First of all, boo having to convert the video from QuickTime to MPEG-4 before YouTube would have anything to do w/it. I apologize for the cr@ppy quality. That's the reason for it. The QuickTime movie that iMovie produced on my Mac isn't grainy at all.

Anyway, I saw 5-6 things in my technique that I had no idea I was doing...starting w/the backswing! Started bowling tenpin in earnest in October. I must have really been feeling my oats on Sunday. Looks like I wanted to tear the cover off both balls even more than usual, which is saying something, bc I usually want to do that quite a bit.



Edit: Yes, that's "The Hustle" starting at 0:40. lol.

Man, I got tired watching that film. You are really quick with your feet. Slow them down. You seem to use your arm a lot. Just let the ball fall on itsown and don't pull it up into the backswing. Your back swing plane is all over. You would be better off to shorten it. That's not a candlepin ball, you don't need the speed or muscle to knock down the pins. Let the ball roll.

otherwise, a coordinated start.

Your horrible posture is causing 90% of your problems. Do not bend forward farther than your knees. Your upper body is so far forward you can't even hit your target. Keep your upper body over your knees and sit into the slide.

Ditto CoachJim - I think if you keep your upper body more upright, you will gain both accuracy and power on the ball. I wouldn't be surprised if a couple other things cleaned up as a result of concentrating on this.

Agree 100% with Dennis, CoachJim, and cgeorg...your candlepin experience is going to make it a bit tougher, but you need to slow down, and you need to have your shoulders up. I'm assuming that you want the ball to curve at some point... it's next to impossible to get anything on the ball when your shoulders are that far forward. Try this... stand up straight on the approach, and go through your delivery without bending at the waist... at all. When you get to the slide step, just bend your knee to get down a little. I guarantee you will feel like Frankenstein's monster doing this... but you need to do something out of your muscle memory zone, and to get out of the shoulders-down habit. There is no lob line in tenpin bowling, so don't worry about lofting the ball. And make sure that your approach is at your normal walking pace, and that you are letting the ball swing from your arm like a pendulum... tenpin balls are 15lbs, not 2 1/2, they generate plenty of their own momentum. Don't worry about the pins, or what the ball does on the lane... just the approach. Remember that this approach will not be the end result, this is just a way to work back to a happy medium. Would be helpful to see a video of this drill.

I find it very interesting that my coach has not said anything to me about the lean, something that jumped out immediately to several of you. Believe it or not, that's a lot more upright than my candlepin style was. I actually found over the years that in addition to knee bend, the farther forward I bent at the waist, the better control I had. My style looked something like a swimmer on the starting block, and I've never seen anyone else who did anything like that.

Of course, that ball doesn't have enough mass to screw up your balance if your center of gravity is that far forward, nor does it have enough mass to screw up the swing if you whip it. I know when I'm not standing on the approach that I should take the arm out of it, but so far that doesn't translate to slowing anything down. Thanks!

I hate to sound like a broken record, but I have to agree with the others here about your posture. Fix that and I think many things will improve. In regards to coach what does he have you working on? Maybe he sees something that needs to be addressed prior to a posture fix or that is causing the poor posture and we are all missing it.

lmf, Mike has mentioned that the coach is having him work on slowing down his footwork a bit, to stop rushing the line.

I think the footwork is a symptom of the upper body being so far out ahead of the lower body - you have to run to keep from falling on your face!

Edit - need more coffee

Hehe. No, don't worry about it. When it comes to instruction on how to do something, I'm the sort of person who needs to hear the same thing 4-5-6 times before it starts to sink in. Been like that all my life.

My coach has most recently had me working on my release, but I see right now that that was most likely a mistake. I've been wondering why I can't generate any hook earlier down the lane than 50 feet. I had no idea my bend at the waist affected that.