The Hook Ball (link)

[Duke Harding]

http://www.iass.com/game12.html

[onefrombills]

this is a great link and I like the other stuff on the home page to.

[Baroncad]

Thanks for the great find. This will sure help the people learning to hook.

[KCBowler]

Thank you so much for posting this link. I have been bowling league now for four months and I have always been jealous of those people with the wicked hook. I have probably read 30 forum articles on how to hook the ball as well as a ridiculous muscle memory exercise from bowl4fun.com and this is the first thing that has made sense and worked for me. Within five minutes of getting to the lanes I was throwing hooks for strikes and bowled three of my best and most consistent games as I got more comfortable with the release.

[branstew]

That`s a good piece. Thanks

[Bygnel]

Very cool link! I am coaching HS bowling for the first time this year, and this is solid info I can pass along to the younger kids just starting out.. So thanks!

[water]

"To create a hook, place the thumb so it is pointed at 10 or 11 o'clock or 2 or 1 o'clock for left-handers. A straight up, or 12 o'clock release position of the thumb will create a straight ball. "


Could you explain further?

[Graaille]

Short answer: if the palm of your hand is the center of a clock, then the thumb will be pointing toward the top of the clock, the fingers pointing toward the bottom of the clock.

Keeping your hand in the "ball" position, a straight ball w/no hook means that the thumb will be pointing directly toward the celing (aka 12 o'clock) with the fingers coming directly up the ball behind the thumb.

For hooking the ball, if you position your hand so that your thumb is pointing toward 10 o'clock (for righties), your fingers will be pointing not so much toward the bottom of the ball, but will be offset more to the right (say 4 o'clock). That way when you roll the ball, your fingers will not come up behind/under the thumb, but more parallel to it, generating the right to left rotation in the ball that causes hook.

Note this is the short answer, if you'd rather have a long and painfully complex answer - I can do that as well.

[water]

if you don't mind that would be great actually