Need hook help :(

[rab91787]

Bowled two straight games concentrating on football release and could not get anything consistent. Anytime I'd miss by a fraction, it didn't have enough hook to recover at all. At least with two finger style I have a margin of error from all the power.

[Tampabaybob]

After you release the ball, is your thumb pointing up to the ceiling (fairly close to 12:00) ? If your thumb is at 9:00 or 10:00 then you're going over the top of the ball. In other words turning it too soon. The football release requires you to leave your thumb at the 1:00 position all the way thru your backswing and just to the point of release. As your thumb STARTS coming out of the ball, THAT"S when you want to rotate with your wrist and fingers. The area next to your slide leg should be your explosion point with the wrist and fingers. Check your hand position after you release the ball. Hold your stance at the foul line and look at your thumb (is it somewhat straight up ?), and look at your elbow (is for elbow too far away from your body?) Those two things will make you go over the top of the ball and lose rotation and roll.

Bob

[rab91787]

Hmm... I'll have to check. I figured out how to do Jason Belmonte's shovel backswing last night, so during league warmups if I can get my ballspeed high enough to keep the ball on track with thumbless I'm going to go with that tonight since I couldn't get thumb down practicing yesterday.

[Tampabaybob]

Not many people have the ability to throw both ways. My take on this, is that you may end up with the ability to shoot both ways. With that said, that's a huge advantage you will have over 90% of the other bowlers you'll run up against. Being able to do both will help you on varying conditions. Continue not using your thumb in the league and practice with your thumb in practice. When you feel you have a handle on using your thumb try it some nite in the league. OR, if you're having a rough nite not using your thumb switch over to style number two and see if it works for you. It'll require using different spots on the lane and that could just open up a whole new area for you.

Bob

[rab91787]

I like your style! I tried thumb with my Virtual Gravity and was having no luck with carry. I also couldn't get a good shot off with thumbless grip either and was going nuts. I had two **** poor games to start but at the end of the 2nd I switched to my old Brunswick Power Groove and the glossy finish helped me keep a good grip on it every shot and increased length. If I wouldn't have pulled my 2nd shot in the 10th due to nerves I woulda had a game in the 240's for the first time in years. I ended up with a 228 The last game I had success using no thumb for strike ball and then thumb for spares.

[Tampabaybob]

Consider having two entirely different releases just another trick you have in your bag of tricks. Again, that could put you over the top of what many bowlers can pull out of theirs.

Bob

[rab91787]

I have a lot of work to do to make my thumb release effective for a strike ball. I'll keep working on it, though.

[Ball99999]

I think I have things figured out.

It never made sense for a long time because people said "Throw like an underhand football" which never made sense to me.

Then someone brought up the turning the door knob THEN It started making sense how to properly release the ball (I originally thought I had to actually twist the fingers by themselves which was impossible for me but then I realized you have to use the muscles in your fingers, wrist and fore-forearm).

So here's how I think you do it. Make sure your elbow and hind-forearm always point forward. (Hind forearm being the half next to elbow and fore forearm being the half next to the hand). Now the clock analogy people use gets confusing because if you looked the side of a bowling ball perpendicular to the lane/gutter (picture a line drawn from the foul line to the pins), your thumb will end up in the 9/10 position and your fingers will end up in the 3, 4 or 5 position.

So instead of thinking about where your thumb is pointing to in relation to a clock, think of a straight line going through your thumb... it should end up relatively parallel to the lane/gutter and not pointed toward the left since that means you're creating a spinning (spinning a top) motion.

Now I think, as a progression on that, instead of turning your hand like a doorknob, make the same motion but try to keep the thumb in the same position; it'll look like the fingers are rotating around the thumb from the left side, pointing downish to the right side pointing forward.

I originally had a release like this but because I didn't know about keeping wrist firm I was coming around the ball and spinning it so I banned myself from ever doing it for a whole year.

[rab91787]

Ball I tried the hold thumb at 12 and turn fingers with mini swings at home and it looks good! I knew the thumb at 12 o clock thing but if I focused on that then I wouldn't really focus on fingers. I tried a bunch of releases focusing on keeping thumb at 12 and turning fingers toward my thumb and the ball was coming out with decent revs at 45 degrees! I'll have to try it this weekend and see if it works on a full swing.

[Tampabaybob]

I think I have things figured out.

It never made sense for a long time because people said "Throw like an underhand football" which never made sense to me.

Then someone brought up the turning the door knob THEN It started making sense how to properly release the ball (I originally thought I had to actually twist the fingers by themselves which was impossible for me but then I realized you have to use the muscles in your fingers, wrist and fore-forearm).

So here's how I think you do it. Make sure your elbow and hind-forearm always point forward. (Hind forearm being the half next to elbow and fore forearm being the half next to the hand). Now the clock analogy people use gets confusing because if you looked the side of a bowling ball perpendicular to the lane/gutter (picture a line drawn from the foul line to the pins), your thumb will end up in the 9/10 position and your fingers will end up in the 3, 4 or 5 position.

So instead of thinking about where your thumb is pointing to in relation to a clock, think of a straight line going through your thumb... it should end up relatively parallel to the lane/gutter and not pointed toward the left since that means you're creating a spinning (spinning a top) motion.

Now I think, as a progression on that, instead of turning your hand like a doorknob, make the same motion but try to keep the thumb in the same position; it'll look like the fingers are rotating around the thumb from the left side, pointing downish to the right side pointing forward.

I originally had a release like this but because I didn't know about keeping wrist firm I was coming around the ball and spinning it so I banned myself from ever doing it for a whole year.

I Love to see it when The Light Bulb turns on !! Congrats on getting it figured out, now get out there and make it work for you.

Bob