Hi everybody,

Here is an updated video of me bowling from tonight. I was wondering what I am doing wrong and how I can improve. I am looking for as much feedback as I can get.

I would like to get more revs on the ball, but I dont know how to do this. If you notice in the video, my ball doesnt always drive through the pins. If I can rev the ball up more, it will correct this issue, right?

Also, during league at a different house and on fresh oil, I cannot play how I do in the videos, the ball just skates past the head pin and hits the 3. I have to slow my shot way down... If I am able to generate more revs, I dont think I would have this issue. Even if I play down+in up the second arrow, it just skates... What do you think?

Here is a link to my old thread that I made. The old video was from February. I feel that I have improved since then, but I still want to work on many aspects of my game.
Link to my OLD thread
Old video:

New Video:


I am looking forward to the comments and thoughts about what I can do to improve my game and how I can get more revs... What am I doing correctly? What am I doing wrong? What needs work?

Thanks!

-Gio

Biggest thing I see is that your hand is on top of the ball at the release, and you are spinning it. You need to keep your hand behind the ball, preferably with your fingers below the equator.

Read tips 35-38: http://www.bowl4fun.com/ron/roncarchive.htm
Also: http://www.bowlingknowledge.info/images/stories/slowinskiapr08.pdf

They should make a sticky thread with those 2 articles.

On the downswing, your hand goes immediately to the side of the ball, instead of behind it. You don't cup the ball, but let it hang from your fingers, and release the ball with your hand on top.

I'm in the same boat as you Gio... perhaps a few rows in front of you. I too suffer from the dreaded fingers on top syndrome and that kills rev rate. I have read the articles that cgeorg has posted and I would suggest that you start with Ron's Articles and follow his suggestions. Take your time moving from one stage to the other and you'll see positive results. I've even practiced his steps on my back yard grass... can you say lawn bowling? When I next went to the lanes I picked up a few more boards of backend hook even though I wasn't doing it properly... per my recordings. I'm sure with more work I'll get it right one day and you will too.

If you need a visual on how a proper release should be performed check out another post I created displaying three different axis of rotation slow motion releases:

http://www.bowlingcommunity.com/b/ubbthr....html#Post64015

I've even ripped them from youtube and created avi's from them so I can go frame by frame in Windows movie Maker.

--Craig

Thanks for the comments everyone. I really appreciate them.

I read the tips on Ron Clifton's site, and am I sure glad you showed me them. Many of the tips on there are helping me out. I am now trying to aim at two targets on the lane rather than just aiming at the arrows. I am still having trouble actually hitting the second target though! Any tips on this?

Another thing that I am working on, is staying behind the ball. The tip that says the spread your index finger out and [censored] your rist a bit so that your finger is pointed straight helps me alot. I also think about keeping my finger pointed to the ground throughout the whole backswing. This seems to be helping out with my revrate. Although I am trying a few new things at once, and Im not that great at hitting the exact line that I intend to roll the ball over, I think I will improve with more practice.

My winter league begins on Sunday, so hopefully I will show improvements there. I will try to get new videos when I get the chance.

Thanks again,

-Gio

Is there a reason you are playing the middle of the lane?

I agree with the others about how to throw a stronger shot, but you should be able to score fairly well if you just move outside, next to the gutter, and create more angle to the pocket. The ball is deflecting too much because it doesn't have enough angle to the pocket, if you moved outside there would usually be less oil especially on a house pattern, this will help your ball hook more.

I would like to see you learn to not turn your hand in the back swing and stay behind the ball until it reaches the release, but until you learn to do that I suggest playing down and in from the outside. Try standing on the 10 board and aim at the 3 or 4 board and just let the ball roll straight up the boards and see how much it hooks and adjust your feet and target to get the ball to the pocket and see if that doesn't help.

I'm not sure what ball you were throwing, but if it is not a modern bowling ball you may benefit from a new ball as well.

Hey Coach Jim,

First of all thanks for the response! Sorry for replying back so late, I have been very busy now that school is back in session. To be honest, I am afraid of playing down and in near the gutter. Although when I do play down and in I try to stay around the 8-10 board. I am scared to move any more right than that. I suppose I should practice it...

When you say to stand on the 10 board, do you mean with my right foot? So that my arm is somewhat inline with 3-4 board?

The ball I was throwing was a complete nv.

On a side note, I had league on Sunday, and lets just say that I did very poor, as did others. I tried many different lines, tight, wide, and even down+in. Nothing seemed to work... The ball would just slide down and never really react. If I played down+in down the 5~ board, the ball would literally go straight into the 6 pin. This always seems to happen to me at league alot, just I dont do as bad as I did this past Sunday. What type of oil pattern do you think it was? I noticed that even when the higher rev players' ball rolled outside of the 5, it would come in very late and hit the 3 pin, or very weakly hit the pocket.

Anyway, I just picked up an NVD from te Pro Shop, so hopefully that helps me out for times like that. I just thought that the Complete NV should be able to handle that... I guess it isnt reacting how I expect/want it to because of my weak position/release?

