Need help with my hook

[rimvydukas]

Hi,

I'm trying to learn hook correctly and I'm having some kind of hook curse I know that hand must turn on to 45 degrees position, I know that thumb must exit first and that I need to turn ball with two fingers. I try to do this as hard as I can but my hand overturns every time It turns to 90 degree position most of time and feeling is that I did not turn this hand at all or very very slightly, best I was able to achieve was 60-70 degrees. Can anyone help me with some advice or good drill to overcome this curse?

Here is a video of me:

http://youtu.be/oasNp2VW16U

Thanks in advance.

[Greenday]

1. Balance - Work on holding your pose after you throw the ball.

2. Turning your hand a little too early.

3. Getting to the line a little bit early. You are already at the line, but your ball is behind back leg still.

4. Someone better at teaching than me (bilf), correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like you are on top of the ball instead of behind it.

[rimvydukas]

Thank you for your thoughts, balance and slightly earlier hand turn are well known things for me I'm trying to improve, as for the third suggestion I was teached this way to come at foul line at first I think there are different techniques regarding this. But my main thing I want to know and learn is what to do to be able not overturn my hand while trying to hook. I want it to stay at 45 degrees. It seems that I'm not able to turn the ball with two fingers when the thumb exits. So I hope to find some kind of effective drill or advice regarding this. Tried to watch a lot of videos on youtube and it seems that everything is clear but only till i'm trying to do this myself

[classygranny]

To emulate the feel of the release...hold a football underhanded and toss out in front of you with some uplift & turn as you step into the toss with your sliding bowling foot (it would look like an underhand spiral football toss). This exercise emulates the feel of the release of a bowling ball as you release the thumb and lift/turn with the fingers still in the ball. Works for some...not for others.

[Greenday]

To emulate the feel of the release...hold a football underhanded and toss out in front of you with some uplift & turn as you step into the toss with your sliding bowling foot (it would look like an underhand spiral football toss). This exercise emulates the feel of the release of a bowling ball as you release the thumb and lift/turn with the fingers still in the ball. Works for some...not for others.

After I do my workout at the gym, I grab a dumb bell that's 20 lbs., get in front of the mirror, then practice swinging it with my hand turned in the correct position. It's been helping a lot with me staying inside the ball.

[billf]

60° is not a bad axis rotation. Yes, you're turning the hand more to get this than a 45° rotation. Currently you turn from 8 to 3. If your hand was further under the ball you could then turn from 8 to 5 and get the rotation you want with a desirable axis tilt.
When you watch your video see where your hand is at the point of release. If you draw an imaginary line across the middle of the ball, like the equator of our planet, you will notice you're close to this line or slightly above. The further below this line you can get, the more hook potential you will have.

Here is a video of the one-step drill which really helps learn the release position

[rimvydukas]

billf,

Thank you so much for your valuable answer. I wait for them everytime

You are saying that I turn hand from 8 till 3 o clock. When I started to make slow motion videos of this moment I saw that hand turned even till 1 o clock. Videos helped me a little.

I know this one step drill. I use it when I have problems with four steps. Here is an video of me in one step (this video rule out balance, timing questions):

https://www.box.com/s/5ll9t8vetlrqfi41vn0v

It seems that in this video I have the same overturn Strangest part is that it feels to me that I turn hand very slightly but when I look at the video, I see different story I looked at this second video of me one more time and it seems that fingers get a little bit above equator on the last swing. Or do you think they are there every time?

And let me clarify to be sure - are you saying that my main reason of overturning the hand are fingers above equator? What do you think about slightly early hand turn as others suggested? And look at this video of rotations comparisions:



In most cases fingers are above equator but these bowlers somehow manage to turn hand by 45 degrees and to rotate the ball with two fingers. You are saying that I'm turning hand till 3 oclock. But from my video I can see that and in this case I still barely rotate ball with two fingers. It seems that the ball comes out from these fingers and the thumb almost at the same time

And thank you again for your time.

[billf]

Bowlspot video-Not to be mean, just blunt: that video is great to show how not to release a ball. There wasn't a single good release in the entire video. If that was to show something good, they missed by a mile and should be ashamed of themselves.

Your video- hand was closer to the equator. Your arm going behind your back is real evident there. Your thum should be exiting earlier. Fingers above the equator create a spin and not usable revs. It seems like a little bit because it's less than three inches. The turn needed is really small. It's the speed of the turn that creates the revolutions combined with the upward lift of the hand/arm. The area where the fingers are created axis rotation while the thumb position when exiting varies tilt.

[rimvydukas]

So if I understood you correctly my main goal is put fingers under equator? Are you saying that if I'll be able to do that I will get more revs and less spin and less turn of the hand?

Can you tell me more about thumb? When exactly must it exit to be able to get good revs and almost no tilt and 45 degrees turn of the hand?

Can you elaborate more on thumb position and tilt? For example - particular thumb position = particular tilt.

[GeoLes]

I think of balancing the ball on my thumb throughout the swing. at the last second, I extend the palm as if shaking hands with the pins. YOu can do this with a basketball, soccer ball, what have you. Just hold the ball as you would a bowling ball making sure it rests on thumb and finger tips, with palm UNDER the ball. Sustain that position throughout a gentle swing as long as you can. When you reach the release point immediately snap to handshake position. Feel the ball free itself from the the thumb and the fingers will naturally cause it to spin.