Finally got around to getting a couple videos on here although there not that great (camera died)... Anyways, I bowled a lot when I was younger but took a break while an undergrad and recently got back into bowling consistently. Just from looking at them I saw a couple problems but any help would be appreciated.

Another bowler that can use your balance arm more effectively. Common and forunately pretty easy to fix, IMO.

You are a bit too antsi at the line, hold the position a bit longer. You have good balance if you will just carry it out a bit longer. You will gain leverage if you do this. Leverage will equal more impact at the pins.

Now your shoulders. They need to close up once you open them for the delivery. You stay pretty much open and you can close them up and get the release point closer to your ankle by doing so. Again proper use of the balance arm will greatly increase your abilty to properly close your shoulders.

Try not to bend so much over to the left. Try to keep your head over your sliding knee, rather then far to the left of it. Again this is losing leverage.

This is common in today's younger bowlers. They bave the release but not the other ingredients that will make the release they have totaly devastating. Its like they have the release down, but dont' know what to do with it. Get all the components together and you have the great potential to be a really big shooter.

Erin

I second Erin's balance arm comment. (I too am working on this :))

In addition to this I saw a couple of things that you need to address.

1. Don't be afraid to follow through. On all three shots you provided us you shorted the follow through. You could be robbing your shot of speed/revs by not completing your follow through.

2. I noticed on all three shots that right at the release point your left arm is bent almost like you're pushing or shoveling your shot onto the lane. You can see this the best in your side shot... simply pause your video at your release point and you'll see what I mean. All you need to do is keep your arm straight and allow the ball to roll off your hand.

Craig

I understand what your talking about but I feel like some of the bend in my elbow is compensating for leaning so far to the left upon release, or at least thats what it feels like. As for the follow through thats something I noticed and really tried to work on, but again my camera died. Also what should I be doing with my balance arm in order to help with my shoulders and my swing overall?
Thanks, and any other info is appreciated.

Don't worry about the balance thing. It'll come. I myself am working on it too. Try adopting a free arm swing. That should straighten out your arm so you don't have to compincate for the bend while at the keeping you striaght. Another thing to try is stop thinking about bending at the waist and try bending at the knees. This will keep your back and torso striaght and allow for a much better ball. Now onto the balance arm aka the second most important thing about the approach. Your right arm and hand even before you begin should shoulder most of the ball's weight. Thsi allows you to free your left arm of tension and throw a better ball. But more importantly this technique allows your right arm to follow the ball or be in contact with the ball all the way until the very beginning of the 2nd step of your approarch, (5th step of yours I believe), at which point it makes its way out to the side to help keep your shoulders straight at the line. Watch Tommy Jones bowl. He's a righty but he has your style of bowling.

Before I get started, let me welcome you to the site.

First and foremost your timing is way too early, you start your push away on your first step, which is fine if you take 4 steps, you take 5 steps, so you are at least a step to a step and a half early. Hold the ball still until you start moving your left foot on your second step. At this point you push the ball slightly up then on the third step you drop it into the swing and let the ball swing.

Second I doubt that you can let the ball swing without squeezing the snot out of it since it looks to me like you are trying to catch it as you are starting your swing. This is a sign that your ball doesn't fit your hand properly.

To check to see if your ball fits you properly, start with checking your span. To check to see if your span is right place your thumb in the ball and lay your fingers across the holes. The edge of the finger holes that faces the thumb hole should be 1/2 way between the first and second knuckle of each finger respectively without stretching your hand, it should be relaxed.

If your span is right, then check to see if you are knuckling the thumb. Put your fingers in the ball then as you put your thumb in the ball, if you see the thumb bending at the knuckle as it goes in the hole then you need to have your thumb hole plugged and made smaller so it fits your thumb tighter and possibly have the pitch moved forward some, and keep the beveling of the top of the hole to a minimum.

Let me know how your ball fits compared to the way I described and let me know, you may have to take several trips to the Pro Shop to get your fit right, so be patient. Even if you do get the ball to fit your hand right then it may still take some more trips to the shop once your hand learns to relax.

It is the most important aspect in Bowling Fundamentals, so don't sleep on getting the ball to fit your hand properly.

Post another video once you get your ball fit and your timing fixed and we will go from there.

CoachJim thanks for the insight. Both my Fury's were just drilled about 2 months ago and my driller checked/changed my span and everything of that nature, they do need a little more forward pitch I think though. I was rolling the Twisted in those videos I believe and I've tried to focus on not gripping but I must be to some extent. Thanks for the help and I'll try to get a couple more videos on here in the next few days.

to me you look like you have a bit of fast feet which is causing you to get to the line way faster than your ball, which causes you to put the breaks on, then hurry up and pull your ball through before you face-plant. :P

do you ever have times when your slide foot starts "sticking" at the foul line all of a sudden, and with no apparent reason? if so, you could just be running at the foul line and throwing yourself off balance when you should just be walking and letting the ball fall off of your hand.

im not a coach though.. so i could be wrong, but i would suggest just slowing your footwork down a bit and get it more online with the speed of your swing... instead of running to the foul line and flinging the ball down the lane before you fall over.

I know what your talking about and it is a familiar problem but if anything I feel like the ball is beating me to the line. When I come off balance its backwards rather than forwards over the foul line, unless I'm compensating for that. Taking 3.5 years off was a big mistake but hopefully I can get it back.... Thanks for all the advice

Welcome to the board.

Watch your video. Foot plants, then ball comes. Your feet are ahead of your ball. Fast feet!

You open up your shoulder, and leave it open. You stay sideways through the rest of your approach. I suspect this causes our bent elbow as you try to bring the ball down to the lane around you. Square your shoulders and face your target.

You're not that far off.