In an effort to delay my timing somewhat to get more leverage at the line, I've been trying a few things at practice, but I just couldn't get my feet ahead of the ball the way I wanted unless I switched from a 5- to a 4-step approach, which has never been all that comfortable to me (not to mention it cuts down my speed).

The only thing I found to help was by letting my left (off) hand support the entire weight of the ball for the first step until I let it drop into the slot. I've heard coaches advocate this for years, perhaps for other reasons, but never thought I needed to do it. By holding the ball's weight in my left hand for a full (shorter) first step, then beginning the push and drop on the second, it had the effect of a slight timing delay.

But at the same time, I gained a side benefit: I found I'm squeezing the ball less and pulling fewer shots. The first time my right hand feels the weight of the ball is as it drops into the slot on the downswing. This made for almost a weightless feeling at the point of release, to the point that I'm going to have to get used to this. Still, I shot +30 tonight on truly the worst shot we've had all year (started with a weak reactive, finished with polished urethane, and was the only one who went over on our pair or either adjacent pair).

Hope this helps someone.

Jess