Effortless Power Powerless Effort - bowling

Forceful follow-throughs and exploding pins make bowling exciting, but the best bowlers blend power and finesse

IDEAL BOWLING EXECUTION IS fashioned around rhythm, timing, and balance. In other words, it's effortless power through powerless effort. Unfortunately, today's bowlers like to deliver explosive strike balls with immoderate physical force, assuming that the generation of excessive revolutions through exaggerated force is the basic element for successful scoring.

That's not quite true.

While high-powered bowling balls create excitement and leave lasting impressions on bowling fans and opponents, bowlers who display effortless power with powerless effort are far more successful over time. Throughout bowling history, players have attained superstar status by not only performing in smooth, effortless manners but also through sheer physical power--in an effortless process.

For example, Don Carter, the most dominant bowler of the '60s, performed like no one before or after him. Carter placed the ball away with a bent elbow, shuffled to the foul line in a low, hunched manner, and literally pushed the ball down the lane, a bowling style that contradicted what was taught in instructional manuals. However, Carter's modus operandi embraced the most advantageous principles of proper bowling: flawless accuracy and direction. Carter could hit a dime 20 feet down the lane, thanks to his powerless effort.

Carter was the leadoff man of the nationally renowned "Budweisers," a team that had its heyday in the 1950s and is generally acknowledged as the greatest ever. It included Ray Bluth, Bill Lillard, Pat Patterson, Tom Hennessey, and Dick Weber, ABC Hall-of-Famers all The team's versatility was reflected in the contrasting styles of each individual. For example, Hennessey symbolized powerless effort with effortless power. Considered one of the smoothest players in the history of the game, Hennessey executed every delivery as if it were a practice shot. His free-swinging arm was completely void of any muscular application, from the pushaway into the back-swing and down through the forward swing, culminated by an effortless follow-through. He danced to the foul line in his impeccable approach. Despite his easy motion, Hennessey's strike ball was explosive.

Bluth used a peek-a-boo stance, beginning with the ball cradled at eye level. His approach didn't match the gingerly pace of Hennessey's, but it was rhythmic and repetitive. Bluth also displayed an effortless swing that flowed back and forth, capped by a long, extended follow-through.

Weber, the anchorman of this immortal team, was the essence of unmuscled execution. Lean and lanky, Weber probably had the loosest armswing of his era, and that flaccid swing created the most spontaneous release of his generation. While repetition is the key to consistency, Weber defied this philosophy by utilizing instinctive, last-second hand adjustments to place the ball in the 1-3 pocket. He was notorious for tripping the 4-pin and disheartening opponents with uncanny "wall-shot strikes" (pins, usually the 5-pin or accompanying pins, that were left standing, erased by pins that deflected off the sideboards). Weber symbolized powerless effort and effortless power.

Unlike his aforementioned teammates, Lillard relied on sheer power with an ideal, rhythmic approach that featured one exception: He had no slide step. He planted his sliding step and uncorked the most devastating ball of any player of his time. On top of that, Lillard generated his incredible power with a robber ball and a conventional grip--a drilling procedure that was completely dissimilar to fingertip drilling patterns intended to achieve maximum hook. Lillard was an exception to powerless effort with effortless power, literally ripping the cover off the ball in a thunderous follow-through, with full power from fingers to shoulder out to the lane.

Joe Joseph, arguably the smoothest player in the game's history, bowled his way into the ABC Hall of Fame with perhaps the most effortless delivery of the late '50s and early '60s. The Lebanese star relied exclusively on accuracy and a small spinning hook, and more than held his own against players who delivered thunderous strike balls. Joseph's forte? Powerless effort with effortless power.

Bowling in the same era as Joseph, Dick Hoover and Billy Golembiewski both captured two ABC Masters championships. Hoover annexed consecutive victories in 1956 and 1957. Billy G carted off his Masters titles in 1960 and 1962. Although several other bowlers have been multiple Masters winners, including Billy Welu and Earl Anthony twice and Mike Aulby three times, the most significant aspect of the victories by Hoover and Billy G was the fact that they both threw innovative (at that time) blue polyester balls, Brunswick Crown Jewels. And both threw full-roller-type deliveries.

While both players possessed the credentials to get into the ABC Hall of Fame, they had contrasting styles of execution. Billy G, a small and wiry player, was a pure stroker, a classic example of powerless effort and effortless power. Conversely, Hoover exemplified raw strength. He was powerfully bulk, threw extremely hard and straight, and may have been the most accurate bowler in history, seldom missing the pocket. However, his excessive speed greatly reduced his percentage for carrying anything except solid pocket shots. He scoffed at 5-7 splits, addressing them as mere two-pin spares--and he was a good bet to pick up this split, a difficult conversion for average hook players.

During the '70s, Don Johnson revolutionized bowling, notching victory after victory with a colored polyester bowling ball, a Columbia caramel White Dot. Prior to Johnson's success, the macho men of the PBA shunned colored balls. But the Kokomo Kid converted a majority of PBA players to polyester equipment. His peers--among them Johnny Petraglia, Dave Davis, and PBA tournament director Harry Golden--regarded Johnson as the most dangerous clutch performer in the game. As one of the most focused and fearless players of his time, Johnson was a virtual cinch to strike out against any opponent when the outcome of the contest was on the line.

