Here's a video of me at my league this morning. It's three shots. I hope the result of them doesn't matter too much because I didn't really show the ball hitting the pins on the first two shots. Looking at it, I really gotta wonder how I average 200+. Anyways, am I horrible, or better than I thought?



Sorry if it's poor quality but it was during league so I couldn't get any angle I wanted.

Welcome to the site, you seem to be losing leverage at the release because you are too open to the right of your target and pull the ball across your body from time to time. Try keeping your balance arm up higher and square to your target at the release.

The video was too dark to see your hand position, but I like the fact that the ball was close to your ankle at the release, that indicates you have a good armswing which is rare.

You could gain a little more power by getting a little more knee bend into your slide try bending your right leg a little more as you go into your slide.

Next video try setting the camera's night vision so it takes in more light.

Thanks a lot Jim. I was told by another person I have a fluid armswing. It's nice to know I have that. My hand position was meant to be cocked to the left and cocked, both slightly. However I tend to get in the habbit of doing it too much(more than slightly). I'm not really sure if I'm maintaining the possition through the swing either. I also noticed watching my video that my balance arm goes down once I release the ball. Is that a sign of forcing the ball? What about my timing in general? I'll try working on getting lower and more leverage.

I will also admit I squease the ball a bit, but since reading these boards and Ron C's tips I've been really wanting to break that habit so I'm hopefully less tempted to "try" reving the ball. Also, with a more proper fit maybe I won't have to try so hard to hold the ball when i need my fingers to be closer to the middle ones.

I also thought this pic might be helpful in case discussion about getting the right fit goes further.



If you turn your head so that my fingers appear more vertical, you wil see my normal "thumbs up". I find it really weird but it's natural. I'm hoping by looking at this someone can take an educated guess on what my thumb pitch should be.

Currently one of my balls have 0 pitch which still takes a bit of squeasing, but the others including the one in the video is 1/8 reverse. The reason for this is that I wanted to experiment with more forward pitch.

If there's any other types of pics that would be helpful such as positioning my hand like I'm holding an imaginary bowling ball, etc let me know.

If you look at your thumb, you can see the parts of your thumb that are rubbing in the hole, mostly around the back of the thumb at the knuckle. This swelling occurs when you have to bend the thumb to hang onto the ball.

It looks like you have a fairly long thumb so you may not need to go as far forward with your thumb pitch as I have, but you definitely need to go at least another 1/4" to 3/8" forward to prevent the thumb from rubbing so much. Also it looks as though the right side of the thumb as you are looking at it rubs also so you might need to move the thumb pitch to the left an eighth at a time until it stops rubbing.

It might also be that it rubs there because of the knuckling of the thumb, but an ovaled thumb hole might help as well.

My thumb hole is oval. I would probably have to agree with you about the pitches even the lateral 1/8 or so. Once I can get over the thumb thing I'll feel like just about anything is possible. I thought my thumb was average or short though, I could be wrong.

Also, the darkness you see on my knuckle is not there as I look at my thumb now. I think it was just the lighting because I don't recall it being like that, although it is swollen compared to my left thumb. Is that because of squeasing or should all bowlers have bigger bowling thumbs than non bowling thumbs?

Also, As you can see I have a small hand and wrist. I think this makes it hard on me to get a decent rev rate because it's not too strong and perhaps a little lazy. Although I may not be able to cock my hand through the whole swing, I feel like I can cup it. Is that enough to get the proper revs I need?

Is that at Narrows Plaza Bowl on Mildred Street?

If you measure your thumb from the base to the tip as a general rule if it is 2" or longer you will not need as much forward pitch as someone with a shorter pitch, you can measure your thumb and figure that out for yourself.

The majority of the revs you see guys get on TV is from cocking the wrist into the release zone and uncocking it as the thumb exits the ball which puts a spring motion into the release which doubles the amount of revs you could normally get on the ball.

Since it looks as if you have read Ron's tips, are you able to do the cupping drill for testing your wrist strength in the bowler's release tip?

It's actually Paradise Village. What center do you bowl at?



My thumb is close to 2 1/4". I may have to go somewhere between 1/4 and 3/8 forward like you suggested.

In my attempts to cock the wrist, I think all I've done was get as many revs as if I was only cupping it because I tried to keep it the way even through the release. Now that I know you have to uncock right at release I might be able to rev up a tad more but nothing like the guys on TV because I don't feel that my wrist is that quick. Yep, I've read almost all of Ron's tips plus his Breakpoint Target articles and I can do the cupping exercise in the Release tip, but it takes a lot of effort while it seems easy for him.

I bowl at Pacific right now. I used to bowl at Narrows Plaza on Thursday nights in the Buckshooters league for a few years until I took last year off. Next year Pacific is offering a Monday Night PBA experience league. I was thinking this would be a cool idea, but I wanted to try and establish a 200 average before doing this. I also wanted to learn to shoot straighter at my spares too. Next year, I want to expand and maybe bowl a league at Paradise or maybe Bowlero because I heard that in comparison to Pacific and Narrows, Bowlero really floods their lanes.