Working on my form.

[RoccoRock]

I've been working on my form one handed. Not concentrating so much on results, just mechanics. What do you guys think?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eWkXuEGLvM

[J Anderson]

Much better than I expected after reading though most of your "I give up" posts. Timing looks about right to me. You're balanced at the line. The only flaws I see are not much knee bend, and a bit of a loop in your swing.

Actually, having only read the title of the thread I was expecting to see you throwing two-handed. By the way I sympathize you about the flack you get about not sticking with one way. I've been told by one of my friends that I should just give up on bowling left-handed, "you're not that good at it". The way I see it is that I'm about 40 pins per game better left handed than when I started, and almost as good as I was right handed 5 years ago.

[RoccoRock]

I have a two handed video I may post later, it's not pretty, but it's powerful. I bowled practice once hand, but two handed in league.

My main focus in this video was to correct some of the major flaws I was in my video from two weeks ago. I can't post that video, cause it's on my other camera. I wanted to fix my pace, my timing, my slide/ balance, and my swing plane. If I watch both videos back to back, it looks like to different people. This is by far my best form one handed. I'll keep working on it.

[noeymc]

i see a few thing imo

you step off with your left foot should be the other way around but i wouldnt try to change footwork with out a coach imo

bend your knees =D

also kinda of hard to tell but are you going over top of your ball? (hand at release) if so how consistent it is that for you ? you might wanna try like turning your wrist till a finger is point at your mark

but you do look good =D keep it up

[RoccoRock]

I'm curious, how is stepping with my left foot first wrong? I use a 5 step approach, like a lot of bowlers. Maybe I'm misreading your post and you might something else.

[noeymc]

thats my fault i cant count thought u where doing a 4 step 5 step = step off with sliding foot =D my bad sorry about that

[RoccoRock]

As far as my hand at release, I'm not on top of the ball, my hand starts behind the ball, then rotates, and I come off the side a lot. It looks a lot like Pete Weber. I just wish I had some of his skill and talent. I worked hard today on my release. I tend to miss my target two to three inches right almost every time. Today, after messing around with tape, and a few other things, I was consistently able to hit my target. Still not a lot of knee bend, I'll work on that next time out.

[eugene02]

what i see the video is a pretty good form.. just some knee bend that isn't there and the right leg should slide more over... 5 steps approach are okay.. i used to have 4 steps only.. now i changed to 5 steps also.. no idea why but with 5 steps i tend to be more consistent.. maybe because of the timing that i have to lift my backswing (power player here).. so yup... i'll try to get a video up with my Diva next week when i film it..

[billf]

Not too shabby. Keep working on getting smoother. What are your goals for style one-handed? Do you want more power? Reaction? Axis rotation?

[RoccoRock]

What are your goals for style one-handed?

To not suck so much:D. It's all about accuracy and consistency. That's all I care about. If my rev rate is 200 or 600 I could care less, as long as it's the same, and I throw it in the same spot each time. The next ball after this video, I flirted with the gutter. My goal in this practice was just balance, pace, timing, and keeping the ball in line with my head. I tend to miss 2 to 3 inches right of my target at about 10 feet. My old backswing was not straight, and I didn't keep the ball in line with my head, it was tilted. I figured that's probably one of the reasons I miss right most of the time. I'm still working on everything. It's frustrating to be doing this as long as I have been, and seemingly getting worse. I pretty much scrapped everything at this point and started over. I'm happy with what I'm doing, I'm just afraid of what's going to happen when I start keeping score. That's why I 2 hand in the league now, I know I can score with it. I can suck with it too, but suck less often, and not as bad as one hand. It's only 2 weeks, but I'm averaging 195 two handed. With one hand, I could not find a 2 week stretch where I averaged anywhere near that. I never averaged above 174 one hand, and never had a 600 series, never had back to back good games, or good weeks. I'm hoping to change that, because when I'm 40 in 4 years, I don't want to be 2 handing.

[JPbowl]

What i see is your balance arm go out way to early.
it should be infront of you as your walking and come around as your delivering the ball.
I have been working on the same thing in my game the past few months and i have noticed its easier to project the ball further out on the lane, stay more balanced and have more leverage.

I also watched your 2 handed style, note your balance arm positioning through out delivery.

[RoccoRock]

My balance arm extends early on purpose. I use it to keep my shoulders from turning too much. If I keep my balance arm in front of me, my left shoulder turns too much, and my backswing becomes off line. In fact, bowling in league last week, I noticed my balance arm in front of me a few times during the night, and those where the worst shots on my night. As far as my balance arm two handed, it has no choice but to stay in front of my, it's on the ball until the last second. I need to take new video of the latest version of my delivery. I switched to a 4 step approach. I helps my pace, and timing. Still struggling to consistently make spares. Thursday I bowled 2 warmup games before league, both clean games. In league warmup I made all my spares as well. When the games counted, I made my first 2 spares, then misssed the next 7 (including 3 splits) before making my last 4 spares. My buddy who has started working with me thinks it may be the fact my spare ball is 14# and everything else is 15#. I would say that's a good point, but I was also missing spares that I was throwing with my strike ball.

