Thanks Dan,

I will check out the locked elbow theory.    Who knows at this point???    I know it is usually locked, but I may have gotten away from that at some point.  It is just frustrating knowing the kind of bowler I am to have a problem like this.  Truly messed up three tourneys and lots of money.  Never before have I had this problem.  It just started 2 1/2 months ago.  Weird.  

As for the second part, I do know I opened my shoulders some due to playing deeper on the lane.  As I read through this maybe I am opening them too much, thus creating too inside of an armswing.  Just thinking out loud.  

Thanks again.
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Who needs a 300 or 800, when I have a 294 and a 295!?!?!

Thanks everyone.  It became really frustrating.  Some of you know that I do bowl pretty well and I think I became very lazy and started doing some things I don't normally do.  Even worse is knowing the decent amount of training I have had, I couldn't figure out my own problem.  

I did go and practice(scary) about 8 games today and it seems to have gone away some.  I only flew the elbow about 6 times in all those games.  The thing that seemed to work was holding the ball a little more in front of me.  I think I had it too far out to the right and it caused me to loop it around my back, thus having the armswing too far from my body at release. Sounds weird, but it felt like old times when I held it more in front of me.  

I really appreciate all of your suggestions.  It isn't that my scores have been totally terrible, with the exception of Tuesday, but they just haven't been as good as usual.  And I was feeling terrible.  I felt like I was letting my team down considering we are in first place in two leagues.  Thank goodness we tend to pick each other up.  Had some good games, but some bad ones as well.  After losing too much money in states and a couple of other tourneys, I want to get myself back together for cities.

You guys are great.  It got me thinking some things I didn't think about before.  Thanks again.  


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Who needs a 300 or 800, when I have a 294 and a 295!?!?!

I believe pinchaser is on the right track.

Here is what happens:

1. the feet get fast

2. the subconscious tries to catch the ball up to the feet by forcing the ball down from the top of the swing.

3. The ball comes screaming down from the top of the back swing and slightly passes the feet.

4. The subconscious feels the ball going past the release point and says "I had better do something quick, if I don't, the ball will not hook, so let me try to flip the ball off my hand by turning my hand over the top of the ball." This makes my elbow get outside of my thumb which causes the chicken wing and kills the roll.

These things can happen by just getting too fast with my feet and can happen at any time.

One thing you can do to fix this problem is Bill Taylor's "belly walk" technique. Just line up in your stance, but place the ball on your belly button and just walk to the foul line without swinging the ball. If you feel weird, then your feet are too fast, you should just be at a normal walking pace when you bowl. Granted some people have a different walking pace than others, but this technique works for all tempos.

Do the belly walk it until it doesn't feel weird, then throw a shot with the same pace, then do the belly walk, then throw a shot, repeat this until you get it down. Do the belly walk before you bowl as a warm up.

The other part to this is to just let your arm swing without forcing it. This will match your swing to your pace as long as you push away on the right step.

Some people have long legs and short arms, short arms and long legs and all different combinations. You will need a video camera or a coach with a good eye to help match your swing up to your feet.

To do it yourself, try to have the ball at your side as your second step (of a four step delivery) compresses.

Ideally the four step sequence should be as follows:

1. push and step

2. ball falls to your side as the second step compresses

3. ball reaches the top of your back swing as the third step compresses

4. The slide the foot should come to a stop as the ball reaches the ankle of your non sliding foot.

If any of the above isn't lining up, adjust your push away so it matches up.