By JEREMY ELLIOTT, The Patriot-News The Patriot-News
The Two-Handed Bowler Chad Hopple has a unique bowling technique Watch video
Fans gathered three deep around the pair of lanes where Jason Belmonte was at work.
It was during last month’s Professional Bowlers Association U.S. Open at Brunswick Zone Carolier in North Brunswick, N.J., and Belmonte, the sport’s newest star, was holding court.
And he was doing so without saying a word.
Belmonte’s ball did the talking. It was smooth off his hands and sailed down the lane with maximum velocity and hook toward the pins.
When the ball entered the 10-pin rack it was heard with a thunderous crash not like other professional players. Onlookers were wowed by the power. The noise was deafening, and the delivery was unorthodox.
What draws people to Belmonte, a native of Australia, at these events is his unconventional two-handed style, a new anomaly that he brought to the PBA Tour during the 2008-2009 season. Never before has someone shunned the traditional one-handed style and tried to make a living against the best in the business.
“When his ball hits the pins, it sounds different,” says local pro and former national touring player Jim Tomek Jr., who has bowled alongside Belmonte in tournament play. “It’s like when Tiger hits a golf ball.
“With Jason, the pins vanish. On a flush strike, it’s quick. The pins never stand a chance.”
When Belmonte, 27, joined the PBA Tour three years ago, he captured his first title and finished in the top 15 four times. A year later, he had three runner-up finishes and showed his two-handed release has staying power.
Last season, Belmonte proved it also had consistency as well. He had seven top 10 finishes, was seventh in earnings and ninth in average.
Not bad for being different.
“I’m a very confident person, and I do this for a living,” Belmonte, a right-hander, says. “If I’m not confident that I can beat these guys, I should hang up my shoes and go home.
“I never expected it to be a walk in the park, but I knew I had the ability, the talent and the drive to do it. I’m very happy with the way I’m bowling here.”
Belmonte is in no way an innovator. He is simply the most successful at a style that many give up when they can properly handle the weight of a bowling ball.
When he was 18 months old, he started bowling and couldn’t hold the ball and throw it with the conventional one-handed style. When he began to experience success, there was no reason to make the switch.
That was also the case with Harrisburg left-hander Chad Hopple. Like Belmonte, he started bowling when he was young: When the scores started to escalate, he saw no reason to mess with something that had been working.
“I started when I was 5 years old,” Hopple, 28, says. “Back then, I probably took 20 steps and was in full sprint to the foul line. As I got older, I slowed myself down and adjusted.
“Growing up in the youth program, coaches always tried to change me. They said it would never work when I got older.”
While Hopple hasn’t made it to the professional ranks, he has accomplished what many dream of, shooting his first perfect game and 800 series by age 14. Now, he has 42 perfect games and 41 series of 800 or more to go along with countless local tournament victories.
“It’s awesome to see,” Hopple says of Belmonte. “When he first came out, I heard he bowls like me. It’s pretty cool.”
Surprisingly, there are many similarities to the one-handed and two-handed styles utilized by players.
A typical two-hander such as Belmonte or Hopple is much like your traditional power player who can rev up a bowling ball using one hand.
Touring players such as Tommy Jones use their left hand as a brace until they get the ball into their swing. Jones has a high backswing and uses knee bend as leverage to bring the ball through in a pendulum motion before rotating his wrist around the ball like he is turning a door knob.
The same can be said for the two-handed player. The difference, of course, comes in the armswing, where a player such as Belmonte or Hopple has to bend both arms and never takes the opposite hand off the ball. They are able to distribute the weight between both hands and rotate around the ball at the finish.
“Normally, rev-rate matches ball speed,” says Tomek, who has studied the two-handed delivery. “That being said, someone with two hands is putting it in their favor by letting rev-rate dominate the ball speed more.
“The higher the speed and rev-rate, the more you can open up the lane and play different angles. I think Belmonte can overpower just about any condition.”
Belmonte, who uses two fingers and no thumb, takes five steps but has a skip step before finishing his approach. Hopple, who uses his fingers and half his thumb in the ball, has morphed his game into six steps.
Both are able to cup the ball in a powerful position and maintain it throughout the swing because the other hand garners some of the weight. The end result is maximum pin damage.
“I definitely get more ball reaction,” Hopple says. “Typically, I’m able to generate more area to shoot at and don’t have to be as accurate.
“I think it also helps me bowl longer. During a tournament, all the weight isn’t on one arm or one shoulder the entire time.”
There are drawbacks.
Depending on the bowler’s body position, the two-handed player leans forward and rotates his body more due to using both shoulders. Doing so creates more torque through the spine, especially on the lumbar, according to Dr. Thomas McKeon Jr., who did a study for the Kegel Training Center.
Hopple has had problems with his knee. He used to run and jam his knee at the line, which has caused two tendons to rub together. He’s planning to have surgery in the near future to fuse the tendons.
“I probably could have done more,” says Hopple, who is able to win tournaments after not bowling for four months. “As I’ve gotten older, it has taken its toll. Slowing myself down is the key.”
Regardless of the delivery, one or two-handed, injuries to wrists, arms, shoulders and legs occur. But not to Belmonte.
He has been able to avoid such setbacks and compete at a high level, throwing as many as 80 games a week under intense competition.
“I have no idea how you don’t hurt yourselves bowling one-handed,” Belmonte says, grinning. “I think no matter how you bowl, you have to look after yourself. You have to stretch, warm down and eat well.
“As far as longevity goes, I see myself bowling into my 60s. People say that I will be in a wheel chair when I’m 40, but I feel great. I get up every morning with no injuries, no pains anywhere and I’ve been doing this for 27 years. To me, why can’t I do it another 27 years?”
Belmonte was the first player on the PBA Tour to use this style and score. But now, he has company.
Finland’s Osku Palermaa won a PBA Tour title this season, and American left-hander Cassidy Schaub also made noise in tournament play. It has prompted plenty of curiosity. Belmonte is often bombarded by questions from kids and amateur players on how to perfect the two-handed delivery.
“The interesting thing is that I’ve been traveling the world for 10 years and in the first five, there weren’t that many two-handers,” Belmonte says. “In the last five, it’s kind of like this chain reaction, and everywhere I go there are people trying this style and having success doing it.
“I get so many e-mails from people that are learning to do it or trying to do it. I’m very surprised and flattered when they say I was their inspiration or they saw me and do it and tried it.”
Hopple has two children, and when they picked up the game, they started by using two hands. A short time later, they switched to one.
That has been the case with many youth players in the area. Despite Hopple’s success, it hasn’t caught on locally in league play.
“I don’t think parents want kids bowling like that,” Hopple says. “They want kids to do it like they do it. For other kids, it just doesn’t work for them, and they give up on it before it starts to work.”
Says Belmonte, “When people come up and ask me how they can get better and get to the pro tour, I tell them I’ve done this my whole life. It isn’t going to happen overnight. You have to repeat shots. The only way you can do that is throw a million shots.”
Belmonte and guys such as Palermaa are getting to the point where they are more than competitive. They are contenders for PBA titles.
With that comes exposure. The PBA is latching on to these anomalies and marketing them to the masses. And you never know who is sitting in the audience being influenced.
“I hope to be sitting in the back watching my son or daughter doing it,” Belmonte says. “I don’t know how many people are doing it out there, but there are a few on tour now and a few years ago, there was one.
“Who knows, maybe 25 years from now, it will be half-and-half. I may be wrong, who knows? We will have to wait and see.”
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