Need Help with my Bowling Form Oddities. Not sure what is causing the issues.

[the_grimace]

Hi all,

I’ve just been getting back into bowling after a 3+ year break, and I’m trying to really ramp up my game. Prior to taking the break, I was averaging in the low 200s, but my form was never that great. Guess you could say I learned to do the wrong things well! Now that I’m back bowling again, my consistency is out the window and I’m averaging around 185. I’m also taking notice to the oddities of my bowling form and trying to implement ways to correct it. I started bowling young with a way too heavy ball and never learned anything other than look at the pins and throw. It’s worked well enough to average 195-205 at my best, but I’ve never been very consistent at all. I recently tried coaching with a USBC silver certified coach, but it was fairly expensive and I didn’t really get much help from it. I also tried to research the points I’ll talk about below online but did not find anything similar to my issues. I was hoping I could share some aspects of my delivery (the big oddities at least) with the folks here in hopes I can gain insight into the issues, and how I can resolve them.


1. I release the ball far away from my slide foot.
When I watch pro bowlers (or any good bowler), I notice that when they release the ball, their hand and the ball almost grazes past their slide foot. In other words, the hand is as close to the slide foot as possible without hitting it. From watching videos of my release, I noticed that when I release the ball my hand/ball is literally about a foot left (I’m left handed) of my slide foot. I am not sure exactly why this is happening, but I figure it can’t be good. It also looks silly and I feel it’s definitely throwing off my ability to repeat shots.


2. My hand comes to a suitcase position at the top of the backswing, and stays that way through release.
I start my approach with my hand directly under the ball and my wrist firm, but from watching videos I’ve noticed that my wrist rotates through the swing, to where at the back swing my hand is in the suitcase position, and it stays this way through release. To clarify what I mean by suitcase position, I mean my hand is on the left of the ball (I’m lefty, this would be hand on the right of the ball for righties), not behind it. I’m not sure why this rotation happens. Perhaps a lazy wrist, but my wrist actually doesn’t go “limp” and get on top of the ball. It just rotates but the wrist is still firm. Essentially this leads to me releasing the ball with my hand directly on the left of the ball. I feel this has lent to inconsistent rev rate, and issues with my thumb not coming cleanly out as well. Not sure why this rotation happens as I try to keep my hand behind the ball but apparently I’m actually not doing that at all, I’m just keeping it under the ball.


3. Grip Pressure? Tight Thumbhole issues on snug fits?
I’ve always been told that a good ball fit should be snug so that one really doesn’t have to grip the ball at all and just let it swing naturally. I’ve really struggled with ball fitting because I’ve always felt that with a snug fit, my thumb was getting stuck in the thumb hole badly. Stuck so bad it was popping my thumb socket, making me pull every shot, and creating tears and blisters. I also experienced a very extreme vacuum effect with a snug thumbhole. Anyway, I quickly went to a looser fit, which results in me gripping the ball through the swing, but at least I’m able to get out of the ball. I would love to try a ball fit that was more glued to my hand till release, but my issues with getting caught in the thumbhole at release was making bowling next to impossible for me. I feel that my suitcase hold at release may also be part of the problem since it could be difficult to get the thumb out from that angle with the forward motion. I mean just think about it, the ball is moving forward and the thumb needs to come out to the left, no wonder it gets hung up. Someone mentioned a thumb slug might be what I need, but I never used one so I have no idea if that would help or not.

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Anyway, they are the 3 oddest aspects of my delivery right now, and I’ve been looking for insight into why these issues are occurring and how I can resolve them, but I’ve been coming up empty. I’ve also been considering a wrist support, but also have never used one of them before. I was wondering if that would help me stay behind the ball instead of rotating to the side like I am in my #2 issue, but I am so unfamiliar with them I’m not sure if it would do more harm than good. Any advice is much appreciated! Thank you!

[J Anderson]

The following is a link to a Norm Duke video on a release drill:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4NMuITGuGY

This might help you get the ball a bit closer to your ankle as well as keep your hand behind the ball.