Hey, long time no talk with a bunch of you. I haven't been here in a while, but figured I would come back to see how everyone is doing. Well, to my surprise I found this new message board software and some new forums. Great work by the admins/developers!

Anyway, I saw this forum and thought I would post some of my progression as a bowler. I found a video that I took last year after my first trip to see Michelle Mullen. Please feel free to critique away. I've addressed two major things since this video: staying behind the ball, and bending my knee more by pushing out my trail leg harder. I'll get a more recent video posted in the near-future.

I'm glad to see everyone again! Thanks for looking.

Link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIcUdxHkfKk

WOW, it was like looking in the mirror. Didn't know anyone else took that little shuffle step to start. Push off is really on the second step. Good parallel height on the back swing. Straight elbow complete to follow through. Even the arm swing after release. Good balance and square at the foul line.
The only noticeable difference was the second step. Mine is shorter.

I am going to read the reviews with interest.

Ha!! It must be a Chicago thing.

Hey Dennis. The little shuffle step was my way to bridge from a 5 step delivery to a four step one. If the line I'm seeing is good with a 4-step, it doesn't really show up. I add that little first step these days when I need to increase ball speed. The small first step helps me get my ball into a swing earlier and speeds my feet up. I typically need it on shorter patterns because I haven't really learned how to get my hand around the ball to get it to read further down the lane.

I have my men's league tonight and I'll try and have my teammates get some videos of me bowling and post them here to try and stir up some comments. I'm really surprised at the complete lack of interest shown in the Video section of this website. We'll see...

I bowl tonight also. Another bowler tried to have a friend take some videos while the league was in session. Other bowlers objected that it was distracting.

Maybe it was because the cameraman was lying on the approach two alleys over, and telling people to move.

My short step is to slow down my 5 step approach.

So rcasey, how'd you bowl tonight?
I had a real ugly 614. I was off in timing all night. I say ugly because I had a 224 with 2 opens, and a 214 with 3 opens. The first game, 170 something was different because I strung NO strikes. 3 spaced out in the whole game.
I just didn't feel comfortable, picked up some speed, ball wouldn't finish until I switched to a more aggressive ball in game 2.
Lots of oil tonight.
This makes bowling a challenge.
Spare game needs work, picked off the 6 from the 10 three times, and missed easy left side pins, missing again to the left.

Looks like your timing is a shade late. With that stroker approach and release, you might need to get the ball to the foul line a little quicker. Maybe lowering the ball a little bit might help or even pushing the ball away a fraction of a second sooner. Otherwise, it looks good from here.

I thought the same thing about the timing initially, but when I would pause the video, it looked like things were about where they should be. It's hard to say. Full speed it looks like you're a little late, and when I paused it, it looked like you might be OK.

It's close, and without the ability to break it down frame by frame, it's awfully difficult to say, which is why I mention "shade". It's close, much closer than most people. I just believe, IMO, that a stroker's release needs to be as close to the heel and ankle as possible for optimum power. Usually if a stroker's late, they're turning the ball over or helping it down the lane which kills what nominal power they have.

Well Dennis, I never got comfortable during league either. I shot 213-223-157 for a 593. I was dropping the ball almost all night for some reason unknown to me, and it was difficult to keep the ball on line. I picked up my camera on my way out, but the battery was dead, so getting more videos up will have to wait for a few more days. I'm going to need to go out and get some practice & some videos so I can figure out what the heck I'm doing wrong.

On another note entirely, I just had a trick-or-treater come up to my door wearing a Darth Vader costume & mask tell me he was my father.

Thanks for the critiques Brian & Lefty. I encoded the videos in xvid format, and they are both around 600k. I can get them to you if you want to go frame-by-frame, but I'm just not sure how to distribute them. I am going to try and get more up-to-date videos of me bowling from more angles later this week. Hopefully that will help as well. Thanks again.