Hey everyone,

Been awhile since I chimed in. Been swinging the softball bat more lately, but since the weather has been a bit chilly and damp, bowling made more sense in the past couple of weeks hehe.

So, I've been watching the ESPN shows for years and listening to Randy Pederson talk about how the Pros stay behind the ball as much as possible before "unleashing the lift" on their ball. It is great when they slo-mo the releases close up. Someone who does this well is Wes Malott. You look at most of the bowlers on tour that strap the ball well or even the ones who don't strap it are utilizing this technique.

I have a very high track which tracks over the thumb on most balls. I have a lot of tilt and this equates to backend reaction that is hard to control at times.

A local bowler friend of ours had his camera out and videotaped my buddy and myself for a few frames. He closed in on our release and compared it to a local pro who generates a great release and amount of revs while keeping his hand behind the ball (Forearm facing target) before release.

Compared to the local pro, my palm and forearm before release was pointing towards the gutter and my elbow a bit bent. I always generated pretty decent revs, but this opened up my eyes a lot.

I practiced for about a game, trying to stay behind the ball and keeping my forearm facing the pins and/or towards my target. Lo and behold, my track migrated away from my thumb a bit. It has been years since I've done this! Unless I spin the ball, that's the only other way I could get my track off my thumb. Learning to stay behind the ball is not as easy as I thought it would be. Muscle memory was thrown off and I was constantly trying to keep my swing plane as close to my body as I could.

A few years back, I've recorded myself and made several videos and posted them on youtube and putfile. Check my profile for vids. If it's not there, just do a search for "ramtart." You can see how I release the ball. I am going to work on staying behind the ball and keeping my elbow closer to my body so that it does not stray and chicken wing. I will try to work on this release and try to film myself with the results.

Ok, enough talk, just wanted your opinions and if you guys have tried this. Good talking to you guys again!
I better start bowling now, before the weather gets nicer and I start hitting softballs again instead hehe.

Thanks & Happy Holidays to all!
Ram

I find that getting my thumb 3 o'clock helps lower my track and the back end does increase, leading with the ring finger and pulling it towards 1 o'clock gets me under the ball well making it easier to maintain the 3 o'clock position.

I was turning my hand somewhat more before but still helping the ball, now I am tracking at  5 5/8 over and 7/8 up, this was done today on the armadillo by sheer coincidence.

I was getting elbow pain from spinning the ball using more of football throw release, it is easier to lead with the ring and just lift through the ball.

Edited on 12/30/2008 11:14 PM

I believe I hold the ball so my fingers are around 7 maybe 8 o clock and I try to let the ball roll off my hand rather than conciously turning it.  Lately my release has seemed a bit different.  Usually I thought I was around 45 degrees of axis rotation, seems like now I'm sometimes doing 60 or so.  This is just estimates based on what I'm seeing as my ball is rotating.

What I want to learn is how to change my axis rotation at will.  That ~60 is not intentional, but I'd like to learn to control it more.  I'd like to learn how to acheive 70+ degrees as well as 15-30 degrees.  I can do the latter by keeping my fingers at about 5 o clock but sometimes I accidentally rotate more, plus there's not as much torque/revs in it as I feel there should be.  It doesn't seem right that less rotation means less revs and vice versa.

Staying "on the inside" or as Jowdy likes to put it "ring finger lead" has helped increase revs when using a release that promotes forward roll with minimal rotation. It does seem to help "load up" on the release. Prior to that, attempts to use more cup in the cup-and-collapse met with poor results and minimal rev increase.

quote:

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Compared to the local pro, my palm and forearm before release was pointing towards the gutter and my elbow a bit bent.

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Which gutter? There's a huge difference in release depending on whether you mean the left or the right.


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J.J. "Waterola Kid" Anderson - "Better than Jello" - Kill the back row