If you are afraid to play out near the gutter is that the ball's fault or the lane's fault or the oil's fault, or your fault?

You need to spend money on lessons instead of throwing money at new balls. If you were to bowl against me I would force you to play out near the gutter or farther inside where the spinner shot you throw would be useless. If you don't learn how to bowl then you can expect plenty more nights of poor performance. If you need help finding a coach, look on http://members.bowl.com/SearchUSBC/SearchCoaches.aspx.

Iconz, didn't I send you a list of local Coaches? Did any connect? I know there weren't too many that close to you.

I agree with CoachJim. Why are you playing the line you are? Your ball definitely does not finish toward the pocket. Change your entry angle to gain quick scoring help. Move right.

Just so we are all on the same page. When we suggest that you line up your feet on a particular board, it is usually meant that you take your sliding/ending foot and line the inseam of that foot up with the board we are talking about. So if you are a righty, and we tell you to put your feet on 20. That will mean your left foot inseam will be lined up on the crack between the 20 and 19 board.

I on the other hand, would not change much right now except to have you play a different part of the lane. The leaves you were leaving are typical of a bowler that is too far inside the "shot". You cannot make a shot play if its not there. The lane man puts out a shot, you have to play that shot not the one you want to see. The deeper inside shot might be what you want to do and you can buy all the balls in the world but none of them will enable you to score from that inside shot if the lane man did not put it there. I think you have plenty of revs and good finish position. I would work on lane play. Make sure that you get lined up (not so far inside) so that you are carrying better and work on your spares. We didn't see a lot of those in your video. Move your body right and keep your target about 10, swing no more then out to 7 or 5. The shots where you got the best ball reaction were when the ball went further outside. You don't want to be leaving the 4,5 in league play believe me. That's a shot that happens when you are too far inside and the ball is just skidding. So I would work on getting you lined up FIRST. Simply put, you are not lined up.

You have great cadence and good balance at the finish. Sometimes a bit wild but very very good. Use your balance arm better. Its just hanging there right now. But it can serve a purpose. Extend it when you push away and let it help stabilize you.

You're at the 175 area doing what you are doing. That tells me you need help with our spares and getting lined up and staying lined up. Lane Play. Remember....4, 5s are average killers. So are 5, 10s . Has nothing to do with weak wrist position or anything else. YOu have a lot of potential, just someone has to guide you through getting lined up, staying lined up and making your spares.

Erin

Pretty much what they said, the thing I noticed right of the bat is that your hand is on top of the ball, which is exactly what I used to do. All that does is take most of the hook out of the ball.

Well guys, Ive been working on everything you all have been telling me. I think I am going to try to improve on everything I can on my own before I consult a coach. That is why I post on here, so you all can comment, etc, so I know what to improve. I really appreciate the information given to me here.

Anyway, I havnt recorded any videos recently, although I have been practicing more than usual lately. I have been working on keeping my hand behind/under the ball in the swing and also playing down and in around the 5 board. I am getting more consistent with hitting my targets and the down/in really helps with the carry. I barely leave the washout now, and when I do, I already felt that the ball was released poorly.

On a side note, all of my balls have 1/8th reverse pitch to them. After learning to keep my wrist stiff and keep my hand behind the ball throughout the swing, I realized that I squeeze/grip the ball. While keeping my hand behind the ball in the swing, I feel I have to slow it down towards the bottom of the swing because I feel it is going to fall off my hand, which is why I think I squeeze it.

So because of this, I decided to try out forward pitch, especially after reading a topic about it on here. So I got the thumb pitch in one of my balls moved 1/4" forward, so it is now at 1/8" forward. I practiced with it for two games tonight, and it feels great. At first I thought I was going ot have problems getting out of it, but that is not the case. I can stay in the ball longer and I dont feel like I am gripping it as much!

Do you think I should continue to use it at this pitch or should I increase it to 1/4" forward and try that? Is there an advantage to maximum forward pitch your hand can handle without the ball hanging on it?

Gio

I forgot to mention, I notice that alot of the time the axis rotation of my ball does not have much angle, I would guess around 25degress to the foul line. This is because I am not turning my wrist enough right before the release, right? Any tips to practice releasing around 4 oclock versus straight up the back of the ball?

I wrote an article about changing your axis rotation here:

http://cmgbb.wordpress.com/2008/04/03/axis-rotation/

Depending on your finger position now, you might be able to get away with simply moving your pinkie in towards your ring finger, and moving your index finger away from your middle finger. Otherwise, you might need to work on keying with your middle finger, as explained in the article. Playing out where you are, there is no need to go as far as the "Maximum Rotation" release.

Great article CG,
As stated in your "Maximum release" section,
I also tuck my pinkie finger in, to lay the weight
of the ball on my index finger to create more rev's.

Some people have problems/pain using this however,
and if it doesnt feel comfortable, DON'T do it.

Best of luck.
Practice makes perfect.

Tucking the pinkie will usually change the way your ring finger span fits as well, so if that is already long, you may have trouble getting out of the ball, or you may experience pain in the ring finger tendons.