Well after a couple of practice sessions working on my backswing I decided to tape myself once again.

In this session I also decided to play around with playing up the twig. It didn't go as good as I had hoped but I learned a few good things to practice on. Playing the twig I started using the targeting dots on the lane. I was standing on 7 and throwing over the dot on 3. I noticed that playing the twig that accuracy is key. Too far right and I'm in the gutter, too far left and I've crossed over the head pin (you'll notice this quite a bit in the video). I think with more work on playing this line this will improve my accuracy quite a bit. Going for score along the twig I was able to muster up a 193 game.

The Good:
- I finally have a free'er swing. I am still muscling it some on occasion but when I do it's not much and I notice it right away and I correct for my next swing. You can tell by my lower swing height. Yippie!!
- I'm getting the ball closer to my ankle now but I slip up and go back to my old habit once in a while.
- I have conquered my single-pin spare nemesis! I have finally figured out how to knock down that dreaded 6 pin. Previously when I would go for it I would somehow throw to the 10 pin. If I tried to adjust I would overcorrect and it would go to the 5. I finally figured out that standing around 25 and throwing between the 3 and 4 arrows I would knock it down consistently. Too bad that I figured this out later in the practice session. But I'm exstatic that I can consistently get it now. Yippie!!

The Bad/Ugly:
- Even though I think I'm keeping my shoulders perpendicular with my target line they are still opening up quite a bit which is still causing my backswing to wrap around me a bit. I don't think it's as bad as it has been in the past but it's still there. Does anyone have any tips/drills for me to keep my shoulders square to my target? Is there anything I can work on at home? Perhaps doing some mock approaches while taping from behind?

The Video:


As always feel free to comment on other things I need to work on.

Thanks for looking!
Craig

One thing I noticed was when your arm came behind you, it seemed that you started your hand rotation early. As your hand turns, you pull your arm back.

Also, you have a more relaxed swing on 10 pin spare shots. You project the ball out on the lane better than you do on first balls. Get that same motion on the first ball.

As far I could tell, the reason why your backswing ends up too far behind your back is because you are pushing the ball to the right instead of straight out (90 degrees) from where you hold the ball in your stance.

I will try and not rotate my hand early and try relaxing more on my first balls the next time I'm at the lanes. I saw the latter too but I didn't want to lead any of your responses.

By golly! I think you may have stumbled upon something here. After watching closer I am pushing the ball to the right on my pushaway. This is definately a contributing factor to my wrapping backswing problem. I think I will start working on this at home... too bad I've got a half day of work left

That's exactly the same thing I noticed. There was no swing misdirection on your spares. Your arm swang straight, and I'd bet that's because you weren't thinking that you had to hook the ball.

Your arm looks freer, but you're still controling it on your first shot, as you can see with the difference between your arswing on strike shots and spare shots. Keep working at it.

You are pushing the ball to the right and as a result it is messing with your entire game. Especially, the balls you throw in the gutter. Your whole body was facing towards the right gutter in one way or another, when you threw those balls. Also, pushing the ball to the right was alright when you moved further left, but it cost you your footwork. I don't know about you but I wouldn't try crossing my feet. As far as opening your shoulders goes, that's fine as long as you get them straight by the time you hit the line. I think that if you correct this little push away issue you'll do much better, because there were a few times that you did everything right and you can tell because it was a money shot.

You can tell how relaxed your swing is by looking at your balance arm. Next time you practice focus on relaxing your balance arm, keep it out and relax. It moves towards your body as you release the ball. Muscling the ball at the release point a little?

You can tell how relaxed your swing is by looking at your balance arm. Next time you practice focus on relaxing your balance arm, keep it out and relax. It moves towards your body as you release the ball. Muscling the ball at the release point a little?

The ball is still too far from your ankle at the release.

The reason for this is a swing plane issue. The ball starts to the right of your target, swings back inside behind your body, then bounces out and around your hip at the release. Try starting the ball to the left of your target and see if that helps correct the swing issue you are having.

Also your upper body is leaning out to the right which is causing the ball to drift away from your ankle as well.

You are doing better at keeping your balance arm out, but you still need work on it.

It looks like the ball is falling off your thumb early too if you watch the clips of where you are releasing the ball over the towel you will see the ball drill into the lane too early instead of the ball coming off your thumb by the heel it is coming out just past your right hip, that is why it hit the towel. Make sure you are not squeezing the thumb to hang onto the ball, that is what kills releases.

Well I've put off the inevitable for long enough. I just got off of the phone with my first coach, Jeri Edwards. We're tentatively scheduled for some time on June 14 and hopefully a lot will come out of our session together. I'll have her asess my grip, all of the basics, my swing plane, my release, etc.

In the mean time I'll work on straightening out my lean, relaxing my swing/balance arm, and fixing my pushaway. I'll still post some videos as I make progress and ask for advice, commentary, and criticism.