In this guide, I’m going to teach you how to hit a strike every time in Switch Sports bowling.
I’ll give you tips for positioning, spinning the ball, power and more to help you bowl a perfect game – or at least max out your high score.
It’s certainly much more tricky to bowl in Switch Sports than in the legendary Wii Sports, so let’s dive into the details.
The Basics
The basics of Switch Sports bowling are really simple: you’ll need to hold down ZR to begin your bowl. That’s the back right button on your Joy-Con, like R2 on a PlayStation controller.
Pretty much the only other thing you need to know is that you don’t let go of ZR at any point of the bowling motion – just keep it held down for way longer than you think you might need to in order to be safe. You can press it and bowl straight away, or you can press it and bowl 30 seconds later, it doesn’t matter.
The ball will release automatically, so just keep this held down until you’re ready to release the ball.
If you release this button early, you can mess things up.
You don’t need to time your run up or anything like that; your power, spin and more will all come from your arm and wrist action, so basically just press and hold ZR until way after the ball is released.
Where to Aim
To position the ball in the perfect place for getting strikes, line up the outside of your dotted red line with the inside of the widest arrow in the lane, and then go ever-so-slightly wider than that.
The arrow should be maybe 1-2mm on the inside of the red line. If you’re left handed, obviously follow these instructions but for the opposite side of the lane.
This is the perfect place to be bowling from, in my opinion, when you put spin on the ball. If you’ve ever seen professional bowlers bowling, you’ll know that spin is key for consistent strikes.
You can also angle your bowl using Y and A to adjust left and right accordingly, but I personally don’t use that option at the moment and I’m already seeing great results.
That being said, this is only the case when you put a spin on the ball. There is a spot for consistent strikes when you throw the ball without any spin, and it might even be much easier to get a strike this way.
What you want to do here is to aim directly in the middle of the middle arrow. Make sure to aim it perfectly. This has to be flawlessly lined up to work.
Anyone who bowls knows that this isn’t the best way to get strikes in real life. However, this is not real life; this is Switch Sports.
Once you have lined up your shot as described, throw the ball in a straight line — without any spin. You should even overexaggerate your arm movement to make sure that the ball will be thrown with a lot of power.
If you do this correctly, you should consistently get strikes in a way that you don’t risk spinning too much or getting the wrong angle.
How to Spin the Ball
If you want to know how to spin the ball in Switch Sports bowling, I’ve got you covered here.
It’s definitely harder to spin the ball in Switch Sports than it was back in the days of Wii Sports. If you ever played on the Wii, all you needed to do was angle your controller inwards and then bowl in a forward motion. But that doesn’t work on the Switch – you need a slightly more complex motion, but it’s better in terms of being a fun game to play.
The secret to producing spin – and lots of it – is all in the wrist.
What you’ll want to do is start with your wrist facing upwards, or as close to upwards as feels natural (it doesn’t need to be strictly facing the ceiling or anything).
Move your arm forward in a straight motion, then flip your hand over 180 degrees inwards. This will release the ball and it should generate a lot of spin. Remember: still keep hold of ZR this whole time.
It might take a few practice bowls to get this right, but you’ll quickly start to see insane amounts of spin being generated.
You can also spin the ball in the opposite direction, which can be really useful for picking up some difficult spares – or just for showing off. This is known as an inverted hook shot.
To do an inverted hook shot, you’re going to have a somewhat similar setup. Aim quite far away from your target. Then, as you want to release the ball, try to spin your wrist in the direction you want the ball to spin – outwards, rather than inwards.
It’s worth noting that with inverted spin, your wrist isn’t going to turn anywhere near as far unless you’re a contortionist. You’re probably going to get about a quarter turn out of your wrist, but that will be enough to put some incredible inverted spin on the ball.
I like to use this type of shot rather than trying to bowl in a straight line next to the gutter. I think it’s more reliable, but it might also be because I find it more enjoyable to play in a flashy way.
Inverted hook shots do have the risk of totally failing every once in a while, if you don’t quite get the motion right, and this can leave you looking a little foolish.
How to Increase Power
I’m still getting the ins and outs of power (or speed) worked out, but one thing I can say for sure is that you certainly don’t need a full bowling action and you don’t need to swing your arm quickly either. Timing also doesn’t really seem to matter – especially with regards to how long you press and hold ZR for.
You could probably play this sitting down because such a small range of motion is needed – but that’s not as fun, and spoils the immersion a little, and probably is a little harder to be honest.
All you need to do to have consistent speed is make sure that when you whip your wrist over, your arm has forward motion whilst you do it. This means you’re going to bowl with both power and spin; the perfect combination for trying to get strikes every time in Switch Sports bowling.
Summary
So, aim ever-so-slightly outside the final arrow in the lane, using the red dotted line as your marker. Hold ZR, then move your wrist forward and whip your wrist over with forward motion too. Other than a bit of practice, that’s all there is to it.
I hope you’ve found this useful, and if you’d like to see it in video format then you can give it a watch below.
The video does show you exactly what motion to use with your wrists when bowling in Switch Sports, which might be a little more helpful than an article – but hopefully I’ve managed to help you bowl more strikes nonetheless!
