What type of brace do you use ?

Most of them will make you come around the ball more and have a harder time staying under the ball.  The worse ones, in my opinion, are the ones that go up to you fingers.

Also, was your span measured with the brace on ??

If not, you might want to go to your pro shop and have your span checked out.

Have you discussed this problem with your pro shop operator ??

One last comment.  Your problem could also be a timing issue.

Try throwing a back-up ball, then work work forward from there until you have zero axis rotation, then work on the final axis rotation you are trying to achieve.


Edited on 5/16/2007 6:31 PM

Edited on 5/16/2007 7:32 PM

Dumbcomputers is the best advice.  Try throwing a back up, you'll be surprised how your release will actually improve.  Its sort of like curing a bad slice off the tee, most instructors will teach the golfer how to hit a duck hook, and then work backwards.  But badcomputers is going good advice.  Joe....PS my best advice is to throw the brace in the garbage, I did it, and I feel like a free man.....

Using a brace is much different than without one since most of them forces you to turn your hand automatically. Which in some cases will cause you to turn it too early or too much.

I don't use a brace anymore but when I did and was having similar problems of coming too much around the ball I would try to throw a small backup ball. Because of the brace throwing a backup ball is extremely difficult the ball would actually come out of my hand not as a backup ball but with a small amount of correct axis rotation. It was a way of "tricking" my body to do something correctly.

I don't think it's a brace/no brace issue.

I don't use a brace and my release is a little different every time I go bowling. Just last week I had a nice clean release with nice axis turn and a decent amount of hand and shot a 249. Then I went the same week and had an awful release, my thumb was hanging up w/ too much axis turn and no hand. I think most of us is in the same boat as you if we want to admit to it or not Personally I would have to bowl at least 3 times a week to get my release any more consistent.

You can take this advise with a grain of salt supernoodle,but I also have an inconsistent release and the thing I practiced at home was the old towel trick.It's where you take a towel and tuck it into you armpit.Next you take your ball and just practice swinging it.The towel should stay in place if your arm is staying in the correct position.I've found that the excercise will help build some strength in your arm and wrist and you can practice with or without the wristguard.I agree with the other poster who told you to throw the wristguard away.The problem I had with the one I used to wear was it made me squeeze the ball more which can also cause you to lose leverage and rotation.
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Ya noooooo,beer makes ya smart,it made Bud-wiser-Harry Caray.

One more thing to consider would be the pitches in your thumb hole.  I used to "top" the ball as a result of squeezing.  Because of the anatomy of my hand, I found after considerable experimentation that I had too much reverse pitch, as well as too much palm pitch.  I had so much trouble staying under and behind the ball with my hand, that I decided to make a change.

I moved slowly from 3/8 reverse and 3/8 palm pitch to 1/4 forward and 1/8 away pitch.  Now I have no trouble staying under and behind the ball without squeezing the hell out of it, and with practice I have developed a much cleaner release.  The result is more speed and power at the pins than I ever had before I learned about thumb pitches.

By the way I do wear a brace, the Eagle 3 adjustable brace.  It is very restrictive to someone who isn't used to it, but because I have used the same one for so long, I have learned to adjust release types with and without adjusting the amount of cup on the brace.

I have a feeling that if I moved even more forward with my thumb pitch and possibly even more away, I might be able to ditch the brace and get similar ball reaction, but I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars to change out all of my equipment when what I do now is pretty effective.

Everyone is different, so what I did may or may not work for you, but it is one more variable to play with if the mood so strikes you.
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~SprayNpray

-formerly known as SawFreak