Type of folow through..

[bowl1820]

The thing with the slowinski article is he's talking about where the thumb is pointing at the release. Not where the arm is going to in the follow through.

Here's a example a good swing and follow through

[billf]

Bowl is correct once again. Joe said the thumb at release, not to swing your entire arm in that direction. Have you also read his article on swing slot? That one is pretty awesome.

[Ball99999]

Put it this way, if you rotate your fingers to 4:30, and then followed through, where would your arm end up? Certainly not parallel with the gutter

[billf]

Depends. If I'm playing far right it sure would. I keep my swing the same and it goes towards my break point no matter where I start on the lane. When I'm playing deep I use a crossover step to align my body to my target. My finger or wrist rotation has no affect on my arm swing.

[Ball99999]

Maybe because of the straight swing your hand goes up straight no matter what, I can't test right now at home

[Tampabaybob]

I get what Bowl1820 and Bill are trying to explain. You appear to be confusing hand position/thumb position with arm swing. You can change your hand position a hundred different ways, but your arm swing should remain constant. As Bill noted, if your intention is to play deeper on the lane, then your arm swing will not be parallel to the boards, but should be swinging towards your breakpoint. When you're playing deep inside, your torso would also be facing the breakpoint, which means you should be very close to having the same arm swing as if you were playing up the boards. Again, try not to confuse the two. You want your arm swing to be as humanly consistent as possible and make your changes to your hand position for varying results. Too many variations of an arm swing could definitely get you into trouble.

Bob

[Ball99999]

Is this why they say drive with the index finger, drive with the middle finger etc... because the arm is always going forward and that's the finger in such and such position that is facing forward?

[Tampabaybob]

Yes. Next tim you bowl, try this. put just a small amount of pressure on the ball withe your index finger and have the finger pointing towards your target. It's a little different feel and may change the roll just a little. Susie Minshaw suggested this in a Bowling this Month article a few months back. I tried it, and it seemed to help my accuracy and the ball seemed to roll just a bit differently (for the better). Give it a try.

Bob

[billf]

Bob, Chris Barnes said the same thing in an interview early last year. Knowing how exceptional a bowler he is and very versatile, I tried it. My average has jumped way up since then. The hardest part to get use to was having the wrist turned so far clockwise in my set up, it just felt so weird.
My coach has something he uses. When performing any change he asks, "Does it feel weird?" "Yes" I usually say. "Good. Then you know you're doing it right." If you change something and it feels the same, you didn't really change it.

[Tampabaybob]

Very true Bill. That's why a lot of newer bowlers think some of the changes are wrong, just because it feels differently. Once they can get past that and see the improvement, then they're ok with it. I also have made changes over the years that felt very awkward, but you just keep trying until it becomes muscle memory. Then it's ok.

Bob