Fingers on release.

[Tampabaybob]

Fatal........the other two videos that btaylor put up are excellent examples of releases in slo mo. Now understand we all may never achieve the perfect rotation that Rash, or some of the other guys on tour can do, but it's an excellent view of the right way to get your ball to rotate more for better carry. What they don't show is if your lanes dry out, you will usually need to back off some from the hand position and come straighter up behind the ball. First move in to the oil a little more then if they really get burned up change your hand position, maybe just a 1/2 inch will make a difference.

Bob

[Fatal]

I was getting the wrist motion down but the rotation of the fingers after the thumb is released is just not working how I would like.

[billf]

Bob, I bowled my scratch league last night, first night of the season. With ten decent bowlers on each set of lanes I started playing the inside part of the ball with a ton of revs. I moved left often to the end of that ball's comfort zone. Then I moved back right and just used half to a quarter of the revs preciously until I finally balled down. My captain said afterward that I gave all the guys a clinic on rev and speed control. Given he is a regional pro I took that as a good compliment (I was also excited that my series was higher than his).

[Ball99999]

Same here I have trouble. I get how to throw a spiral football, and I get the idea is that you are rolling it in a 90 degree direction of the way you are throwing it but rolling your fingers.. but it's incredibly hard to do with a heavy big ball with your fingers stuck in the thing. Also I don't get what people mean by rotate your fingers a couple inches.

I can do it if I don't have a thumb in though I think.

[billf]

Also I don't get what people mean by rotate your fingers a couple inches.

Don't rotate the arm, elbow or wrist. Just your middle and ring fingers in a counter-clockwise direction. Hold your hand out and slightly cupped. Your middle finger should be at the 6:00 position. Now rotate your fingers in a small circle (just the two fingers). Your wrist will NATURALLY rotate slightly. That is the correct rotation but you won't see many bowlers do it correctly. They try but most rotate the wrist instead.

[Tampabaybob]

Bill, I know what you're talking about, last nit during the second game our lanes broke down something fierce. I started going straight up behind my go to ball and finished ok.

It's another trick, guys need to learn to have in their bag of tricks and know when to use them.

Bob

[GoodGorilla]

Yeah so I have experimented alot wiht playing inside of the ball. The benefits of me doing it are increasing my revs, and having a better axis of rotation on the ball. The two major problems with me doing it is my accuracty decreases, and my ball speed decreases. I have increased my speed to compensate, but that further decreased my accuracy. After experimenting with playing the inside so much, it almost made me forget how to throw it the old way. After a week or so, I got my old style back which seems to be better. For kicks I would mix the two styles up in some games just to compare how they feel, and it I'm sure it feels the way I described it above. Mabey going off topic now, but the best way I have been throwing it is when I try to keep my feet slow, my arm swing strait and free, with a soft hand on release. I'm not sure if I should continue experimenting with the inside.

[billf]

I've been staring at this screen for awhile, perplexed. You are the first person to be less accurate playing the inside part that I have heard of. Are you right eye dominant? If not, that may be playing a part. I still play both ways during games. I go with whatever works. The lower ball speed has me stumped with no real thoughts on how or why. Sorry it didn't work better for you.

[GoodGorilla]

The decreased accuracy I think is from having to complete an additional action before releasing the ball. Within that action my timing is harder to maintain, which timing is part of accuracy. When hand's starting position is rotated further away from my body, it has a longer distance to travel before releasing the ball which increases the revs but makes it harder to reproduce the same effect. I don't have a good idea why it decreases my speed, my guess is my arm has some friction from my muscles being flexed for keeping my hand pointed away from my body.

[GoodGorilla]

It won't let me edit my post. My hand is't pointed away from my body, it is rotated away from my body. thumb around 2 oclock.