modified house shot here usually means flooded middle and have to work the outside corners 4-6bd or play really inside and need a strong ball to cut a breakpoint in the oil. The two balls you have won't get traction if the lanes are floded. To play those lanes with what you have now is to add a bit more revs by lifting more and slow you ball down quite a bit. The polished ball will never get traction though. Sounds like you need to sand the ball you have or get a new one rather then try to change your style completely.

I have a Storm dim and it's a strong ball for the flood and with lanes with lots of carry down.

It should be like sitting in a chair - your hips get low, but your upper body remains upright. As she said, Doug Kent is a great example of an ideal finish position. Especially nice is his work in the 2006 USBC Masters event that he won. At the beginning, he was playing 2 different lines with vastly different trajectories and speeds, but he had a solid finishing position for each of them.

Found the masters video. Unfortunately, he was only playing straight in the first match (against Tommy Jones) which is not up. Here's the second match:




For timing, take video from the side, on the side of your bowling hand. For instance, as a righty, you would take video from the right side. Get the whole approach, don't worry about taping the ball path. If a friend can help, have them hold the cameras, otherwise, I set it on a chair on the approach (ask first!) about 3 lanes to the right of where I am, up by the foul line. For swing path and release, get the video from directly behind you. For both videos, make sure your whole body (head to toe) is in the picture.

STaying down refers to getting into as deep a knee bend as possible and staying there through the release, thus posting the shot. Lower the whole package, from the hips, do not bend at the waist. As for balance, this is usually caused by feet rushing the line. Most new bowlers rush their footwork. Your pace to the foul line will be different for everyone, but it should be more of a walking pace and less of a hurried or running pace.

But there's a lot of finer issues that enhance balance. The location of your slide foot, under your center of gravity. Which means you move that slide foot more towards the middle of your body, rather then in a natural stride position. Even the direction your slide foot points, makes a difference. And then the non slide leg or trail leg, needs to act as a counter balance by swinging behind your slide leg.

For starters make sure you are not running up to the foul line. Your second to last step, is a bit shorter and sets up the balance of the last step. Just getting balanced will increase your rev rate without doing anything with your actual release, because you will gain leverage and accuracy.

Erin

Thank you very much for everyone for helping me out with this goal of mine. I am going to the Pro Shop tonight to get either a NVD or a Dimension drilled and I will take some video and put them on YouTube. I will send a link at this post to see what everyone thinks and what I can do to improve my game to help me get more revs on the ball.

In anyone's opinion, which would be a better ball to throw... NVD or Dimension?

They're both fine. The NVD comes at a higher surface grit, so it could theoretically be sanded to handle heavier oil, whereas the Dimension comes a lower grit so there is not as much room that way.

Either way, both balls are probably too much ball for anything but the heaviest/longest patterns, and even then will only work for a game or 2. If you will be spending time on sport patterns, one of them would probably be worth the investment. If not (bowling house shots), the money might be better spent on lessons to get your game cleaned up a bit.

Your Anger is a pretty strong ball, certainly more suited to "heavy" than "medium" patterns, and should be plenty to handle a fresh house shot (try taking it back from a polished surface to something like 2000 grit), with the Fury Pearl backing it up once the lanes break down.

I agree with what cgeorg passed to you. The other question to ask is whether you bowl on wood or synthetic. If you're on wood, I'd suggest going with the higher grit on the NVD due to greater lane fricton. If you roll on synthetic, the Dimension would be the leading contender in my mind. As previously said, though, house shots are not going to stand up to a ball that strong for more than a game or so on league night. Be ready to switch to a nice, flippy pearl with some length once the breakdown starts (Fury Pearl should do nicely).

Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that I am going to take some videos tomorrow barring the power doesn't get knocked out because of the hurricane. I guess thats what you have to live with when you live in Florida. But I bought an Ebonite NVD tonight and threw a few frames and let me tell you. First off, its a 15# ball compared to my 15 1/2 Fury and my 16# Hammer Anger. One word... WOW!!!

I went to a 4 step approach (I felt like I had much more control with this approach) and didn't rush anything. I felt like I couldn't miss. I got more revs on the ball and I feel like I had much more control over my ball and I felt like I stayed behind my ball rather then coming around it. But I still need some constructive criticism.

Thanks again guys. One more quick one... How do you know when the lanes are breaking down? If your ball is working well for you and you start to hit high, wouldn't you move over a little bit to go back into oil? I know that if I throw my Fury Pearl, I would stand with my RF on the 22nd board and throw out to the 12th to hit the pocket, but with a ball as powerful as an NVD wouldn't you be able to be more versatile.

congrats on the ball purchase, it's a good one. How did they drill it up for you?

When the lanes break down, you'll start going high, you have 3 choices, move left a board, throw a bit harder, change balls. I normally throw a hair harder, then move a board after that breaks down. Last resort is changing balls.