Expert: - 9/20/2009

Question
On my follow through should my arm come up beside the head or in front of the face, In articles in Bowling this Month I have seen it taught both ways.  I try to keep my head over the ball...I have watched Del Warrens videos on line and like how he sets up and keeps the head over the ball, that helped my balance...

Answer
Rod,
There are a couple schools of thought. Part of where you want to follow through is determined by how much you turn the ball.

Where the follow through ends up is a result of your delivery. Have you tried both? Getting the arm to finish in front of your face, usually involves fairly aggressive elbow, wrist and hand action. Beside the head is the more traditional follow through, which helps keep your ball traveling along the line of your swing plane.

Del's clinics reflect the modern alignments for rev dominant players. The cranker approach of using the vast amounts of free hook by bouncing the ball to the outside dry boards on the average Typical House Shoot (easy), must become more repeatable and easier to perform on lane conditions that are not so easy.

People all roll bowling balls in ways that are most comfortable or easiest for them. The balance improvement is good. Slowinski's ideas of follow through may work or may not depending on how you deliver the ball. You may develop a hybrid of the two or one or the other will work great. It sounds like you need to see you. Get a friend or teammate to video tape your approach and delivery and see what the two follow throughs do to the ball, ball path and balance. Thanks for the question. Let me know how your follow through trial works out.