Few athletes can claim to have fundamentally changed the mechanics of their sport. Jason Belmonte is one of them. The Australian powerhouse from Orange, New South Wales, walked onto the PBA Tour wielding a delivery style that looked, to traditionalists, almost comically wrong — and then promptly used it to dominate the most competitive bowling circuit on Earth.
Who Is Jason Belmonte?
Belmonte grew up in Australia in a family that owned a bowling alley. As a toddler, the ball was simply too heavy to swing with one hand, so he cradled it with two and heaved it down the lane. The habit stuck. By the time coaches could have corrected him, the results were too good to argue with.
He turned professional and brought his unconventional game to the PBA Tour, where it immediately attracted attention — and skepticism. Could a two-handed style really compete at the highest level? The answer arrived quickly and emphatically: yes, and then some. Belmonte went on to claim more major championships than any bowler in PBA history, a record that keeps growing with each season. He has earned PBA Player of the Year honors multiple times, cementing a legacy that even his fiercest critics can no longer dismiss.
A Technique That Broke the Mold
Classic one-handed bowling relies on a pendulum swing, a clean release at the bottom of the arc, and careful wrist positioning to generate rotation. Belmonte's two-handed approach tears up that rulebook entirely. He approaches the line with both hands on the ball, generating a loading action that stores energy through the entire delivery before releasing with a violent, full-body snap at the foul line.
The result is a ball motion that looks almost alive on the lane — aggressive, arcing, and nearly impossible to predict if you have never faced it before.
Why Two Hands Generate More Power
The physics behind the two-handed style are straightforward once you see them. A conventional one-handed delivery is limited by the grip strength and wrist mechanics of a single arm. The two-handed technique recruits the non-dominant hand as a stabilizer and accelerator, dramatically increasing the torque transferred to the ball at the moment of release.
This translates into two measurable advantages: a higher rev rate (revolutions per second on the ball) and a more aggressive hook potential. Higher rev rates mean the ball grips the lane earlier and harder in the back end, producing that explosive entry angle into the pocket that high-level scoring demands. If you want to learn the two-handed technique, understanding this energy transfer is the essential first step.
Rewriting the Record Books
Belmonte did not just survive on the PBA Tour — he reshaped its history. The PBA Tour majors are the sport's most prestigious titles: the US Open, the Masters, the Players Championship, the World Series of Bowling, and the Tournament of Champions. Winning even one is a career-defining achievement. Winning more of them than any player before you is another category entirely.
What makes his record even more striking is that he achieved it while bowling differently from everyone else. He did not succeed by perfecting the established template — he succeeded by replacing it.
The Copycat Effect
When a champion wins in a visibly different way, the sport pays attention. Youth and amateur bowlers around the world watched Belmonte and saw something transformative: proof that the "correct" technique was not the only technique. Coaching academies that once refused to teach the two-handed style began incorporating it. Junior leagues started producing a new generation of two-handers who had grown up watching Belmonte's highlight reels.
The copycat effect is real and ongoing. Walk into a bowling center today and you will almost certainly spot someone — often a teenager — launching the ball with both hands and generating hook angles that would have looked impossible a decade ago. For a deeper look at how delivery styles compare across skill levels, the guide on release techniques from beginner to pro breaks it all down.
Whether you are chasing your own two-handed revolution or perfecting a classic one-handed game, the right footwear and equipment make every delivery more consistent. At bowlio, we stock the gear that serious bowlers — at every stage of the journey — rely on to perform their best.