Thanks everybody for the advice.

Hi Dennis and Matt,
would you elaborate how to hit up the ball or do more fingers/hand into the ball, I mean technically?

Should I bent my elbow a little bit, as I observed that Pete Weber sometimes (not always) bent his elbow. I think most of power stroker bent their elbow... maybe to keep the finger under the ball...

I would like to change my release as yours Matt, no longer lift with the fingers, but as now this writing, the progress is not good at all, I drop the ball most of the time. I don't have a clue how to fix it? How is your swing? Do you extend your arm all the time or bent your elbow? How to keep you hand behind the ball (finger under the ball)?

Thanks Guys!

What i've learned not to do is pull my hand, wrist and fingers through the ball, resulting in the hand coming back. Using muscle, hitting up. But, rather develop a ball turn from the ring finger. It starts from under the ball and comes out on the side, creating turn. It is the last one to leave the ball and if done right, creates increased revs.
My hand opens upon release and has a movement toward the thumb side with the ring finger turning the ball.

Silvercoach calls this the frisbee release. It's how you throw a frisbee.

Crankers will turn their upper body in the backswing to the ball side for leverage and get their hand cupped under the ball for a stronger turn at the release.

Hi Dennis,

I think I got your point. But, do you bent your elbow during the forward swing to keep the fingers under the ball? If not, how do you snap/lock the wrist/fingers?

My hand/wrist can handle the ball (14p) on static condition (no moving), but when combining with the swing, seem the ball become heavier that is normal because of the centrifugal/centripetal force.

Any tips?


Many Thanks!

Actually, my arm is pretty straight at the elbow. I restarted 3 years ago after a long layoff, and found that my wrist was not as strong. I wore a wrist support for a couple of years to retrain it.

Check out Ron Clifton's tip on the bowler's release:
http://www.bowl4fun.com/ron/tip20.htm

Excellent post, CoachJim.
Picture is worth 1000 words.

If you follow Ron Clifton's tip, would not the ball come of the left part of your hand when you "turn the doorknob"?

Hi Dennis,
I thought a wrist support cannot be used on this case... I'm wrong again...

Last night my friend told me that my hand was not behind the ball during the forward swing, but made an angle with my palm pointed to my body. Thus, I tried to keep my hand behind the ball during the whole swing (keep pointing my thumb parallel with the direction of forward swing), even during the release (I don't care about the angle at this time). The result was better, the ball was not dropped frequently even though the rotation angle was small...

Then, thanks to CoachJim that shared the tip from Ron... Look like I'm on the correct path...

CoachJim, I will read and learn this article carefully and will try it out on the lane... For sure, I will need a lot of time and effort to Master it.

Again, thanks a lot everybody... Your advices are excellent and very helpful for me...

I'm not sure what you mean by the left part of your hand, do you mean a back up ball? Try it for your self and post back your results. I can tell you it has taken me a year and I am getting the hang of it pretty good these days, and it seems to work well for Chris Barnes too.

If you look at the Ron Clifton article, your forearm, wrist and back of the hand should be fairly straight through the swing, as in picture B. It should not be slackened (relaxed) as in Picture A. The wrist support helps that. It can even be positioned with a modest cup to your hand, as the explanation states.