Me bowling. Anything I'm doing amazingly wrong?

[panbanger]

This is a video of a few of my shots. The first few are from the begining of July, the last couple shots are from the end of July. I'm not able to bowl as often as I'd like since my work schedule changes from week to week. I'm hoping you guys can point out if you see something that I'm doing that I need to address.

I've only bowling maybe 7 or 8 sessions since switching to fingertip, so still getting used to it and trying to find my spot/rhythm. On a couple of these shots I thought I might have been dropping the ball, but I also noticed that I'm almost a foot behind the foul line! I really need to start my approach about a foot closer.

video url is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPJS8jAP8f4

[billf]

Your starting stance; left foot should be half your foot length ahead of the right and close together. Bend your knees and waist some so that your toes, knees and chin are in line (Tony Chin). Tuck your elbow close to yur body so that your upper arm is perpendicular to the floor. You are also taking your back swing slightly behind your back causing a looping motion on the forward swing. The front part of your arm, opposite your elbow should move toward your target. Your steps are currently small, baby, baby, slide. If you can get to a real step, real step, small, slide you will be at the foul line and have better rhythm.

[MinnesotaBowler]

Try to get more knee bend throughout your approach. It looked like you were very upright and your legs were really stiff at the point of release. Most looked pretty good though other than that.

[panbanger]

Your starting stance; left foot should be half your foot length ahead of the right and close together. Bend your knees and waist some so that your toes, knees and chin are in line (Tony Chin). Tuck your elbow close to yur body so that your upper arm is perpendicular to the floor. You are also taking your back swing slightly behind your back causing a looping motion on the forward swing. The front part of your arm, opposite your elbow should move toward your target. Your steps are currently small, baby, baby, slide. If you can get to a real step, real step, small, slide you will be at the foul line and have better rhythm.

When you say bend my waist, do you mean bend slightly to the right? Because I will be holding the ball basically on my right side?

I actually looked at some old home movies from the 80s (converted to VHS then to digital), when I was bowling every week and my approach was 4 "normal" steps. I was quite surprised, thinking to myself "there's no way my approach could have ever changed, it's like riding a bike!" before I saw it with my own eyes. I guess without practice, things like that do really go away.

Thanks for the pointers! Hopefully I'll have some more video in the next week of me working on things

[panbanger]

Try to get more knee bend throughout your approach. It looked like you were very upright and your legs were really stiff at the point of release. Most looked pretty good though other than that.

I'll definitely work on that, thanks!

[billf]

When you say bend my waist, do you mean bend slightly to the right? Because I will be holding the ball basically on my right side?

No, I was meaning bend forward so your chin is over your knees and knees over your toes. Glad to hear you were able to see the step issue for yourself. Video is a wonderful tool.

In the 80's bowlers needed to create more lift to get the movement. That made for a more upright stance and pulling up at the line. Accuracy tends to suffer some and with today's equipment the exaggerated lift isn't needed.

[panbanger]

Took some more video today, still have to transfer it from the phone, edit it up a bit and upload it. Hopefully later tonight it will be ready. Today the main thing I wanted to do was keep my knees slightly bent, keep my arm by my side and try to keep my backswing from going behind my back. It went well but it got frustrating at times. I was concentrating on taking larger steps and a couple times I ended up throwing the ball one step early! It was a mess. Lanes were really slick today, I was bowling on fresh oil I'm sure. If I got the ball out to the right far enough I would hook it Brooklyn. If I didn't get it far out to the right enough, it hardly moved at all!

One thing I did notice is that when I stayed lower by keeping my knees bent, the problem with dropping the ball went away.

It's weird that I was bowling 160s and 170s today and yet I was so frustrated. Wasn't too long ago that I topped out around 180. It's frustrating yet fun at the same time, knowing how much better I can become.

Well now I'm off to a Dr. appointment, then I'll get to fixing up the video. Evidently I had my iPhone upside down so I'll have to rotate the video then edit it up lol

[panbanger]

Here is the video from earlier today. Is it some kind of an optical illusion, or does it look from this video that the first 10 feet of the lanes appear to be dry? I sure didn't notice this when I was there. Maybe it's just the angle that the video was shot at?

And it looks like "getting lower" in my mind and getting lower in real life are two different things lol

[Hot_pocket]

you have a good roll. I think you should try slowing down and maybe try adding a 5th step. your balance is off at the line and i notice it looks like you dont set your feet on the same boards at set up (dont no if thats on purpose). You need to move left between 3-5 boards and throw the ball in the same place on the lane.

[panbanger]

you have a good roll. I think you should try slowing down and maybe try adding a 5th step. your balance is off at the line and i notice it looks like you dont set your feet on the same boards at set up (dont no if thats on purpose). You need to move left between 3-5 boards and throw the ball in the same place on the lane.

I'm trying to go slower, but it's rough. I'm putting that in my "long term" goals column LOL! I looked at some video of me bowling "back in the day" in the 80s and I actually bowled even faster back then. Like a clumsy bull in a stampede!

For some reason I keep inching right when it comes to starting. It's so many years starting out way right and throwing left I guess. In the videos I am basically experimenting with starting at different positions though.

I cant wait for my league to start up, I'm going way too long between bowling sessions. I think I'm gonna have to break down this weekend and hit up the open lanes Saturday or Sunday (shudder!), just cant wait much longer!