My Bowling Two-Handed

I don't generally write here about my own bowling. After all, compared to the pros and elite amateurs I've been posting about, I'm a non-entity. I'm not now nor have I ever been a member of the PBA. I've never won any big tournaments of any kind. I've never even averaged over 230 on an easy house pattern, although I 've gotten close a few times. Like I say, I'm a bowling nobody who loves to blog about bowling somebodys and loves the sport as a whole.

But I would like to mention in passing that, for the umpteenth time this season, I almost bowled 300 in my Monday night league last night. I started with the first nine in the second game of my second three game set and then had my tenth ball hang a little on my thumb and hit the pocket light to leave a weak 10 pin.

But the real fun happened after league. The lanes stayed on and I threw some practice balls in my best, albeit poor, two-handed imitation of Jason Belmonte and, at one point, strung several strikes with my Columbia Blue Dot plastic spare ball and even with my Vapor Zone reactive resin ball, and, better still, I was able to get pretty close to my target on most of those shots.

I've tried throwing two handed before (see video below), but last night I felt like I was able to get more speed on the ball coupled with a more powerful release and better accuracy, and I'm now more determined than ever to get better at the two-handed game so that I can always pull it out of the bag, so to speak, if my A game isn't working as desired.

It's not that radical a thing for me to do since I threw my strike ball without my thumb for many years and enjoyed moderate success with it in leagues and tournaments. But when I throw the ball two-handed, it seems easier on my wrist and I'm able to manipulate the axis rotation better, and, even being the relatively old geezer that I am, I think I might be able to get pretty good at it.

I know there are concerns about the wear and tear it may inflict on the body over time, especially on the back of an older body like mine. But I guess I'm willing to take that chance, on a limited basis, and see what happens.

I can say one thing. It sure is fun generating all those revs and seeing the pins dance to their energy. It's also nice, as Randy Pedersen suggested during last Sunday's telecast, to bypass the thumb and eliminate the constant thumbhole adjustments and variations in release that are part and parcel of using the thumb.

And when I can learn to generate more speed and be more accurate and consistent bowling two-handed, it may be very fun indeed. I figure that if Walter Ray can work on his two-handed game and actually use it, as I've already seen him do, in PBA competition, I can take it up too and add it to my bowling repertoire.

How about you? Have you tried bowling two-handed? If so, how did you do? Do you think you might want to make it a part of your bowling bag of tricks?