Hi there,

it was about time to make a nother video check of mine (and test new equipment with a better resolution), so I made some video shots of myself at my (deserted) club house from various angles and some slomo-sequences:

http://media.putfile.com/Style-study-Oct-2007

Overall I am quite content, since I managed to move my body's CG further back, avoid too much bend of the upper body upon release and get away from a planted final step to some real slide that has improved both balance and leverage during the release. Ball reaction and carry have improved considerably during the past 6 months.

The only thing that worries me (a little) and where I am looking for some opinions is the timing of my pushaway - I perform a 5-step-approach, and it feels as if I start my pushaway in time with the 2nd step.
But the video tells something else, I seem to ba a tad late, or too fast with me feet? Well, since I can wait in/after the slide at the foul line for the ball to come forward, this is IMHO not a big problem, early timing would surely be worse, but I am not sure if I should do something about it?

Any comments or suggestions are welcome! Thanks a lot in advance
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DizzyFugu - Reporting from Germany

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Edited on 10/10/2007 9:36 AM

Try holding the ball at your hip and pushing it out and slightly down with the 2nd step. Just let it fall. If you need to throw it slower or faster, then you can hold it higher or lower.

You could also try to not creep to the line like that and just walk as you would normally.
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There is nothing so easy to learn as experience and nothing so hard to apply.

Check your thumb pitches or take some tape out.
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Make history or sit back and watch it. -EV

Your muscled arm swing is caused by where you hold to ball in you stance. You hold it shoulder high and slightly to the right. Also when you push it away you push it up instead of out or down. You should try holding your elbow tight against your hip with the ball approximately chest high at the most. Your push away should go straight ahead. If you make this change you should also correct you starting position. Start by having you feet pointed in the same direction of your shoulders. Right now what I see is that your feet point to the left while your shoulders point toward you target. Your first step or two go in the direction they are pointed while your arm swing is toward you target causing your armswing to wrap behind your ball slightly. I also feel that you over corrected yourself by bending your knees too much therefor keeping your back too straight. Back off of the knee bend slightly and bend a tad at the waist keeping your shoulders over you knees. Your knee bend is great but a little exaggerated. The last thing I would advice you to do is to shuffle your feet a little more. Every step comes completely off of the ground causing you to bounce up and down throughout your approach. If you take any of my advice, please post a new video so I can see if it helped.

Thank you for all the suggestions. What I tried (successfully, as far as i can tell) is to lower the ball in the adress position to hip height. Felt weird in the beginning, but just moving the ball forward and letting it go has IMO been an overall timing progress. I do not have the feeling that I'd have to hurry with my feet due to the higher and pretty forced pushaway. Another benefit seems to be a straighter swing and better overall control - I tried the new trick in training and in league this weekend, and I was positively surprised how steadily I hit my mark at the arrows, and how repetitive the ball reaction was.

The trailing leg is something I keep in the back of my mind, because I am with you that this causes too much unnecessary movement in the upper body through the "free" counterbalancing.

Yes, you are correct about my muscled forward swing end phase. I incorporated this 2 years ago when I'd have a completely free swing (or what I thought it was?) with a crap release. In search for some speed and revs a coach suggested to speed up the forward swing a bit, and this has been pretty successful for me, because I have the feeling of driving the ball out onto the lane. Downside is that I created lots of loft through this, which I am reducing now through better timing - at least that's the plan, and it is bitterly necessary.

Tough job to puzzle everything together. I guess I won't be able to post another video quickly, but I have taken up your suggestions and experiment with them. There is some potential left.

By the way, video has been fixed: http://media.putfile.com/Style-study-Oct-07
The original got disrupted while saving it on my PC, so I installed a copy that should run full length with some additional views
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DizzyFugu - Reporting from Germany

Confused by bowling?
Check out BR.com's vault of wisdom: the unofficial FAQ section