Spinning the ball

[jaws1945]

How does one prevent themselves from spinning the ball?

[ThongPrincess]

How does one prevent themselves from spinning the ball?

I was guilty of the same thing. Coach told me it was because of the fingers being too high up on the ball at release. his cure was to get me to work on keeping a firmer wrist. I also tended to chicken wing trying to "help" the ball and ended up over rotating.

Besides keeping the wrist firmer, he had me do the water bottle drill (easier to demonstrate than to explain :)). For the water bottle drill, take a 20 oz or similar empty bottle. Place the bottle in the hand so the top faces away from your body when the palm is up. Hold the arm at your side and then go through the regular armswing. When the just passes the hip, the hand rotates so the bottle is now in an upright position.

The next step was to release the thumb as you rotate the bottle and return it to the bottle before the bottle flies. The thumb when placed back on the bottle is pointing to the top of the bottle. It sounds weird, but basically it is because the hand is turning not the thumb.

Another drill he tried with me, but I never was successful at it is to use a nerf football instead of the bottle and spiral the ball. I hope something in this helps.

[jaws1945]

That's my problem. Somewhere in my backswing I am not staying behind the ball and end up on top of the ball at release. I use a glove but it still doesn't prevent me from flattening my hand at the bottom of the swing. This causes me to grab iut at the end and coming over the top. My mind knows what to do, but my body isn't cooperating:(

[JerseyJim]

One thing you can do is lead with your ring finger towards your target. That will keep your hand under the ball longer.

[playbowl]

Jaws1945

Sounds like "Early Turn" is the culprit here. You write that you are a stroker and you can still get the ball to hook but in your mind you just know that you are capable of more revs and more power. Get a video camera and record your release and backswing. Play it back and see when the hand gets around to the outside of the ball. I suspect you will find you are already rotated to the side and above the equater of the ball long before you get to your ankle. The simple answer
is to keep your fingers to the inside of the vertical axis of the ball and below the equator until release. Easier said than done unless you are younger than 30. I do prescribe drills to do at home to get the "Feel" of what is needed for when you get back to the lanes. As with anything in bowling it takes a lot of practice to learn anything new. Don't lose the ability to spin the ball because you may need that release some day but understand how you do it and add a new release that achieves the result you are looking for.

[Strike Domination]

In addition to what's been suggested, I've also heard that keeping the elbow in close to your body or leading with the forearm are good things to think of. If your hand/wrist are in a decent position the ball will hook and you just have to trust it.

[Coach 3G]

That's my problem. Somewhere in my backswing I am not staying behind the ball and end up on top of the ball at release. I use a glove but it still doesn't prevent me from flattening my hand at the bottom of the swing. This causes me to grab iut at the end and coming over the top. My mind knows what to do, but my body isn't cooperating:(

Are you using a glove with a metal support to keep the wrist immobile or just a gripping glove? It might be worth investing in or borrowing a buddy's glove with the support built in so you can get the feel of the release. I'm not a big fan of using supportive gloves day in and day out as I'd rather the bowler develop the technique and the strength in the wrist, but as a practice/coaching tool it can be valuable.

I notice a lot of bowlers (especially youth and women) lack the strength in their wrist and forearm to be able to manipulate the ball the way they want to. To combat that, I'd definitely recommend looking into some strength training. Once I started training on a regular basis I noticed I could do a lot more with my hand to get the ball reaction I want.