Is it okay to put the fingers into the shot with current bowling balls?

[Hammer]

Before the modern balls with their big weighted cores and reactive resin surfaces that make them grip like snow tires it use to be necessary to hit the ball at release with lift using the fingertips. This was because the balls were made of rubber and needed help to put rotation on them to get to the pocket. Things got a little easier when the urethane ball came out. The rubber balls did not have the cores like the modern balls.

From what I read in certain magazines and stuff on the website most pros are not hitting up on the shot with the fingers because the modern balls don't need the help. Actually when they get into the release area if their wrist is cupped they uncup and just let the ball pull off of their fingers without hitting up on the ball with them. They get enough revs because of their type of release.

So as it turns out the only ball that you can still hit up on with the fingers are the urethane or plastic balls. Norm Duke says what he does to his bowling balls is to not bevel the edges of his finger holes. He does this because if he accidently hits up on the ball with his fingers the sharp edges will let him know that. He just wants the ball to come off his fingers. In one of his YOUTUBE bowling instructional videos he talks about going from a straight wrist in his swing to a broken wrist after his thumb comes out of the ball.

In the YOUTUBE video Analysis of Modern 10-pin Bowling Swing and Release they talk about this. They show pros that are cupped, cocked or straight wristed uncupping, uncocking and going into a broken wrist after the thumb comes out of the ball. If done right it adds revs to the ball. It is similar to the drill with the small football where when you let it go you break your wrist to put a spin on the ball.

[sprocket]

Yes, this is all very true. Many of the pros said their bowling hands took a royal beating in the PBA plastic ball tournament they used to have. No wonder so many of the pros of the past had fingers and thumbs that looked like hamburger after 40 games a week.

[RobLV1]

The faster you learn to get your fingers out of the equation, the better off you'll be. For some reason, modern bowling balls hook much better on their own than they do with any help from us.

[larry mc]

i put alot of finger into it , and outhook most people in my local house , we have oily conditions so maybe thats why

[Hammer]

The faster you learn to get your fingers out of the equation, the better off you'll be. For some reason, modern bowling balls hook much better on their own than they do with any help from us.

I found this out last Saturday on league night. I started out using my Blue Hammer urethane ball. I was standing on board 22 with my slide foot and throwing over the second arrow out to an area between board one and five. I was putting some fingers into the shots with the Blue.

Somewhere in the second game I decided to try my Raw Hammer Anger ball. I was using an area from board 30 to 35 with my slide foot and throwing between the third and fourth arrow. The Anger ball acted like I was throwing a boomerang. It kept wanting to dive to the brooklyn side of the head pin. I got two strikes in a row with it but I decided it was too uncontrollable and went back to the Blue. The Blue was more in tune with that nights alley conditions.

The alleys are oiled right before we start our league night. I guess on some league nights I don't have enough speed for the Anger ball. My speed is only 13.5 to 14.8mph at the pins. After that night I had the surface of the Anger ball changed from 2000 Abralon matte finish to 4000 Abralon with the slick type polish to see if that will make the Anger more manageable with the speed that I have.

I am finding out that I don't need a cranker release to make these modern balls hook playing deep. You just need the right ball to do it. If I can do it anyone should be able to.

[MICHAEL]

The faster you learn to get your fingers out of the equation, the better off you'll be. For some reason, modern bowling balls hook much better on their own than they do with any help from us.

the hand and fingers work together, and the more hand and fingers I get into the ball, with lift, the more hook I get.
I am not sure what your talking about Rob?
Tonight after league, I did some experiments on ball releases

Because my ball with hooking to much using my fingers, and lifting through and up the side of the ball, I tried throwing it with a plain out the side of my hand, and no lift.

It didn't hook NEARLY as much as when I put my Hand and fingers into the equations with big lift.

What do you mean get it out FASTER? Would you elaborate a little on what that means? thanks...

How do you get your fingers out faster, too fast and how do you get lift?? My balls need lift form what I can see when I FORGET TO DO IT, it looks flat going to the pocket.

[RobLV1]

The best way that I can describe it is to tell you to watch Pete Weber. He is a traditional bowler, yet the ball sits on the palm of his hand which rotates around, and through the ball. Norm Duke described it to me as "feeling" the ball at the base of the "V" formed by the index finger and the middle finger. When we talk about taking the fingers out of the ball, we are referring to hitting up on the ball.

[bowl1820]

What do you mean get it out FASTER? Would you elaborate a little on what that means? thanks....

He didn't mean get your fingers out of the ball faster.

He's saying the faster you learn not to lift (aka: putting fingers into, hitting up) on the ball, the better off you'll be.

[Pauley]

My balls need lift form what I can see when I FORGET TO DO IT, it looks flat going to the pocket.

My understanding is that with a "traditional" release that works mostly the outside of the ball, you will need some lift for added hook. With a more "modern" or "transitional" release working the inside of the ball, all that is needed is a cocked to uncocked, or cupped to uncupped release with a focus on rolling the ball off the hand and you will get all the revs you need.

[sprocket]

I bowl thumbless and my hand goes flat when I let go of it. Actually my wrist uncups, but what I mean by flat is that my hand is open after I let go of the ball. I believe this not only helps project the ball but also gives me a more conventional high track, rather than one that is highly inverted with the track hitting the fingers and being way away from the thumb. That is the track that many thumbless guys have and I think a lot of that is because they grab with the fingers. I don't want any grab at all and my future balls will be drilled with negative pitch in the fingers to give me an even softer release.