tilt your upper body forward, perhaps 10 or 15 degrees of spine angle tilt, as to place the front portion of your shoulders in a line directly above your knee caps.

Check that your bowling shoulder is no more than an inch or so lower than your non-bowling shoulder.

Flex your knees downward about two inches or slightly less to bring the big leg muscles into play and to tie together your spine angle tilt with a solid use of your legs as you walk.

You will develop automatic power from the gained leverage when flexing your knees. In fact, add a slight bit of flex with each succeeding step.

Adding flex with each step helps you avoid any sudden drop of overall body position as a result of adding significant knee bend as you begin your slide step.

Hold the bowling ball with the center of the ball positioned in as close to to your body as is most comfortable.



The closer you hold a heavy weight to your body, the less strain is placed on your arm muscles.

The bottom portion of your chin should be positioned at least shoulder level or slightly higher throughout your approach.

By observing these simple checkpoints before you begin your approach will help establish a consistent trigger to start your approach and also help maintain good bowling upper body posture throughout your approach and delivery.

There is no question good posture leads to good balance and accurate shots.