Chicken elbow help!

[travkoiboi]

http://koiblocks.net/bowl/1.MOV

Need to get this elbow thing figured out. HELP! been trying to break it for months.

[SmilingBowler]

I can only speak about how I throw, some things may be different with others. But it looks to me like you're trying to push the ball. Relax your arm, let gravity work for you and that should help keep your arm straight through release. Don't tense up or grab the ball. You should do the exact opposite. If you want more back-end on the ball to drive through the pocket, lift the ball off your fingertips while throwing it out over the lane.

Hope this helps. I know one thing for sure, if you don't want to bend your elbow and you're aiming for a natural arm swing, just relax your arm and let it act as a pendulum.

[noeymc]

push your ball and lbow at your mark and see if that helps

[DrOcktagon]

That looks somewhat similar to the problem I had years ago after I injured my rotator cuff. You look to be not only chicken-winging, but slightly side-arming as well. Your backswing looks good, but when you start the downward motion your elbow bends and your upper arm is pretty far removed from your body.

I'm not sure if this would help you or not, but the way I had to counter this behavior was by creating a figure-eight motion with my swing. I'm a righty, so this would be reversed for you, but I have to consciously push the ball away to my left, across my body, then let it fall back and to the right on my backswing, then loop it back around to get it on target for my downswing and release. This forces me to keep my arm closer to my body on my downswing, and it might prevent you from bending your elbow so much.

It's really not that noticeable when I bowl, but it's there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mokET_AmJhg

Like I said, this may not apply to you - I'm no coach - but it's something to try.

[bowl1820]

A old school practice tip:

Fold a small bowling towel up and place it in your armpit. Hold your arm tucked against your body so the towel doesn't fall out. Do this while you make your shot.

Now If you do your swing and chicken wing it, the towel will drop out from under your arm. So when swing you keep your arm tucked in so the towel doesn't fall out. Do that for awhile and it will train you to keep your arm tucked in and not throw your elbow out.

Also with the inside of your elbow pointed at your target, swing your elbow threw the target not your hand. (This help keep your arm straight also, not bent.)

[GeoLes]

HereYa go!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxLvpxOP0Kg&feature=related

[Greenday]

What I've been doing, to help with staying behind the ball, is lining up and then just letting my arm swing once, slowly, to make sure I can do it right while in slow mo. It's been helping with that AND it's been helping with keeping my elbow in.

[travkoiboi]

http://koiblocks.net/bowl/2.mp4

Little progress... trying to keep arm closer to body through downswing... like the figure 8 motion idea... just have to get that muscle memory down so arm stays in.