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How to Drill a Bowling Ball For Maximum Hook?

How much can a drilling layout impact a bowling ball’s hooking ability? You would be surprised to know the level of influence a drilling layout has over a bowling ball. Are you someone who is struggling to hook their bowling ball? Have you not found out the reason behind your ball not hooking? The problem might be the way the ball was drilled and the layout you chose to drill the ball. So what kind of layout can make a ball hook better? If you’re interested to know, you are in the right place. Let me tell you how to drill a bowling ball for the maximum hook.

Favorite Drilling Layouts for Maximum Hook

Did you know that drilling a bowling ball in a certain way can get you more hook? If you have just gotten yourself a new bowling ball, you are probably wondering how you can drill it, right? Once I got asked by a young bowler in my local bowling center regarding his bowling ball drilling layout. This fella was having a hard time hooking his bowling ball and so he wanted to know if he should place the holes closer to his PAP or farther away from it.

Indeed, whether your bowling ball will hook or not depends on the position of your Positive Axis Point. The strongest position on the ball is 13-8 from your axis. Drilling the finger holes there will give you the most amount of length and it’s also gonna give you the most amount of reaction as you move closer to your PAP. This will also enable an earlier role with a little smoother at the backend.

Similarly, when you go farther away, you can increase your length even more. This will also give you more angle on the back. This will increase your length greatly. So a good starting point would be 3 and 3/8. For most bowlers, that’s where you see the pin just go off the ring finger, and then you are gonna wanna keep that to the right of your thumb. You will see on the drill sheet that there will be a strong position which I think is two or three inches right of the thumb. You’re gonna wanna drill there. So yeah, I would go 3 and 3/8 for the strongest reaction at first and then you can tweak it from there later on if you need to. 

Conclusion

There are so many ways a bowler can bowl. You do not strictly have to follow this drilling layout idea to get more hook. Based on your bowling style (cranker, stroker, or tweener), choose your drilling layout wisely. If you think your bowling ball not hooking or less hooking and know for sure that it’s the drilling layout that is hampering your hooking motion, then time to do it properly this time. There is always enough time to improve. So, the sooner, the better. Once you do it right, you will see how useful it is to drill the bowling ball properly for the maximum hook. Good luck and see you later, my fellow bowlers!