Okay, interesting topics for discussion here. scotts33 feels that versatility is a better answer for a bowler to adjust to. While I agree in part, the difficulty I've seen in many bowlers is the ability to be versatile. Not every bowler has touch or enough finesse to do this plus it took years of practice for me to not only learn but also be able to "repeat" different hand positions. Some of us older guys had no choice growing up with hard rubber and plastic, we couldn't just switch balls so we "had" to learn. Nowadays...bowlers don't have to learn.
Muscle memory is also a son of a gun to try and break. Tell me if this isn't true. You can watch a bowler walk into a bowl and he walks fine/normal whatever. Now let him put on "bowling" shoes, put a ball in his hand and put him on the approach. Bingo! In only 6-8 feet of approach, out pops a bounce, a hop, a skip, a jump, running, striding...you name it, that bowler forgets how to "walk".
We all have a preconceived notion of how something should be done and it gets translated into our bowling form pretty significantly (as well as a baseball bat, tennis racquet, golf club...etc). Most likely the individuals I mentioned above have also been doing this for years, you can spot them halfway across a bowl just by his/her style. Because of this, even slight changes to a bowler can cause inaccuracy in repetition because it's not what they are used to.
I've taken enough bowlers who were true down and in and tried and teach them to slightly swing a ball (say 12 to
. In order to swing, the physical positioning of our body and shoulders must be slightly open as opposed to a down and in position which allows for our shoulders to be shut down or parallel to the foul line. What happened when I moved their feet in to hit 12? Yep, their shoulders still shut down and they tugged it down 12 board. Muscle memory is not easy to break...
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