Hey Buck,

For this instance and for my students who don't have a lot of flexibility with their knees (ie. Big Daddy), it's either of/or combination of a much weaker piece to (clear heads) or if you can learn to relax more with your release.  Don't try and hit it up on it as normal.  I realize and understand how difficult it is to forget "muscle memory" but if you try to just pretend to "stroke" it on the drier shots, this will help you produce more natural skid which in turn will produce the proper transition from skid, hook to roll.

Just try to imagine or watch PDW , he has learned along with "many" PBA bowlers to back off on a shot due to the strength of modern day bowling balls.  He has what we call the "open handed " release which is what most of us try and do at a 10 pin.  This is how much game he has that still allows him to do this in conjunction with his high axis rotation to simply make a ball hook.  

These days it doesn't take much so trust your reaction vs feel...it's what I call the 30 yard golf approach shot.  We don't have any clubs in the bag to hit 30 yards at a full swing (except my driver) so understand how to back off and use more "feel" vs "muscle".  Now you guys will understand what our pros have had to do since the evolution of "hook"....Hope this helps some Tag Team member...

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Rick Leong - Ten Pins Pro Shop  
Vise Inserts Staff
Dexter Advisory Staff

Tag Team Coaching - Co-Founder

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*El Presidente of the Track Legion

Very good point. Another couple of things that helped me(as I've had multiple knee ops as well) was before, I used to stand straight up at the line before I started my delivery.  Now, I have a slight(but noticeable) knee bend at the line.  I've noticed that I get low sooner, and stay low because of this.

As for speed, I used to use muscle for my speed which in turn made me very unbalanced at the line, and very inaccurate.  Over time, I've started pushing the ball away from me, and just let my arm free fall.  It increased my speed, but still not to where I prefer it to be.  So instead of the pushaway, I still push out, but now it's more of an up and out(Try to picture me at the line with ball set at my waist.  As I make my delivery, the ball comes up and out to almost shoulder level, but not too high as I still need to see my target).  This has given me more free fall, a bit of a higher back swing, and the speed I prefer.
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My current arsenal-www.putfile.com/trackbowler627

High game-300
High series-796

Summer THS avg-216(6 games)
PBA Exp. avg-131 (3 games) 1st time on Chameleon, and I just could not match up at all.  6/4/07-Chameleon again