Want To Increase Your Sowling Speed? Here’s What To Do


I myself am a pretty small person at 4’10. So its no surprise that when i bowl the bowling ball doesn’t go very fast. Some bowling allys will show you your speed after your throw and mine would ususlly be a lot slower than everyone elses.

Which is fine since people I bowl with are usually about an entire foot taller and outweigh me by 60lbs or more. However, I still wanted to increase my bowling speed so I could become more of a competitor. So I went to Google to learn how to bowl faster.

How do you increase your bowling speed? There are quite a few ways this can be accomplished. One way would be to increase the pace of your steps in your approach. By doing this you can increase the speed of the release when throwing your bowling ball.

How to measure your bowling speed?

To measure your bowling speed you need to measure the distance from the foul line to the center pin. On average a bowling alley is around 60 feet long. After you know the length of the alley, you then need to get a stopwatch and record the time it takes for the ball to travel from the foul line to the center pin. The best way to do this is to get a friend to start and stop the stopwatch for you as you bowl.

After you get these two recordings, all you need to do is divide the distance by the time. For example, if the time taken for the ball to travel was 5 seconds, then you would calculate, 60 divided by 5 which equals 12 ft/s. You can then convert the 12ft/s into meters per second by dividing the value by 3.281. This would equal 3.657 m/s.

If this method is too long, there are other alternatives to measuring speed. For example, there are many apps you can download which will record your bowl and calculate the speed for you. Another alternative is using a speed gun.

Does speed matter when bowling?

Speed in bowling does affect the outcome of the shot. A faster shot usually will give you more pin action but will have less of a chance to react to the lane which results in less hook. However, a slower shot will result in more hook and less pin action.

Slower shots are sometimes preferred because the spin given to the ball gets transferred to the pins it hits which can result in them pins spinning off in different directions and knocking down more pins. Also, due to the hook on the ball, slower shots may give the bowl a better angle to hit the pins at which can result in knocking down a high number of pins.

teen bowler
Fast or slow? nobody knows…

The ideal speed to bowl is between 20-22mph. This is because the ball slows down before it gets to the pins by about 3mph and the ideal speed for the ball to hit the pins is 17-18mph. This ideal speed ensures for optimum levels of consistent ball motion and pin carry.

Delivering a ball slower or faster than these speeds reduces the chance of getting optimum pin carry. The bowling alley can also affect ball speed. This is because different bowling alleys have different surface types and amounts of oil on them. The more oil on the alley the less your ball will slow down. Depending on the alley you are playing on, you may have to adjust the speed you bowl at to make sure the ball speed is around 17-18 mph when the ball hits the pins.

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Another factor that affects ball speed is the weight of the ball. A heavier ball will strike the pins with more force which increases the chance of pinfall. However, generating power on a lighter ball is easier because it doesn’t weigh as much. Also, a lighter ball can also be better for pin carry because the pins are more likely to fly in different directions. If the balls too heavy, it will just plow through the pins reducing pin carry. The ideal weight for a bowling ball is 10% of your body weight. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, then you should be bowling with a 15-pound ball.

There are many ways to increase speed when bowling. You can increase the pace of your steps with each successive step moving faster than the previous step. This will generate more momentum in your run-up and therefore increase ball speed.

Another way is to loosen your arm swing. Swing the ball back to the top of the swing faster than normal and then accelerate your forward swing to a full complete follow-through position. Lastly, to increase ball speed, you can gain more body muscle. This will make you fitter and stronger which will allow you to throw the ball with more power and speed. The only problem with this is that it might affect your accuracy.

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How to increase bowling ball speed for two-handed bowling

Two-handed bowling is a technique that has been popularised in bowling through Jason Belmonte. Two-handed bowling is used to generate more power on the bowl. This helps the ball get through the pins more and makes them fly around to your advantage. However, two-handed bowling does usually decrease the speed of the ball which could be a benefit since the ball will generate more hook.

A professional bowler called Swift used to average 158.4 pins per game when he used to bowl with one hand. Since he’s been bowling Two-handed, his average has increased to 195.1 pins per game.

There are many ways to increase speed for two-handed bowling. One way is to bring the ball up a little higher on your backspin. This will result in gravity helping bring down the ball faster thus increasing bowling speed. Another way is to speed up your footwork. This can be done by increasing the speed in your run-up. To do this you just need to make sure your current step is always faster than your previous step. This will generate more momentum and increase the speed of the bowl.

Another way is to use the hop step at the end of their approach. The hop step is a technique used by bowlers where they muscle and force the ball on the downswing and follow-through. Muscling the ball creates all this excess power which helps increase speed when bowling. This technique is used by a lot of two-handed bowlers because it helps them get into a better in a better position to generate more power at the release point. Also, a two-handed bowl is naturally slower than a one-handed bowl, so using this technique helps decrease that speed margin.

Building muscles also helps generate extra power in your bowl. This is because your body has more muscle mass to exert energy from meaning the power on your bowl is greater.

 Using these techniques will help increase your speed as a two-handed bowler. However, the downside of increasing speed is that your accuracy may decrease because you are not used to bowling at high speeds. With practice, however, you will be able to regain your accuracy.

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