Why am I leaving this spare??

[dnhoffman]

Look man, I'm gonna try to be blunt with you here, because you keep going back to the same tune.

It is NOT an equipment issue, has nothing to do with synthetics vs wood.

Your high loft is NOT better, people who talk about using loft as a compensation tool are, no offense, far ahead of you in mechanics, technique, experience, and skill.

You asked for opinions and you keep going back to equipment. At first I thought you might have a bad coach but if you're half as stubborn in person as you are in this thread I'd bet you're not listening to him/her.

Rejuving your ball will help, but the way you're throwing that ball it will not consistently make it into its roll.

[classygranny]

I HAVE TO AGREE WITH DEREK ON THIS ONE!

The other way to look at this is - you keep saying you are changing your approach, swing, loft, release, etc between woods and synthetics. Now keep in mind that I haven't had the pleasure of bowling on wood in many, many years, but I do watch a lot of bowling and work with a touring pro/coach. I am POSITIVE that there is no pro or coach that is going to say to change your form to bowl on one or the other. The line you are playing and perhaps the release can be changed for the lane condition, but the way you get to the foul line should be as consistent as possible whether you are bowling on wood, synthetic, or on your back porch. Sounds to me like you need to find an approach and posting position where your timing is good and practice that until you maintain the consistency to work on the other areas of your bowling. You can do lots of shadow bowling anytime, anywhere....practice, practice, practice.

Oh, and by the way....if you still think it's equipment related...go get the darn ball de-oiled like many have suggested and prove to yourself it's not the ball - and quit crying about equipment!

[Hammer]

First get your ball brought back to OUT OF BOX FINISH which will make it like new. To me it sounds like release issues. One thing might be that when you swing your ball on your approach you have to let it swing back with it's own weight with the help of gravity and no arm muscle. On the forward swing let gravity swing the ball forward and not tensing up your arm muscle to muscle it forward. This is a real killer of letting the ball work like it is supposed to. Also don't grip the ball hard with your fingers and thumb, use a relaxed grip. At release if your are letting your hand go up the side of the ball to get revs you won't get revs but something called a spinner. At release your hand should be behind the ball and when your thumb comes out your hand and fingers only turn one or two inches to get revs.
The weight of the ball pulling off your finger tips is what puts revs on the ball Plus when you swing through the release area if your ball
is not close to your sliding ankle you will have problems with pulled shots and lack of revs. A video you can pull up on youtube is called
Analysis of the modern 10-pin bowling swing and release by Dean Champ. You will see what a swing and release should be. It involves the pro bowlers but at least you can see what you should strive forin your practice. At release remember that the thumb comes out first
then all of the balls weight goes onto your finger tips and pulls off to give you revs. Leave your fingertips bent like they are when you put them into your ball. Never straighten them to let the ball come off your hand because then you can wave goodbye to any revs you where looking for. Good luck to your quest for good pocket hits.

[Aslan]

I'd say my swing is most like Dave Ferraro's or Mark Roth's but I try to emulate Walter Ray. Here's Ferraro and WRW bowling against each other.

The old skool approach to a swing is simply the pendulum...no need to muscle it backwards or forwards. However, as you watch the various pro players, you'll see that some have extreme backswings (like a Rhino Page) and many add strength to their downswing.

I would say that I add minimal backswing. I start with the ball rather high and as Barry Asher recommended...I've started to push the ball out rather than drop it. The coach I worked with was a proponent of dropping it...but both Asher and Earl Anthony (in his tutorial video) are advocates of pushing the ball outwards which creates that pendulum.

I then add quite a bit of momentum on the forward swing. Not so much trying to "fire it" down the lane...but more just trying to get a "snap" of the wrist. I've tried to get rid of that forward momentum/snap...but I tend to have huge accuracy problems if I drop the ball short or try to "lay it down gently".