A Few Clips of Me Bowling

[Josch]

I finally decided to record myself bowling. I doesn't feel the way it looks. I noticed that I have some very slight elbow bend at the top of the backswing. I'm not sure if this is a constant thing or it's just because this was my 5th game in a row and I was getting tired. Next tIme I go bowling I will record it again and see if this is a common thing and if so I'll focus on fixing it. Do you see anything terribly wrong in my form? I've had one lesson and it mainly focused on my approach. I noticed I kinda pop up when I release. Is this a problem? I calculated my revs to be around 220-240 RPM. Is this a good rev rate for about a 14MPH throw?



That last shot was with a plastic ball. The lanes were pretty worn down at this point making it difficult to get a good angle into the pocket. There was a slow moving plastic ball moving through my line for 2 games plus another slow moving entry level reactive for 3 games and one for 2. While this was happening my Hammer Rhythm and my friend's Ebonite Pursuit-S were absorbing oil from the mid lane.

[billf]

Josh, if you tried to keep your balance foot on the floor it would help to keep you from popping up. You have a nice low approach but start getting straighter just before the slide. Your head and balance leg both elevate. Obviously anytime the head moves it's not ideal. Start with that and I bet other things will fall into place.

[Josch]

Josh, if you tried to keep your balance foot on the floor it would help to keep you from popping up. You have a nice low approach but start getting straighter just before the slide. Your head and balance leg both elevate. Obviously anytime the head moves it's not ideal. Start with that and I bet other things will fall into place.

Thanks for the tip. I'll try to focus on that next time I go bowling (hopefully tomorrow). What about the slight elbow bend at the top of the backswing? Do you think it was just because I was tired or should I check and make sure that's not a usual thing? Also, does the slight bend have any effect on the swing?

[TheSheibs]

Yeah, I noticed that you are low and then come up at the end of your approach. I also agree that keeping your balance foot could help. I noticed the arm bend you mentioned. I started to do that when I had a ball that I had to work at to get it to hook. Think of your arm as a pendulum that is always straight. You can also just hold the ball and swing it back and forth keeping your arm locked straight. Just make sure you don't release it when working on this. This is one of the muscle memory things in bowling.

[Josch]

I think I may have been concentrating too hard on keeping my wrist locked and I think that may be the reason for the arm bend. On the third shot my arm is straight so I'm going to guess that that was the problem.

[billf]

The elbow bend comes from muscling the ball at the top of the backswing. You straighten it out so it's not a huge issue right now. Hopefully when you are rested and don't feel like you have to force the ball to do what you want it will go away. In bowling less is more, more is less. The more you try to force anything (speed, revs, hook) the less it will do it. Men are taught from early on in life to muscle are way with everything and thus have problems when it comes time to finesse things.

[Josch]

I may have muscled the ball on these throws because these are my lighter balls. They're both 13lbs. My Rhythm, the ball I start out the day with, is 14lbs. I'm replacing my spare ball with a 14lb one within the next month but I don't know how long it will be until I replace my Cyclone.

[Josch]

I went bowling again today and took another video. My arm is still bent. Should I work on correcting it or do you think it's not having any effect? I worked on staying down durring the release and it helped my consistency quite a bit. I bowled great today.

[billf]

The elbow isn't bent that bad so I wouldn't worry about it too much. As you work on freeing up your swing it will correct itself. You did stay down much better. Good job!