Skidroll
Thanks for the articles I checked them both out
and they are great. I will refer to them often.
bowling joel

Accck!! I read the article and one of the things he mentions is not stepping into the slide (moving the slide foot over to be in line with the plant foot on the slide step. I am one who doesn't step into it and subtely readjusts my body weight maintaining balance and not giving away my error by falling off to the side. (I tried it several times in the hallway and yep, I don't step into it, though I can easily do it if I consciously try.)

I wonder if I should work on this or keep doing it the wrong way, as I seldom have a balance problem? I imagine that my ball is passing several inches further from my ankle then if I stepped into the slide. According to his article this may result in pulling the ball. Hmmm, to mess with this or not?

MaryEllen
SkidRoll
Last night I tried one of the notes that had a
video about finding your shot. It stated to try
this: set up but do not put the brain into action;
just take first step heel and toe then push the
ball on second step toward the target and let it
drop into free swing. etc. I tried it but the lanes were hooking more then I could handle.149
213 and 157 it worked partily. I missed alot of
spares and had some splits. Today I bowled again
in a senior league that I am going to be in next
season. On these lanes it worked better. 141 166
190 and I picked up most of my spares.
How this works is step one is heel toe step two
i push the bowl out toward the target on step 2
then I complete the steps and use free arm swing
to hit the target. I pulled the ball only two times to the left and rest of the time hit around
the target. I will keep using this as it takes
stress off the arm and wrist. bowlling joel

I'm very happy that you're trying to experiment with different things, because that's how you get better. From reading all of your posts you remind me of how I was 8 years ago. I've read every book and every magazine that I could get my hands on as well as to learn different things from my fellow teammates. And then the ultimate, I bought all of the Earl Anthony videos that I could get my hands on and studied him a lot. I wanted to pattern his approach and his overall smoothness and consistancy.

But enough about me, I'm very proud of you that you're trying to remedy your bowling problems. Keep up the good work and let me know of your progress and let me know if you need any more help. Just remember that it's going to take time to progress to whatever your goal that you set out to do. Just be patient and it will all pull together.

Joel, when I start bowling bad it's usually me not keeping my arm straight and following through. The lack of proper arm swing had me all over the place. Missing my mark inside and out, trying to force the ball down the lanes. Luckily we have a group of us that will get together and practice. It's great to have others around you that know your game, so they can help pull you through your bad spells. If your not hitting the 1-3 consistantly then make sure you cover your spares. This will help keep your confidence up and keep your score stabilized,while your working through the problems. Good Luck......

Danti,
I tried that new thing twice pushing the ball to
my right towards the target on step two of my five
steps. My confidence is growing and sunday will be
my third attempt at using this pushaway, if it works as well sunday as it did thursday I could be headed for some very good bowling. With the
new notes I get on this site and my ability to come up with new things I gather with all the info I get plus my own expireance I cannot go wrong and I think anyone who loves bowling like I
do should use this site to get better and help others do so as well. Bowling and instructions must continue from people who know so this sport
can live for ever. bowling joel

You are right about this forum, It is a great place to learn. I'm glad I found it as well.

Glad to hear you are doing better Joel. I'm also slowly improving.

One of my newest problems originated from the pushaway; it had changed and was now too strong and the elbow locked while the ball was in front of me and thus the motion of the ball stopped at that point for a short instant. By doing a softer pushaway and letting the ball lock the elbow at the bottom of the backswing the armswing got much more natural; smooth and relaxed and the timing got better. The other thing was that I tried too hard to get more and more revs on the ball. When I forgot about that focusing on other things I actually got much better pin carry.
But it seems that I need a really long "warm up" before I start doing well, over a half hour.
I wish I could do it right already from the start of the session. Only more practise helps there?

I got myself a cellphone with a videorecorder so now I can get a few shots on video from every practice session. I hope this will speed up my learning curve and prevent me from going into those long and deepdeep slumps.

Buck Rabbit,
Releasing the ball closer to the ankle should in the long run improve consistency and give more leverage and thus better pin carry. I would give it a try to fix it...Just my very non-expert opinion...I saw your average is much higher than mine...

Skid

Mary Ellen
SkidRoll
I think I have found the answer to my problem with
loosing the shot. I just read a note on Ron Cliftons site bowl4fun. It shows in detail that
if you turn the ball to soon or move it before it
gets to the ankle the revs are lost and the ball
does not do what it should. I will bet that when
I turn my wrist to the cocked position in the stance it is turned out of that position before it
reaches the ankle for release. What do you both think. bowling joel