In this edition of the blog, we’re going to talk about the great Kelly Kulick.
Kelly’s a 15-time Team USA member and has won titles all around the world, including that unbelievable win at the 2010 PBA Tournament of Champions. She also was recently inducted into the USBC Hall of Fame in the Superior Performance category.
One of the things that makes Kelly so great is that she’s a perfectionist and always is working to improve her game. Over the years, Kelly’s worked on a number of refinements that have allowed her to continue to get better.
The first thing to look for in Kelly’s game is the stability of her head from start to finish. Looking at her approach from the side, you’ll notice that Kelly’s head stays still from start to finish, descending slowly and steadily as the approach unfolds.
One of the things that Kelly works on from time to time is keeping her head stable as she delivers the ball. Sometimes in the past, she’s had issues coming out of the shot at the point of release, which causes inconsistency.
Another key part of Kelly’s game that has improved over the years is the direction of her armswing. In the past, she had a bit of a reverse loop in her swing that caused inconsistency in her launch angle, so if she released the ball a little early or late, it would go off line. Since she has straightened it out, even when she’s off a little with her release point, the direction is still on line, which gives her opportunities to strike or leave easy spares instead of leaving splits or washouts on those less than perfect shots.
Kelly’s footwork is one of the reasons she was able to straighten her swing, and if you look at her approach from above, her second step crosses over the first nicely, which allows her to drop the ball into the swing on line, instead of wrapping it around her body. At the top of the swing, there is little to no change of direction as she goes into the downswing, which is what keeps the ball on line throughout the swing.
Finally, Kelly’s pushaway is something that she’s always paying attention to. In the past, Kelly had a tendency to push the ball a little too far to the right, which is what caused the reverse loop in her swing. Now, her pushaway is much straighter, which allows the ball to get into the swing a lot more consistently and has led to those improvements we mentioned earlier in her direction on shots that aren’t released perfectly.
The bottom line to all of this is that there are always ways to keep improving your game through the use of video. I encourage you to check out my video analysis of Kelly’s game over on BowlTV so you can see what I’m talking about. And if Kelly’s work ethic and commitment to improvement and excellence is not inspiring, then I’m not sure what is!
Rod
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