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Slide forward or back to starting board?

Posted: May 10th, 2018, 2:48 am
by TonyPR
Here’s an interesting question for Jim and all the other coaches:

When one does the balance beam step with your ball side foot one typically drifts about 5 boards towards your non ball side. Would you recommend you keep the slide forward and end up five boards inside (left for a right hander) from where you started at address or would you rather have the bowler slide forward in a diagonal way to end up at the same board they started on? Why?

Re: Slide forward or back to starting board?

Posted: May 11th, 2018, 6:01 am
by snick
I prefer to see the bowler slide directly in line with the push step. IMO, this mitigates drift and results in better balance at release (less falling off the shot).

Re: Slide forward or back to starting board?

Posted: May 11th, 2018, 11:10 am
by TonyPR
Ok, I agree with your point but if the bowler does a balance beam step on the second step of a five step approach and slides forward, the bowler will end up about five boards left (for a right hander) of where he or she started. If the bowler does not do the balance beam step and just walks straight then it is more difficult to create space for the modern swing. Which of the two do you believe is better in order to be able to slide forward?

Re: Slide forward or back to starting board?

Posted: May 11th, 2018, 1:31 pm
by snick
The initial balance beam step is crucial IMO, but the lack of a crossover in the slide step will create too much separation between the slide foot and ball, and may affect balance and targeting.

Re: Slide forward or back to starting board?

Posted: May 12th, 2018, 7:00 pm
by TonyPR
So then a diagonal slide back to the starting board is better?

Re: Slide forward or back to starting board?

Posted: May 13th, 2018, 12:00 pm
by JMerrell
1) Correct Body & Swing alignment at the address position to the Line of Play combined with proper footwork allows the athlete to place the ball towards the Target, swing the ball towards the target and release the ball towards the target. What ETBF describes as E.T.T, everything towards the target.

2) For everything to happen as described above a Balance Beam type step is required during ball placement. The Balance Beam step allows the swing to stay in the Blue Lane by clearing the right hip out of the way of the swing path.

3) The slide foot (imho) should never go straight forward: this will move the body & swing off of the intended line of play. As snick mentioned this can also cause balance problems by being too far left at the foul line but still trying to project ball to the original target.

4) During the approach, I look for two Balance Beam type steps, one during ball placement and the other during the slide. The second Balance Beam step brings the body back close to the original starting position at address.

5) In the attachment, I’ve shown three different positions of the slide foot at the foul line. Square (#1), Open (#2) and Closed (#3). Positions #1 & #2 are acceptable as they allow the hips (body) to stay square to the Line of Play. Position #3 tends to open the body to the Line of Play.

Re: Slide forward or back to starting board?

Posted: May 13th, 2018, 3:49 pm
by TonyPR
Thank you Jim, that drawing will serve to illustrate this to other coaches here. If the slide were straight forward from the orange/dark yellow area, the swing would have to figure 8 to end up close enough to the slide ankle.