I've been fighting this particular issue with my backswing and no matter what I do the end result is the same... the ball and my arm end up behind my back (left) instead behind me and off to the side (right). I have tried starting ball in the center of my stance and to my right side (I'm right handed) to no avail.

I went to the lanes last night for some practice and taped myself once again thinking that I have made some progress with my backswing... well it is getting a bit shorter (something else I'm working on) but the darned ball is still ending up behind my back at the peak of the backswing. After watching some of my videos I noticed that the ball is even left of my head... this doesn't seem right.

You can look at any of my videos that I have posted in the videos section (or http://www.youtube.com/let1hang) for a good look at the top of my backswing position.

I would like to fix this issue as it is my belief that it is one of the [many] causes of my inaccuracy/consistancy.

Does anyone have any ideas? Are my shoulders opening up during the drop that is causing this? If so, what should I do to correct?

Thanks in advance!

Craig

Hi Craig,

I have been struggling with the same problem for a long time and I have something that works really well for me that you may want to try.

When you are setting up turn your wrist as far to the right as you can and hold that position as you go into the backswing. What this does for me is when my arm goes back it stays straight and does not go behind my back and it also keeps my wrist from flailing around.

To me it looks like you're physically pulling the ball back instead of letting gravity swing the ball. Don't use your shoulder or arm to try and swing the ball and it should swing on the plane that you start it on.

You also start with the ball pretty low, which will make you want to pull the ball up your backswing (and then pull it behind your back). You might need to move the ball up.

I can't open the video.

Sorry about the videos link. For some reason it also linked in the end paranthesis.

http://www.youtube.com/let1hang

I agree with Lefty. You're pulling your arm back and up. I used to do that too. After the pushaway, just disengage all arm muscles and let the ball fall and swing as high as it wants to.

If you do this, you'll probably feel like you have no back swing at all. This is how it felt to me, when I tried it. But when I took a video, I saw my backswing was as it should be. The arm was horizontal even though it felt to me like it was not.

One thing that helped me realize I was pulling my arm back and up is this:

Concentrate on letting your shoulder get pulled down by the weight of the ball. As soon as you'll want to pull the arm up in the backswing, you will feel your trapezius muscles (the muscles between your neck and shoulder) tense up and stabilize the shoulder. If you feel the muscles activate, you can be sure you're pulling the arm up in the backswing. After you accept the fact that you're doing this, it will be really easy for you to stop doing it.

You just have to trust gravity. It will give you a high enough backswing without any help from your muscles. And your accuracy will really improve!

You seem to be pulling the ball up the backswing. It should fall and gravity does the rest. Hold the ball to the side, elbow tucked against your body. Give the ball a uppush and let it drop.

The arm does come behind you. It is not a pendulum swing. It comes back around your body and releases at different angles.

Let1hang,

The reason why your ball ends up behind your head is because your backswing is going around your leg. You have to work on getting the ball past your leg while keeping your armswing straight. Many bowlers tuck their knee to the left to let the ball come through. If you have stiff knees like me, you step in front of your left foot to allow clearance for the ball to pass by.

Currently you have your target line far to the right of where it should be to accomodate your armswing which is too far from your body. To break yourself of this habit try laying some tape down on the floor in 2 parallel lines about 5 inches apart - one line for the inside of your left foot and the other line for your armswing. Go through your delivery short of letting go of the ball. It would be nice if you have a full length mirror to check that your armswing stays over the tape and ends up consistently at the same height and behind your shoulder and not your head.

Not to be argumentative, but if the ball has to go around his leg and his armswing is free, the ball will end up out to the right in the backswing. The way that the ball ends up behind your back if you have a free armswing is if the ball is out to the right to much as the ball enters the swing, or if you twist your upper body so that your shoulders turn and that brings the ball behind your back.

I agree that it is the opening of his shoulders that seems to be the main cause of the ball ending up behind his back. However, when he is in his stance the ball is in front of his right leg and is not visible. When he pushes the ball straight out from his leg the ball becomes visible and seems to initially swing in a left to right direction until reaching his leg when the opening of the shoulders causes the ball to move in a right to left direction giving the impression that the ball is moving around his leg. It is this sudden change in direction in his backswing that seems to result in a worst case scenario of swinging behind the back. (Ex. the frame where he shoots the 7-pin where he really wrapped his arm behind his back.) He is inconsistent as to how he pushes the ball out. When he is not pushing the ball straight out and going around his leg, he is pushing the ball out slightly to the right which allows the ball to clear his leg in a straight swing before he opens his shoulders. This cuts the swinging behind the back by half but he is still losing leverage at the foul line because the backswing is not close to his body and the ball is too far from his ankle at the release point. He has to devise a way to keep his swing close to his body while keeping a staight armswing.

Simply put, when in his stance the ball should be ideally over his right foot with the left edge of the ball over the right edge of his left foot. During his backswing the trick is to move the ball past the right leg while keeping the swing straight. This is what he should be working on. The tape on the floor exercise was a suggestion to achieve the latter.