[billf]

Could it be an issue where you're taking that spare for granted? A little too over-confident? This is my biggest downfall as I know it's a simple spare so I line up and shoot too quick and don't focus enough to ensure the conversion.

[RoccoRock]

Could it be an issue where you're taking that spare for granted? A little too over-confident? This is my biggest downfall as I know it's a simple spare so I line up and shoot too quick and don't focus enough to ensure the conversion.

It may be the opposite issue. I may be defeating myself before I throw the ball. In the back of my head I may be thinking "your going to miss this just like you always do." I may be defeating myself before I even take the first step in my approach. What gets me is the fact in back to back practice games, and during league warmups I was perfect making spares. I hit my spots, the 14# ball didn't bother me. Every shot was dead on, none of those ball were even close to missing. Even though it's disappointing that I couldn't keep that up, it's also encouraging. It tells me I can do it. I just need to find the feel, the touch and the rhythm, and I'll be fine. It's taking longer than I want, and longer than I expected, but I know I'll get where I want to be soon enough.

One more thing, on the balance arm position. Watch videos of Bill O'Neill, Mika Koivuniemi, and Walter Ray Williams JR, and see where there balance arm is during there delivery. It's not in front of them, I can tell you that.

[JPbowl]

My balance arm extends early on purpose. I use it to keep my shoulders from turning too much. If I keep my balance arm in front of me, my left shoulder turns too much, and my backswing becomes off line. In fact, bowling in league last week, I noticed my balance arm in front of me a few times during the night, and those where the worst shots on my night. As far as my balance arm two handed, it has no choice but to stay in front of my, it's on the ball until the last second. I need to take new video of the latest version of my delivery. I switched to a 4 step approach. I helps my pace, and timing. Still struggling to consistently make spares. Thursday I bowled 2 warmup games before league, both clean games. In league warmup I made all my spares as well. When the games counted, I made my first 2 spares, then misssed the next 7 (including 3 splits) before making my last 4 spares. My buddy who has started working with me thinks it may be the fact my spare ball is 14# and everything else is 15#. I would say that's a good point, but I was also missing spares that I was throwing with my strike ball.


Just happened to find what i experienced in making this change written in a article with explanation.
Good read.

"As a preliminary test of
research on biomechanics
which I will do in the future,
I assessed a bowler with very
little torso rotation with a
biomechanical sensor. This
bowler normally has very
little torso rotation due to the
balance arm going to the side
throughout the approach."

"With a balance arm on
the side, due to very little
torso rotation, energy can’t be
transferred as effi ciently from
the legs to the arm since there
is no addition of forces from
the torso. This reduced energy
adds a burden on the shoulder.
Since the trunk is a critical
component in force generation, this is a very important
element to review.
The balance arm is vital
for force generation and
yet can interfere with the
transfer of energy from the
forearm➞wrist➞hand links.
Specifi cally, if the balance arm
shoulder over-rotates too far
past parallel before the bowler
throws the shot, it can both
add burdens on the neck, back,
and shoulder as the bowler attempts to keep the ball on the
intended target line as well as
move the forearm off the intended target line. Most importantly, this over-rotation can
move the ball-side shoulder
forward, leading the forearm
off the target line and reducing
the energy transferred directly
through the ball.
SOLUTION: Lean more to
the outside. Think head outside of the ball after it drops
into the swing. In addition,
point the balance arm hand,
thumb down, at the target
after getting the head outside
the ball."

"http://bowlingknowledge.info/images/stories/slowinski%20july%2012.pdf

http://bowlingknowledge.info/images/stories/slowinski%20july%2012.pdf

[billf]

One more thing, on the balance arm position. Watch videos of Bill O'Neill, Mika Koivuniemi, and Walter Ray Williams JR, and see where there balance arm is during there delivery. It's not in front of them, I can tell you that.

Sean Rash, Tommy Jones, Wes Malott, Chris Barnes, Robert Smith and about a hundred others do. If you want to roll is like WRWJr that's fine but in that case your form is way off. You forgot Norm Duke lol Evidently you want a finess one-handed game and want to compare that to the power of a two-handed game or I'm more lost than I thought.

[billf]

Coach Joe, currently a world top 5 coach and my mentor!

[dnhoffman]

I saw what everyone else already pointed out - bend your knees. Gotta get low