Pro Tip Friday: Walking Straight?
Pro Tip Friday: Walking Straight? Bowlers have always thought that walking towards their target was the right thing to do. The problem is that if you walk towards your target (for a right-hander, it’s normally to your right), you’re essentially walking in front of your swing. If you walk in front of your swing, two things will happen 1) you’ll hit your leg or ankle or 2) your elbow has to come out away from your shoulder so you do not hit yourself. In the video on top, you can see that my leg is clearly in the way of my swing. It can cause direction problems, inaccuracies, release problems, and generally results in poor execution.You can’t consistently hit a target by walking right (this tip is written about right-handed bowlers, but please reverse this if you are left-handed). 80% of people that I help walk right, so this is one of the top three things that I look at when I meet somebody. I see where they start and where they end. If they end right of their start, we work on that immediately. No professional bowler that you see on TV or bowls for a living walks to the right: they drift left now.In order to deliver a “straight” and ”proper” arm swing, you need to drift left away from your target to get your leg out of the way. That means that in a five-step approach, your even steps must walk in front of your left foot for a crossover step that helps achieve the balance beam technique. When you’re working on this, you want to end anywhere from 1-5 boards left of your start. When you’re practicing this, put a piece a tape on the board that you are starting on. Then put a piece of tape on the board 3-5 left so you can more easily visualize your path. An important note is that as a right-hander, you should be lining your targeting system up with your left foot because that’s the foot you end on. #protipfriday #mdmcoaching
Posted by MDM Coaching on Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Walking Straight In Your Approach?
[addthis tool=”addthis_inline_share_toolbox”]Bowlers have always thought that walking towards their target was the right thing to do. The problem is that if you walk towards your target (for a right-hander, it’s normally to your right), you’re essentially walking in front of your swing. If you walk in front of your swing, two things will happen
1) you’ll hit your leg or ankle
2) your elbow has to come out away from your shoulder so you do not hit yourself.
In the video on top, you can see that my leg is clearly in the way of my swing. It can cause direction problems, inaccuracies, release problems, and generally results in poor execution.
A Little Drift In Your Approach Is OK
You can’t consistently hit a target by walking right (this tip is written about right-handed bowlers, but please reverse this if you are left-handed). 80% of people that I help walk right, so this is one of the top three things that I look at when I meet somebody. I see where they start and where they end. If they end right of their start, we work on that immediately. No professional bowler that you see on TV or bowls for a living walks to the right: they drift left now.
In order to deliver a “straight” and ”proper” arm swing, you need to drift left away from your target to get your leg out of the way. That means that in a five-step approach, your even steps must walk in front of your left foot for a crossover step that helps achieve the balance beam technique. When you’re working on this, you want to end anywhere from 1-5 boards left of your start. When you’re practicing this, put a piece a tape on the board that you are starting on. Then put a piece of tape on the board 3-5 left so you can more easily visualize your path. An important note is that as a right-hander, you should be lining your targeting system up with your left foot because that’s the foot you end on. #protipfriday #mdmcoaching
Outstanding article and advice!