Well its not really that my ball is inconsistent. But how I have been throwing my first ball lately is inconcistent. I am hitting my mark pretty well, but I'm not consistently putting the same type of rotation on the ball. Sometimes it will be right and others it seems like maybe I twist my wrist but I'm not sure. What do I need to do to stay consistent with my first ball revolutions?

Well. There is two part here.

One. Follow thru with your elbow with your target so you're not off or away from your intended target and two.. you have to work on a release that is loose and relax.

The only work you should be doing is at the bottom of the release as you ready to let go of the ball. Everything else.. just let physic do the work and keep your timing the same.

It will take a while to learn but don't get mad because you're trying to teach your body something new. I know. It took 2 years to get a good timing for me after 8 years of bad timing.

I agree with djRIPz on everything but I have to add to that. I know the problem you are having because I had the same problem once too. I would throw the ball the same every time and hit my mark, but sometimes it would finish, sometimes it would flatten out and not move, and just about every different reaction you could get, I got it.

Here is what I found out. First I was rushing my approach. Second I was muscling my swing. Lastly, I was popping up at the line. The last part was the most crucial. The first two were easy to fix but the last took alot of practice to overcome. To say the truth, its still hard to overcome. Its the one thing that I dont realize that I'm doing until I break down my game when things arent going my way. My biggest advice is to stay down at the line.

When I have had problems with inconsistency in my swing, I used a video camera to catch was I was doing wrong. I set it up behind the lanes and bowled about 3 games. I would Track each frame if I thought it was a good ball or not and then I would go over the film. It is amazing to see the difference between what you THINK you are doing and what you ARE doing. There could be differences in your footwork, in your arm position, in your arm swing, in your hand position, in your speed, etc....

Take a video camera and just bowl. Look it over later. Post it on here. It is the best way to find where the little things are.

i do that a lot too, but i have some bad follow-through tendencies (i.e. coming over the top of the ball, short follow-through, etc.), so it could be that too.

Justin,
I know exactly what you are going through. A lot of people already mentioned possible problems. The biggest one that I find myself doing now is not following through or having a weak follow through, especially on my spare shot.

Another as howie mentioned, is muscling the swing, which I noticed was happening when I didn't get the weight of the ball on my left hand before I started and during my push away (I'm a righty). Also it occurred occasionally when I would and still sometimes do, cut off my back swing (I'm working on a free swing and having some success, but you know what they say about old habits). You might also want to check your fit to see if it still is good, lest you end up like me and you have to put 5 pieces of tape in your thumbhole until you can get fit fixed up.

Something else that I noticed is that when I'm rather lax when it comes to using my balance arm and trial leg I tend to be inconsistent as well. I'm a big believer in counter motion. I mean it is a very important concept in two of my favorite activities, bowling and my martial art, Hwa Rang Do. When I'm lazy with my balance arm, trial leg, or both I can't really get into the comfortable and consistent position to perform well. It might be something that you could look into.

Lastly, it could be something as simple as fixing up your release. That's something I've been working on recently and its been a little tough but I'm getting there. Additionally, it could be something like your wrist can't support the weight of your bowling ball.

The best way to find bad habits and things to fix is to get yourself on tape. I find lots of things that need correcting when I videotape myself and critique myself. I made the decision to switch back to a 4-step based on watching my performance on tape. It could be very helpful and one of the best things you. Then after you have critiqued yourself, get a second opinion or rather a lot of second opinions via the rest of us on the forum. Each of us has a different perspective so we might find something another person my have missed. It couldn't hurt. I also decided to scrap my entire approach based on the comments of the folks here on the forum and I feel that I'm better off because of it despite the rough patches.