With the PWBA season getting started in just a couple days, let's take a look at one of the top players on tour, Danielle McEwan.
She's been one of the best players in the world for a long time, but it's really impressive to see how much she continues to work on her game, so let's compare what she was doing in 2012 to what she was doing in 2018 at Team USA training camp.
When we look at the ball placement, she has a more athletic posture now with her ball between her chin and shoulder. The biggest difference is how she was almost crunching her shoulders in on themselves in 2012, and now she's much more relaxed in her starting position.
This led to her pushaway going out to the right a little, whereas her pushaway now is much quieter, with her ball dropping into the swing rather than her having to redirect it as it rolls out to the right.
She does a much better job now of keeping her right shoulder relaxed, down and back. It all leads to a cleaner swing direction, allowing her to keep everything on line better.
Six years ago, her ball was completely behind her left shoulder, but now she gets it directly behind her head, which is exactly what we want to see. Everything is in line as she approaches the lane. She's able to drop the ball straight down into the slot, on line, ready to hit her target. Best of all: this makes it much easier for her to repeat her shots.
We often see players get swings behind their backs, as Danielle's was in 2012, forcing them to redirect it at the bottom, which is much harder to repeat. Danielle was a great player then, but she kept working on her game to clean up her swing, which we can see she's done.
Looking from the back view, we see Danielle has added a little lateral spine tilt to her stance since 2012. It's just enough to get her bowling shoulder down a little, keeping her elbow inside her shoulder.
We get a great view of her alignment and launch angles, showing how she keeps everything tightly tucked to maintain her seemingly effortless approach.
With all the work Danielle has done, we can see a more athletic, relaxed, even calmer approach, all of which help with her timing and being able to repeat her shots more often and consistently.
This has taken a lot of work on her part to turn what was already a good game into one of the best, but that's exactly what the top players do. They're never satisfied with where they are and always want to get better. Danielle is a great example of the value of continuing to work on your game, no matter how much success you have.
Rod
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