How Can I Straighten Out My Ball When Shooting The Ten Pin?
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Originally Posted: 5/9/2015; Updated: 6/4/2022If you ask how can I straighten out my ball when shooting the ten pin, there are a couple of tips you can use to reduce your bowling ball hook?
Most experienced bowling instructors suggest you use a plastic ball with low surface friction and keep your hand behind the ball to avoid rotating your bowling fingers when releasing the ball.
By staying behind your ball with the palm of your hand facing the pins at the point of release, you reduce the chances of turning your fingers around the outside of the ball and increasing the amount of hook you will get as your ball travels down the lane.
Another way of expressing the same tip is to bring the tips of your bowling fingers up to the sky as you release your ball. In doing so, you reduce side turn with your fingers and you also reduce hook potential.
One former pro bowler and Hall of Fame Champion, Marshall Holman, would say he keyed on his finger tips on his bowling hand would follow through upwards from under the lane bed to reduce the amount he turned the ball.
Any of these concepts to reduce turning the ball will help impart a forward roll motion on the ball which tends to hook very little.
When shooting at the ten pin (seven pin for left handed bowlers), it is important to avoid walking toward the center of the approach but rather maintain your straight line walking path to the foul line.
If you move toward the center of the approach when you release your ball, you risk getting the ball into the dry boards on the lane too quickly thereby influencing the ball to gain traction and hook away from the ten pin.
It is also important to not lift up on the ball so abruptly as to apply a greater amount of finger action when you release the ball.
If your goal is to reduce hook, then allow the ball to flow off of your hand with little or no finger rotation while maintaining your walking path to the line.
When aiming at or near the center of the lane as your sighting target when shooting the ten pin, your ball will retain skid distance a longer travel time down the lane than if you drift to the center of the approach and release your ball where less lane conditioner is applied to the lane surface.
To sum it up:
*use a plastic ball to curtail the amount of hook you get shooting the ten pin across the lane.
*reduce your finger rotation to reduce hook.
*allow your ball to flow off your your hand with little or no “lifting action” on the ball with your fingertips.
*walk your straight line path to the foul line and use a center oriented sighting target so your ball skids a maximum distance down the lane toward the spare.
These tips give you a good chance at improving your ability to convert the ten pin spare.
