Over the years I have noticed that I have been doing things to now have a spinner type release. I used to have my Track fairly close to my fingers and thumb,but now it is much much lower! I used to be pretty good on oily conditions and weaker on dryer conditions but with this spinner type release I have flipped the conditions.

What are some drills and tips to get back under the ball and roll it rather than spin it? I am looking for drills that I can spend a hole practice session or more working on to get back to normal by winter season.

Thanks for any and all opinions.

Shawn

Hey, this one I know all about, since I do a spinner as well as a hooker. I like to throw a hooker at least once a week (joke).

Okay, so here's the scoop - for both s spinner and a hooker I come around the side of the ball 90*, so my hand is in the handshake position. The difference is that for the hooker, The hand is behind the ball (firm wrist) and ofr a spinner the hand is on top of the ball (broken or relaxed wrist). I always get to the ankle with the thumb pointing at my target, then quickly twist the wrist.

The other big difference is that for the hooker, the thumb must come out first, while for hte spinner, the thumb and fingers come out more or less simultaneously.

That's all there is to it.

You can practice throwing at home by standing next to your couch and throwing the ball onto it (check with te boss first).
The Slowinski articles are excellent. I do his release as well as the above-described release. The way I do his release is that I do not rotate the wrist. Instead, I hold the ball with a firm wirst so that the fingers are in the lower hemisphere (not cupping the wrist, jsut a firm wrist). I make a 45* angle to the lane. The thumb comes out first. Then, as the ball drops off my fingers, the rotation tat's imparted is 45* to the lane, and I have a nice consistent hook with 45* rotation.

So that's 3 of my 10 shots.... Hope that helps.

Oh, I remembered one other thing - You might start with the fingers under the ball, but then come over the top with them instead of lettig the ball drop off the hand. That's because you're not keeping the fingers under the ball. SO you need to be conscious of keeping the fingers in the lower hemisphere as you twist the wrist, or in the case of Slowinksi, as the ball drops off the fingers.

You can beef up your forearm by doing wrist curls with a kettlebell. I use a 10#. The advantage over a spring hand exerciser is that it doesn't strain your tendons. My kettlebels are from Kettlenetics, but you can get them from lots of sources. Just Google "kettlebells".

Also, to help you hold onto the ball in the firm wrist position, you might consider changing the pitch of your thumbhole to a more forward pitch.

Another thing you can try is to throw straight for a while, not trying to hook it, but letting your thumb come out first. Let your fingers go towards your target, with a good strong follow-through. Get used to doing this with a firm wrist, then add the twist once you're comfortable with it.

I could have said this better - You might start with a firm wrist, and the hand behind the ball. Then as you rotate around the ball, your wrist goes limp, placing the fingers on top of the ball instead of to the side of the ball.
This is why I recommended working out with kettlebells - to make your wrist strong enough to not "drop" the ball as you're releasing it.

Another point - in the releases I do, the midroll is applied by rotation of the wrist around the ball. The side roll is applied by the dropping of the ball off of the hand. If the hand is held in a steady position, and the ball allowed to drop off it, then side revs are applied at whatever angle the wrist has to the lane, regardless of the path of the pendulum swing. The ball will follow the path of the pendulum swing down the lane, with rotation to the side.

If the wrist goes limp as the ball is dropping off it then the revs of the side roll are reduced. The danger of rotating around the ball is that you might pull it to the left. This can happen when you hang onto the ball instead of letting it drop off.