Hey guys. Here are the videos I promised:

Walter Ray


Tommy Jones


Chris Barnes


Mika Koivuniemi

excellent! thanks for sharing.

Awesome shots Luksa, thanks for sharing.


If you look at the Mika shot you can see what I was posted yesterday about lofting the ball. As the ball comes off Mika's hand it goes parallel with the lane, not upward.

The rest, WRW, Barnes and TJ the ball comes off their hand and goes immediately down on the lane.

These are 4 very different bowlers, but the each do many things similarly:

They all keep their fingers on the left side of the ball until the ball passes their right leg to trigger the release.

They all have their slide foot pointing toward their targets before the ball is released.

They all release the ball close to their ankle.

These are all traits shared by 99% of all good bowlers if you can develop your game to have these traits your scores will go up.

I also found another shot:

Bill Hoffman

Unbelievable videos Luska! Thank you very much.

Great shots Luksa.

I was thinking:
if you lead with your pinky during the downswing/forward swing, that would keep your hand behind the ball and to the inside of the ball correct?
Then, bowlers could initiate going up the back of the ball or rotating around the ball. I've been trying to keep my hand to the inside of the ball, but have no real "tip" to how to accomplish that.

Yep, leading with the pinky would be one way to think about that. John Jowdy's famous ring finger lead technique is the same concept, using a different finger.

Yeah, I think thinking of leading with the pinky is a bit more extreme, than the ring finger lead. hah

Thanks for the vids Luksa.

Another interesting thing to note is that none of these bowlers hands go around the ball. They're all still on the back side of the ball as they release it.

Yep, that's exactly what I noticed. Even when playing the 5th arrow, TJ released the ball without going around it.

Great vids! Is it physically possible, e.g., long arms, etc., for someone to go too low to the ankle that they end up hitting the ball on the lane prior to release, thus seriously injuring their fingers, hand, etc.?

Sure, if you bend your knee too much, you could hit the ball on the ground with your hand in it. I've done it. Quick fix - don't bend your knee so much

Edit: if you ever hear someone double-dribble the ball that's usually what happens. Ball hits ground with hand in, release occurs, ball hits ground again.

Coming straight up out of the ball on an inside shot is what my Coach and I have been working on. It is surprising how much snap I can get without any turn. But, years of doing it another way is taking a lot of training and practice to eliminate it

If you look at the videos of these that i did, you will see it more clearly. bowling community They definitely don't come around the ball at all.

I'd bet that one of the most common misconceptions about hooking the ball is that you have to come around the ball. Glad you're getting your inside game worked out and thanks again to Marco for posting these.