Johnson was the antithesis of power players who exercised extreme hand action and excessive speed, combining slow speed with a long, extended follow-through. His feats not only enabled him to cart off 26 PBA titles and earned him entry into the PBA and ABC halls of fame, but they also made him one of the top 20 bowlers of the 20th century according to Bowling Magazine. Yes, Johnson exhibited powerless effort with effortless power.

World-renowned bowling instructor Dick Ritger possesses 20 PBA titles and also starred during the '70s. As a matter of fact, Johnson victimized Ritger in the 1970 Tournament of Champions. Ritger shot 268 and lost in one of the PBA's greatest matches. No one can forget one of the most famous pictures in PBA history, the sprawling figure of Johnson, his face buried on the approach after a stubborn 10-pin denied him the $25,000 bonus of a 300 game.

Ritger was the symbol of a super stroker. His approach, rhythm, timing and follow-through were pure textbook. Not especially recognized for a powerful delivery, Ritger utilized finesse and a perfect release point to exemplify the authentic administration of powerless effort with effortless power.

Many players displayed powerless effort with effortless power in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s: Welu, Dave Davis, Jim Stefanich, Wayne Zahn, Pete Tountas, Don Ellis, George Pappas, among others.

Today, urethane's reactive cover stocks and strategically placed weight blocks have placed an even greater premium on powerless effort with effortless power; temperance, moderation, and restraint of excessive force will always enhance a quality shot. Serious bowlers are cognizant of the built-in power of modern bowling balls and are aware of the overreaction that can stem from excessive revolutions. Plenty of current PBAers fit this particular category: Aulby, Chris Barnes, Norm Duke, Tim Criss, Dave Husted, Pat Healey, and Brian Voss, to name some.

Yet many defy sound logic and attempt to overpower lanes with inordinate revolutions and speed, particularly when facing dry heads (areas in the front 15 feet of the lane that are devoid of oil). This is an area that separates effortless power bowlers from those who rely on brute strength. Pure power players move to extreme wide angles, loft the ball over the gutter 10 to 15 feet out on the lane, and bank the ball 45 feet down to the dry back ends somewhere between the 8th and 10th boards.

Players such as Dave D'Entremont, Steve Hoskins, Brian Himmler, Bob Learn Jr., Ryan Shafer, and Robert Smith are most proficient in delivering revolutionary missiles from this angle and, more often than not, seem to dominate on these conditions. Surprisingly, D'Entremont, a hulking giant compared to Learn and Hoskins, is among the few power players to generate abnormal revolutions on the ball in an effortless manner. Rudy Kasimakis, Jeff Lizzi, Rick Steelsmith, Rickey Ward, Danny Wiseman, and Pete Weber all unleash explosive strike balls with minimal effort. Smith, possessor of the most dynamic strike ball in the game, has come into his own by altering his overall method of execution. Although Smith's ball speed is considerably greater than that of other PBA players, he has tempered his follow-through, directing his game in closer proximity to effortless power.

Parker Bohn III and Jason Couch, the most prominent lefthanders on the PBA tour, are exceptions to the effortless theory. Bohn in particular is one of the very few superstars who successfully applies an overly aggressive follow-through, and with almost 30 titles to his credit, it would be absurd to question his method of execution. Bohn possesses one of the most fundamentally sound and fluid games in the world. As one of Bohn's biggest supporters, I marvel at his uncanny accuracy and admire every facet of his game, from pushaway to point of release. My only problem with his entire process of execution is his violent follow-through, which concludes with a wicked bend of the elbow recoiling behind his ear.

Bohn is the only superstar successfully practicing this type of follow-through. Can anyone make an argument against his method of execution? Probably not, but having coached him in his early career and occasionally in the past few years, I think Bohn would be even better with an extended arm toward the pins--namely, applying effortless power.

Couch has been first in World Rankings for much of 2001. His devastating strike ball is one of the strongest on tour, perhaps second only to Smith's. Couch, along with Husted, Weber, and Kasimakis, has one of the highest backswings on the PBA circuit. However, Couch's forward swing is substantially harder and more forceful. Husted, Weber, and Kasimakis are far less violent and execute armswings in an effortless manner. Although Couch's forceful thrust has been tempered somewhat, ringing 7-pin leaves continue to plague him in critical situations. This is primarily due to violent follow-throughs that drive the ball slightly beyond the break point, then hook sharply behind the 1-2 pocket. Despite Couch's enviable success, he would improve even more by subscribing to effortless power.

Violent follow-throughs are not detrimental to all bowlers. For example, no one in the professional ranks exerts greater force in his follow-through than Walter Ray Williams Jr. But Williams does not apply excessive force in his follow-through to generate extra revolutions; his success is based on an end-over-end roll. This type of delivery is contingent on extraordinary speed preventing the ball from rolling out at the pocket, so Williams' hard follow-through has no significant effect on the ball's path to the pocket.

There's no doubt: Effortless power with powerless effort can be best summed up as bowling with "finesse" rather than vigor!

COPYRIGHT 2001 Century Publishing
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group