Miller Had To Turn Thumbs Down To Get More Bowling Power

Mike Miller never wanted a revolution.

He wanted 20 revolutions.

Twenty revolutions of his bowling ball, that is. Twenty revolutions every time he sent it down the lane, instead of the 12 to 14 he normally got.

``There's a new game out here,'' said Miller, referring to the Professional Bowlers Association tour, where, after years of struggling, he has started making a nice living. ``The board-splitters are out. Power is in. A guy who gets 20 revolutions will beat the guy who gets 12 revolutions every time. Your strike power is five to six times greater.''

But to get that power, Miller had to do something truly revolutionary. Revolutionary, at least, by the standards of the PBA tour, where conformity is always the leading money-winner.

So he did it. Miller stopped using his thumb hole.

His ball still has the hole - Miller needs it to give his ball proper balance - but he never puts his thumb in it, at least not when he throws his first ball. He occasionally uses it for spares, however.

Miller has been bowling this way since July, when he looked at his status in the bowling world, his meager money earnings and his future in the game and concluded, ``Either I was going to do it, or go home.''

``He was not a bad bowler,'' said Marshall Holman, PBA Hall of Famer, ``but he was not great, either. I'm absolutely amazed by what he's done.''

What he has done is to have gone from a bowler who in a decade on tour had never won more than $15,000 in one season (one year, he took home a mere $245) to one who won $31,215 in the second (and, less lucrative) half of 1990 season.

This year on the highly visible winter tour, Miller is eighth among the money-winners with $26,020 in six tournaments. Since adopting his new style, he has bowled six 300 games and tied a PBA record by rolling perfect games in three consecutive tournaments.

``I just went for it,'' said Miller. ``It was not really much of a risk. Who was Mike Miller? Nobody knew who I was. It was either try it or go home and back to school.''

At age 30, Miller is discovering what PBA celebrity status is all about. He has yet to win a tournament, but his second-place finish at the Showboat Invitational in Las Vegas, Nev., gave his style television exposure and made him something of a curiosity on tour. Now, the man few knew six months ago is sought for interviews and demonstrations. He's even considering making an instructional video.

``He has to be at the head of the `hate list' of junior bowling coaches everywhere,'' said Holman. ``A lot of kids out there are going to try it.''

Not a lot of touring pros, however. Only a handful have approached him for tips on how he controls the ball without using the thumb hole. None have tried it in competition, although a couple are leaning in that direction.

``They look at me differently now,'' Miller said. ``They see I'm having success where before I was struggling. Their first reaction was: `Why are you doing that?'''

Miller understands his style is ``for a select few.'' He blocks the thumb hole with the palm of his right hand, cradles the ball on his forearm, bends low and fires away.

``There's not one in a 1,000 bowlers who could do it,'' said Dave Smart of Pro Bowlers Services, a company which helps fill the equipment needs of touring pros. ``His ability to keep a relaxed motion and his consistency and accuracy with it is amazing. It's not a trend out here, not at all.''

When Miller started doing it, the strain on his wrist was so strong, he had to use a 14-pound ball rather than the standard 16-pounder. He has since worked up to a 15-pound ball, but doubts if he can go higher than that.

``You can expect to feel sore the next day,'' said Miller, who would welcome some copycats on tour. ``You can hurt yourself doing this. But the improvement is worth it.''

``It's not a very easy thing to do. Everybody realizes that,'' said Walter Ray Williams Jr., who is two spots ahead of Miller on the money list this season. ``You get more power, but the top players would not want to make a change like that unless they were absolutely sure it would work.''

Miller said he had fooled around with the grip as a younger bowler, but never practiced consistently with it before using it in the International Summer Classic in Edmond, Okla. Miller finished out of the money by 50 pins that week, but was encouraged enough to keep going.