Well, I went to the lanes last night for some more much needed practice. Tonight's session I concentrated on shortening my backswing, getting the ball closer to my ankle at release, and of course my release. Well after re-reading many articles I finally pulled somthing out of the hat with one of Ron's learing new releases articles. The pictures were very insightful

What I did to get the enlightenment was I stood with my arm next to me and I said to myself... "Self. What do I need to do with my arm/hand to get my middle/ring fingers to the 6 'o clock position?" So I rotated my arm to have my palm facing towards the pins, thus my fingers were at 6 'o clock. I also noticed that my thumb was pointing to 3 'o clock.

This is my key. I am now using this as a point of reference throughout my swing. I am trying to keep my thumb pointing around the 3 'o clock area throughout my swing and especially when the ball is around my ankle. Boy did I notice a difference. I am actually feeling the ball come off my thumb first and then rolling off of my finger tips and what a nice feeling it is.

I spent most of the night trying to get used to this great feeling. Most of the time I allowed the ball to roll off my hand naturally. On straight spares I tried to keep my fingers at 6'o clock as long as I could and I heard the thumps of a full roller. The oil Track actually ran on top of the middle finger and thumb hole.

Toward the end of the night I experimented once again and tried to change my axis of rotation along with this new feeling. Most of the time nothing really changed but this one time... whoa boy! I'm not quite sure what I did but I really felt something in my ring finger and the ball had a lot more rotations on it than it ever had. It eventually crossed over the headpin and hit on the left side of the 2. No I did not pull it as I went over my aiming board 8.

Now I know that I have this ability I will have to figure out what I did to get it to do this more consistently.

Thanks for all of your input everyone!

I'm hoping that my discovery will help someone else in the future.

Something I don't get. How do you point your ring finger at your target and still get axis rotation/revs? Unless I'm completely missing the point, the ball will go straight or hook maybe 5 boards if you're playing up the boards.

Can anyone clarify for me?

You keep your hand in that position until it passes your heel then the thumb comes out and you turn the ball with your fingers, or try thrusting the ring finger, middle finger and index finger to get different reactions. You can thrust the pinky for spares the ball will roll fairly straight.

Let1hang...the ball comes off the thumb in the 3 o'clock position cleanly?..I'm afraid to try it...mine sometimes gets hung up in the 1 o'clock position.

This is the last thing that I have done and since doing so have been bowling great. I also have turned my hand and ball so that my fingers are "inside" of the ball and my thumb is facing out to the right at about 2 or 3 o'clock. At the heal, my thumb releases cleanly and then the fingers turn the ball naturally with the follow through. All I have to do is keep a free armswing and keep my hand relaxed. The difference has been phenomenal because it makes your shot easy to repeat. All you have to do is hit your mark and stay relaxed and the rest just happens naturally. The first night I got this down, I bowled 11 games because I was so thrilled with it. The next day I went and bowled 5 more just so that I wouldnt "forget" how to do it. Then I bowled three more the next night. From doing this, I have averaged over 215 the last 19 games and been very consistent with my rev rate. The big key is just finding the ball that carries the ten pin for me on the lane condition. I think the biggest block I had with this was a mental one. I couldn't see how I could throw a hook if my fingers were on the inside part of the ball. I also found that my accuracy increased because it tends to keep my armswing tighter to my body than when I was on the outside of the ball.

chinch -

If I don't grab at the bottom my thumb releases cleanly.

Feel and real are two totally different things. All I am doing is envisioning my thumb pointing towards the 3:00 area. Perhaps what I am envisioning as 3:00 is really 1:00. I won't know this until I get a high speed video of my release and that won't be for quite some time I suppose.

However I think about it the little ditty I wrote got me over my mental block and I can only hope to help others discover this too.

whatever gets it done...I have my 1st lesson tomorrow, hopefully can get stuff straightened out...on Sat. my thumb got stuck 3 times, I lost concentration wondering if the ball would come off even before I started my approach...not a good feeling.

Try doing a one step approach, that will help you concentrate on not squeezing the ball and let you learn to get the ball off your hand clean.

To do a one step delivery start by getting in your stance approximately 3 or 4 ft from the foul line, giving yourself enough room to slide so you finish 4 to 6" behind the foul line, do your normal push away and swing without moving your feet and when the ball gets to the top of the back swing, bend your trail leg and slide as the ball falls from the top of the back swing. Do not bend forward with your upper body, get the feeling of lowering your hips into the slide. You will find that it is easy to learn different releases doing this type of delivery.

I was wondering, what does your left hand and arm do, that is before you balance yourself with it? Just curious because if you use your left arm and hand to take or hold a portion of the weight it allows the muscles in your hand, forearm and shoulder to relax and not tense up. Then you will definately stop clinching the ball, plus this should allow your backswing to be more relaxed and smooth. You might or might not be using your left side to its fullest potential that's why I'm asking.

that first lesson cleared up a lot!...the thumbhole was a little tight, opening it up made a big difference...a part of the problem was I was turning my wrist with the thumb still in there, surprising the ball ever came off..once I started keeping my wrist straight & not breaking it at the release it's easier to practice, knowing you're not wasting your time.