CHICKEN ELBOW Progress week 3...

[travkoiboi]

For three weeks now I have been practicing on weekends to try and eliminate my chicken elbow that seems to spark from the apex through the downswing. This by far was the most progress made. Although some shots it still came up, today I worked on 1 step drills, bend knees more at stance, right arm out, and slowed down. Saw a lot better rotation on the ball and things are starting to feel better. Advice and kudos are always welcome.

http://koiblocks.net/bowl/3.mp4

[sprocket]

Take this for what it's worth because I'm no real expert. It looks to me like your slide foot ends up too far to the right instead of ending up under your chin and body centered. The ball is therefore released too far from your ankle, losing leverage. It looks like your arm is having to clear your left leg and that puts your whole arm too far out, thus your elbow is not inside. The position of your body going into the release makes it impossible for your elbow to stay inside. Pause your video with your ball right at the height of your back swing. Your arm looks good; it's lined up with your head nicely, but look where your slide foot appears to be heading. Does it look possible that the ball is ever going to end up close to your ankle?

Have you ever tried spotting at the foul line? You can focus on the point you want your slide foot to be or you can focus on a point you want to set the ball down that is close to your ankle. You can also focus on the spot where you want the ball to first touch the lane.

Watch this for comparison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WQeNFHTasI

[sprocket]

Another great video with guys who really know how to do it!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wla9JprypLc

[billf]

Take this for what it's worth because I'm no real expert.

That's a load of BS. Every post you've made has been spot on. You have a great knack for taking what you see and explaining it in a way on here that's very understandable. Have you thought about becoming a certified coach? You would definitely be an asset.

[travkoiboi]

sprocket - good advice! I never really thought of it that way but it makes perfect sense. This week was really just trying to get the arm to be more fluid which i felt like it was. did a lot of one step drills to get the arm loose. I will definitely do the spot drill with my foot and where i want to lay the ball down. Thanks for the TIPS!

[sprocket]

Thanks for raising my confidence level guys. I would love to coach someday. One slight correction in what I said though: In a perfect release your slide foot will not end up directly under your chin, the ball will. If you watch particularly the last person in the second video ( Jeff Carter), you can see that head, arm, elbow and ball, all line up at release. His ankle is just enough left of that to keep from hitting it. The funny thing is the pros actually hit their ankles more than the average league hack. I've seen it happen a few times on TV.

I think I'm pretty good at pointing out what doesn't look quite right, but I would need coaching lessons to be able to translate that into effective corrections.

[billf]

The program would teach you that. Seriously, go to bowl.com. click the coahing tab then select become a coach. Level 1 can be done comletely on-line and is very basic but it's a start. There are many bowlers, especially youth bowlers, who could use more coaches that actually understand the timing of acceleration, spine tilt, etc.
So many new bowlers of all ages are taught to be square to the foul line and nothing about real timing or acceleration. I'm a firm believer that little things as those would cut down on the learning curve and create a future generation of good bowlers.

[sprocket]

I'll do it! I was just there before I read your post. Maybe next season I could coach. I would have to go straight from work to the bowling center though. My 10hr days is was has really kept me from coaching. That and being busy on the weekends.

I'm also concerned that with my thumbless delivery I would have a hard time demonstrating a good one handed swing. One of those "those who can't do, teach" sort of things. I don't want to encourage my type of swing for very many kids. I definitely could show the importance of timing and acceleration though. Maybe I should take some lessons this summer...