Bowling Knowledge

06/07/2026

I really enjoy working with this client. He digests the changes from the lesson and then does the work with great commitment and dedication. Then he sees significant improvement each year. I work with him each year when I come to Chicago.

We worked on sliding closer to the foul line, swing movement, upper body position, better front-to-back shoulder alignment, quieting the back shoulder.

Great improvement today in launch angle consistency and moving through the ball better. Ball speed and rev rate up. Much better ball motion.

06/07/2026

Lesson Feedback = afternoon lesson then league that night. MPH up 1.25 mph post-lesson. Posting shots significantly better.

692 with one open in the 10th (234 214 244).

“About the easiest 690, was really able to open the lane up…. What I really started to see was the movement at the end of the pattern & it is the easiest time I have had getting the ball to the right…. overall direction towards target was much much better.”

06/07/2026

Post-Lesson Feedback = 205 & 208 average entering lesson (May 20). Sets since the lesson. 680+ 680+ to end the 25-26 season. Opened the summer league with 670+

06/06/2026

Lesson time. Here you will find an impressive collection of Chicago’s own USBC Hall of Famer Les Zike’s memorabilia. Zikes is the only man to win 3 consecutive (ABC) USBC Open Eagles 🦅

“Zikes is the only man to win USBC Open Championships eagles in three successive years. He was a member of the winning teams in 1962 and 1963 and took the all-events and team all-events titles in 1964 in addition to two other championships. His 1963 win qualified him for the United States team in the 1963 FIQ World Tournament, thereby launching him on what was to become the most decorated nonprofessional, international career in bowling history. He collected no fewer than eight gold medals during two FIQ World and one American Zone championships. He was the all-events champion in both the 1963 World and 1964 American Zone. He was the first American bowler elected to the World Bowling Writers Hall of Fame.”

USBC Hall of Fame induction 1983

06/06/2026

PWBA 📺 Finals this season. 9 nations represented. Truly a global tour.

BJI Rockford Open 🇨🇦🇲🇾🇸🇬🇺🇸
Northern Colorado Open 🇸🇬 🇸🇪🇺🇸
USBC Queens 🇫🇷🇲🇾🇸🇬 🇺🇸
Rochester Open 🇫🇮 🇸🇬 🇸🇪 🇺🇸
BowlTV Open 🇩🇪🇸🇬🇺🇸
Lilac City Open 🇨🇦🇸🇬🇺🇸
Barbara Chrisman Classic 🇲🇾🇰🇷🇺🇸

06/06/2026

The difference when the ball left his fingers and also the upper body differences.

This morning’s lesson reported falling-off of more than 50% of his shots. We can one of the major culprits with the front shoulder closing early and then over-rotating.

With the interventions, we see the front shoulder staying forward longer. The effect was posting 100% of shots allowing repeatability of shot-making and the ability for him to track ball motion from the same position.

Also notice the upward head and trunk motion at the start of the lesson versus his head now staying quiet throughout the slide. This also aids to the ability to track ball motion better in addition to the stability into the finish.

Another very important effect was enhanced more defined ball motion. Notice how much longer his fingers stayed in the bowling ball and the amount of finger and thumb separation. We can see how early the bowling ball came off his hand in the beginning of the lesson.

Enjoy the journey.

We also worked on body position and swing movement with significant evolution in both.

We started the process of improving the direction of dynamic shoulder movement and shoulder timing with the goal of the back shoulder rotating under the front shoulder to keep the head quiet as well as allowing the downswing to move better into the body on the downswing.

Video is pinned.

06/06/2026

Yesterday morning, during a lesson at an amazing facility (2 lanes as well as a drill press), I saw 2 Schwoegler balls, one drilled and one undrilled. Connie Schwoegler patented the finger tip grip which was approved in November 1952 (submitted February 1949). He is in the USBC Hall of Fame (1968 induction). Schwoegler was a 2 time BPAA All-Star Champion. This predecessor to the US Open was 100 games.

“It is the general object of the invention to provide a new and improved finger hole construction for such balls. The conventional grip on a three finger bowling ball of this type is such that the bowlers middle and ring fingers are deeply buried and generally are inserted in the finger holes to the joint of the second knuckle, and as a result, it is difficult for the bowler to release the ball.”
….

“Because the fingers are inserted only to the joint of the first knuckle, the ball is very easy to release from the bowlers hand. This results in a more uniform release and therefore provides for more consistency in the bowlers game.

Furthermore, because of the slight delay in the release of the fingers after the thumb as compared to a ball with a conventional grip, the inthe bowlers hand. Becaus it is not necessary for the bowler to grip the ball as tightly as with a conventional ball, the release thereof is more uniform with each delivery and permits more accurate bowling.”
….

“By forming the thumb and finger holes'of a diameter fairly snug for the bowlers thumb and finger, there is a degree of suction which assist the bowler in lifting the ball with the result that it does not need to be gripped as tightly by muscular action as when there is no such "suction effect. In delivering the ball, the thumb slides out of the thumb hole first, thus permitting air to enter through passages l8, l9 and 20' to break the suction on the inner end of the finger holes and permit more easy withdrawal of the fingers during the final portion of the delivery movement of and one-third the distance between the joint of the second knuckle and the joint of the first knuckle of said finger when stretched out fiat over the surface of the ball.”

06/06/2026

06/06/2026

Catherine Fellmeth (1947 & 1948) won national championships in 3 sports (softball 1934; track and field in 1930, 1931, 1933 & 1936); and bowling in 1940 & 1942.

“In 1947 she was described in the newspapers as ’bowling’s most spectacular performer, thanks to the highest backswing of any woman in the history of the game.‘ In her backswing, she brought the ball all the way up straight up over her head, 180 degrees from straight down, and the ball is brought down in a ’flashing delivery which sends the ball hooking into the pins with devastating force.‘“

📸 Dr. Jake’s Bowling History Blog

Pruter, R. (2019, June 22). Catherine Fellmeth: An Unknown Great Multi-Sports Athlete. In the World of Early Amateur & Youth Sports in Chicago.