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Position of trailing leg

Posted: January 19th, 2015, 8:56 am
by ads
Saw bowlers (USA team trial) lift up their trailing legs during finishing position. Any particular purpose? Will this create too much down and up movement of upper body in front of foul line? The way I was taught is to draw the trailing leg to non-bowling side and rest it on the approach.

Re: Position of trailing leg

Posted: February 8th, 2015, 3:45 am
by Odie8654
Hi Ads:

I'm a level one coach, (only work with beginners). We are taught, and if you look at training videos like USBC and such, the recommend the trail leg be laces down on the lane. I tell the students, it's your kickstand, if it's in the sir, your balance point isn't going to be consistent if there at all.

Re: Position of trailing leg

Posted: February 8th, 2015, 4:00 am
by ads
Odie8654 wrote:Hi Ads:

I'm a level one coach, (only work with beginners). We are taught, and if you look at training videos like USBC and such, the recommend the trail leg be laces down on the lane. I tell the students, it's your kickstand, if it's in the sir, your balance point isn't going to be consistent if there at all.

Thanks for the reply, Odie8654. I thought this thread is already in the deep sea.

A further question if you don't mind, how far left (RH) should the trailing feet reach? Some says the trailing leg should point to 7:30 (assume the sliding foot is the centre of clock face).

My observation is, the more inside a bowler goes, the trailing leg will be further left to 8:30 position. This also helps the bowling hand staying behind the ball.

Re: Position of trailing leg

Posted: February 8th, 2015, 4:34 am
by TonyPR
I beleive that the actual degree varies from player to player and that whatever degree makes one feel more consistently balanced while posting the shot is the correct one. I have looked closely at PBA pros on TV and the ones that sometimes end with the leg on the floor and sometimes on the air throw much better shots consistently when they are posting their shots balanced with the leg on the floor. Just my observation.

Re: Position of trailing leg

Posted: February 8th, 2015, 5:04 am
by Dustin
Here is something from the Wiki that might answer some questions. http://wiki.bowlingchat.net/wiki/index. ... ntinuation

Re: Position of trailing leg

Posted: February 8th, 2015, 7:27 am
by JMerrell
+1 for Dustin.
A lot of effort has been put into providing the information in the WIKI.


1) During release adequate lateral upper body tilt will place your head over ball.
2) In my example, the green line drawn on Doug’s back illustrates proper lateral spine tilt for him.
3) The blue line is centered on his trail leg.
4) By extending both of these lines, you can see that they are very close to being parallel to each other.
5) Not sure what hour on the clock this represents……but it is definitely the right one.

So rather than try to define the correct position of the trail leg by some hour on the clock.
Work on getting your head over the ball at release…..the trail leg will go where it needs to be for balance.

If it doesn’t you will fall over. :lol:

You may see some players raise the trail foot off the floor, but I bet if you draw a line through their thigh it will parallel a line drawn through their upper body.

Forget trying to measure the position of your trail leg by the clock.
Get your head over the ball at release and get those lines parallel......your trail leg will be in the correct position.

If you feel this analysis has value........click the green button.

Re: Position of trailing leg

Posted: February 8th, 2015, 8:05 am
by ads
Thanks both.

That makes a lot of sense to me instead of digging into those clock numbers. And it also answers why one can't stretch his trail leg to non-ball side when he "chicken wing".

Re: Position of trailing leg

Posted: February 8th, 2015, 4:29 pm
by Odie8654
Ads:

Yup, the responses are awesome!! I was told as well hat it varies from person to person, the one thing you DON'T want is for the trail leg to pull you're hips and shoulders away from being aligned with the lanes either. Some people tend to swing leg so far they are almost or even completely sideways, resulting in the arm swinging across the body, and in some cases if timing is really off, the pull makes the release go toward the gutter (RH). So lots of Info in the WIKI. I'm fairly new here so haven't gotten a lot of research into it, but what I have, I know is correct (not that I'm some pro, but I know what I saw was right and glad for that, I trust it now),miso yes, use the WIKI for info as well!!! Good luck to you sweetie!! Feel free to contact me, enjoyed the "talk!" Heehee