Two-handed bowling lessons

I will not make your kid bowl like 1998

Parents ask if I "fix" two-handed bowling. I do not convert a two-hander to one-handed unless they ask, and I do not do it in the middle of high school season. USBC allows the style. The Tour is full of it. If that is how the bowler generates revs without hurting their wrist, we keep it and make it repeatable.

What I will not do is let a 13-year-old copy a YouTube finish they cannot balance. Belmo's spine tilt works for Belmo. On a Greenfield pair I see kids falling off the shot, dropping the left hand at the top of the swing, and throwing the ball from the hip because they never learned to stay in the cradle.

What we actually fix

• The support hand stays on too long or leaves too early. Early drop kills the swing plane. Late drop yanks the ball inside. We find the spot near the ankle where the bowling hand takes over.
• Skip-step timing. A lot of two-handers use a hop or skip into the slide. If the hop is a panic step, the ball is already gone. We slow it down at the foul line, then add the skip back.
• Finish and balance. If you cannot hold your finish until the ball is in the pins, you did not throw a repeatable shot. We do a no-step drill on board 25 until the trail leg and the head stay quiet.
• Rev rate without dump. Two-handers get rotation for free. They also get side roll and early hook if the fingers come around the ball. Pocket light, flat 10s, and a ball that will not hold when the heads dry out. That is lane play plus release, same as a one-hander, just with more revs to manage.

Equipment still matters. A two-hander on a dull asymmetric they cannot control will look broken. I will tell you which ball stays in the bag. That is the same arsenal talk I do with league one-handers on the average page.

Adults who switched last year

I see adults move to two-handed because the thumb started to hurt, or because they wanted the hook they could not get one-handed. That can work. It is a new physical game. You will lose accuracy for a while. If you are in the middle of a winter league and sitting at 195, I will tell you honestly whether a mid-season switch is worth the pin drop.

If you are still one-handed and only want more hook, start with the hook page and a fingertip fit. Do not jump styles to avoid a grip problem.

Youth and Jr Gold

Two-handed is common now in youth leagues and Jr Gold. I will work the physical game and the patterns. Qualifying on a sport shot with 500 revs and no spare game is still a losing plan. Spare ball, 3-6-9, and a pre-shot routine stay on the list. See the Jr Gold prep guide and the youth lesson page.

Common questions

• Do you coach two-handed bowling?

  Yes. In Greenfield at Strike Force, and by video if you are not local.

• Will you make me bowl one-handed?

  Only if you ask. I will tell you if the style is hurting you or if the body cannot support the finish. That is different from a blanket conversion.

• Is two-handed legal?

  Yes, under USBC rules, without the thumb in the ball. If a local house has its own rule, we deal with that house. I coach the legal game.