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Can't do a thing - if you aint got that Swing

One of the keys to a good bowling style is a smooth and consistant arm swing.

Take a look at the grandfather clock, in particular at the pendulum swinging inside the clock.
The one thing that is remarkable is the apparently effortless way in which the pendulum swings backward and forward; following the same line, time after time after time, almost as though it were in a groove.
The pendulum swings at the same speed every swing, and reaches the same height, with every swing backward and forward, mainly controlled by the force of gravity.

In bowling if you could copy the pendulum and have a swing that travelled at the same speed and to the same height every time you would have a swing which was consistent and which appeared to be ‘in a groove’.
You have a weight suspended from a fixed point, with the two joined by an arm of a fixed length.
So what stops you from having a pendulum swing when you bowl ?

Firstly, is the point from which the bowling ball is suspended, a ‘fixed’ point ?
The shoulder can be moved backward and forward as well as upward and downward, so it is not fixed in one permanent position, as the pivot point of a pendulum in a clock would be.
However, if the bowler were to be taught to bowl, without moving the shoulder back, forward, up or down, then the ball would be very close to swinging from a fixed point.

Secondly is the arm a fixed length ?
This sounds a silly question at first as you cannot change the length of our arms as and when you choose, but if you look at the question a different way around it may not be as silly as first thought. In the clock, the weight is always the same distance from the pivot point whether it is at its point furthest to the right, left, or if it is straight downward.
When a bowling ball is being swung, the distance from the shoulder to the ball can be changed, by not keeping the arm straight throughout the entire swing. By bending the arm somewhere in the swing, the ball will not be acting in the same manner as the weight in the pendulum of the clock.
However, if the bowler were to be taught to swing without bending the arm, then the distance from the shoulder to the ball would be very close to remaining the same throughout the swing, similar to that of the pendulum.

Thirdly is gravity in control of the direction of the swing of the bowling ball ?
In most cases a bowler is not prepared to allow nature to do what is best. The ball is either pulled backward or forward in the swing, instead of allowing gravity do this work unaided. Once muscle is used to pull the ball, it is highly likely there will be a change in the direction of the ball’s swing. The muscle will sometimes move the ball slightly to the left or right, only a little maybe, but enough to take the swing out of the groove. Sometimes it will be correct, but will the bowler be able to distinguish the different swings ?
However if the bowler were to be taught to let gravity act freely on the ball, without any assistance, the swing would be very close to being consistently ‘in the groove’.

We have now determined that a bowler should learn to:

*   Maintain a steady shoulder position
*   Bowl with a straight arm
*   Let gravity do the work

The Pendulum Swing has another advantage that has not yet been covered.
The laws of physics, relating to a pendulum, state that it is the length of the arm, which determines the speed of the swing.
It will always take the same length of time for the pendulum to complete one cycle, and return to its starting place, depending on the length of the arm supporting the weight.

In the diagrams above, if it takes the weight 1 second to go from A to B and another second to go back from B to A, you have a cycle of 2 seconds.
In the second diagram, the weight starts from a higher point, so it will also reach a higher point before it starts its return journey.
However it will still take 1 second to go from C to D, and another second to go back from D to C. Again you have a cycle of two seconds.
It is very obvious that the weight has travelled further in the second diagram than it did in the first, but it has taken exactly the same time.
This means that without using any muscle to pull the ball backward or forward, you can make a ball travel faster in the swing.
Just by holding the ball a little higher in the stance, and letting gravity do the rest.
This also means that the speed the feet move does not have to change, even though the ball is travelling faster in the swing.

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