Just filling some frames after league. Not a real practice or anything, but it was still a weird experience watching myself bowl for the first time.




One thing I noticed immediately was that my hand position is not even close to where I thought it was. I took a few stills of my release and realized that I'm not getting nearly enough leverage on the ball. Got to work on my hand position and wrist strength.




I thought this one was a much better release than the other 2


And this is my spare release


Thanks for watching, and I'm looking forward to your feedback.

beefers,
The first thing I notice is that because you are trying to control the swing so much it causes you swing to be so slow that it falls behind and your timing gets really off. The problem with that is that its off differently every time so your body has a hard time trying to balance at the line. Because each time your timing is different the body cannot find a common balance point for each attempt, thus making you fall off the shot, pull your shot, or miss way right. On your second to last step the ball should be at the very top of the backswing, your ball is just past your hips on its way back. Thats an entire step late.

Your release gets away from your ankle but I believe that has a lot to do with your body being out of position because it has to try and find a balance point every shot, rather than knowing where its going to be.

Other than that I won't recommend anything else yet. I think as you grow in the game your swing will free up as you become more comfortable. Just remember if you try to free it up and your more erratic or score lower, don't worry. A lot of times we have to take a step back in order to take 2 forward.

Thanks, sk8. I'm working on what they call a semi-controlled swing, but I guess it's still too muscled. I'll work on it next week and try to fit in a practice session. I have to get to class now but I'll go over it in detail later. Thanks again.

beefers, I think what you have now is a really controlled swing. You don't want to control the ball on the way back to the top of the backswing, only from about 45 degrees on the way down in your "semi controlled" swing. This will allow you to adjust speeds by the height of the ball but still let you "control" the ball as you wish.

Right now you are slowing it down so much it is causing problems in your cadance, timing, release, and control. You might be a little off for a couple days but you will notice a much more consistant roll and target hitting as you become more and more free in your delivery.

I have no time to read what others have posted, so if I repeat what someone else said, then so be it.

I would suggest looking at your ball fit. Every time I see someone's arm slow down after the balance arm comes away from the ball invariably it is because the bowler is grabbing the snot out of the ball to prevent it from falling off their hand.

You need either tape or to have the ball fitted to your hand better imho.

Jim, I just had my fit checked. I did use tape but maybe not enough. Or maybe it's just my habit of grabbing the ball.

Can you clarify what you mean by "after the balance arm comes away from the ball"?

And, it also may be that I'm afraid to swing too quickly for fear of early timing or excessive ball speed. I need to get over that and practice until I get comfortable with an earlier and more relaxed swing.

Sk8, I'll work on it. Maybe I should fully relax the swing first, then work on the controlled part.

Also, what do you think of my second-to-last step? Am I putting too much weight on that foot? I see a lot of bowlers take a short second-to-last step without really shifting their weight, and I'm wondering if it would help.

After the balance arm comes away from the ball = right at the end of your pushaway, as your downswing begins. You should use your non-bowling hand / arm to support the ball in your stance and through your pushaway so that you can keep your bowling hand / arm relaxed. In your stance and pushaway it looks like you don't even need your non-bowling hand / arm invovled since you are carrying the ball the whole time.

I know a couple of people who have a similar armswing and the way I describe it to them besides being controlled is that you are carrying the ball through your swing. Don't carry the ball, just let it swing. Definitely work on a completely relaxed armswing for now, if you find it not working for you you can then add some control back into it. I think it would be easier for you to put a little more into it when you are relaxed than it would be to take a little out when it is muscled.

As for your footwork, you plant your last step without any slide which is why you are off balance at the line. Your second to last step should be a bit shorter and quicker to set you up into a slide, which even just a small slide will help keep you better balanced. So yes, work on those last 2 steps and see if that doesn't fix your balance (and possibly knee pain) problems.

When your left hand pours the weight of the ball into your right hand, the ball and your arm should fall free into the swing. If you don't feel secure enough (ball feels like it will fall off your hand) you will grab the ball and catch it like you are doing in the video.

One thing you might want to do is to stand with your left foot in front of your right foot and practice your swing by doing your push away and letting the ball fall freely into the swing and let it swing back and forth a couple times before doing the push away and dropping it into the swing again.

Leaning against a wall will help support your upper body and take your back out of the picture and put the swing back on your shoulder. Many times the bowler will bend the back forward as the ball falls, this is usually the case with people who catch the ball after the push away. What then happens is the back bends forward on the back swing and then pulls up at the release to drag the ball through since it was slowed down.

I think your footwork issues are also a byproduct of the lack of arm swing, so work on your swing first, then post another video.

Sorry for the short response before I didn't mean for it to sound rude.

Let you arm swing. I'd not try and control the weight on the down swing. It is putting the arm swing too late in referance to the feet.

I have the same tendancy to keep my non throwing arm following the ball path. It has been a bear for me to try and keep fixed. When the weight of the ball hits your throwing arm (2nd step of a 5 step delivery), the non throwing arm shoud seperate. Jim could offer better advice on this, but I think it should start to either rase or at least stop falling. This is where leverage comes from.

Slide it will protect your knees. Trust me on this one they will thank you for it. The best / longest lasting bowlers all slide (M. Holman, N. Duke, C. Barnes, E. Anthony) It seems to be a bad habbit of folks trying to create more revolution.

Last note, wait for the ball on the top of the swings (push away / top of back swing). Some of the best create or take away speed by starting position, not by trying to catch it (slowing) or pulling up on the way back (trying to get faster).

Thanks guys, for all the constructive advice. I'll definitely take it into consideration. I'll work on a freer swing, then add a bit of muscle back into it afterwards as needed.

BTW, the lack of slide is intentional, but thanks all the same.