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Is there any way special I need to hold my hand during my swing?

If you watch the pros on TV, you will see their bowling balls hook; and hook a lot.  If you are a beginner, throwing the ball like this can be hard to control.  But having the ball hook will give you a better chance to strike.  So how does this all work?  Here again I think there is a better way to think of this than the traditional way.  Most instructors will talk about your hand and a clock face.  That’s OK.  But then they start talking about the position of your thumb being at a particular place on the clock face, like twelve o’clock, here is where I disagree.  What I believe you should concentrate on is the position of your fingers!  It is you fingers, not your thumb that is important!  They provide the all important “lift” on the bowling ball.

When you release the ball, it is your fingers that provide “lift”.  Think of any other “ball” sport.  Unless you are a knuckle-ball pitcher, as you throw the ball, you fingers make it spin.  Since bowling is a game where you throw the ball under-handed, that spin is called “lift”.  Simple, right?  It is the “lift” that determines if your ball goes straight of “hooks” to the left or right.  Here is a little more physics; it is all about friction.  The force of your swing (remember, not using you muscles, but simple the weight of the ball) propels the ball down the lane in the direction you throw it.  Now, if you ball is spinning in a counter-clockwise direction, eventually, the force of the spin will overtake the force of the swing.  When it does, the balls starts traveling, not straight, but hooking to the right.  Got it?

Here is where I need to start describing things from a left-handed or right-handed perspective.  I am left-handed.  But I am sorry “lefties”, I bowl right-handed.  And since the majority of the world is right-handed, what I am going to describe is from that point of view.  Don’t you hate it “lefties”?  You have to think in the reverse of what I am going to say.  Believe me; being both, I understand.

To bowl a straight ball, there is no difference.  Your finger position on the clock face should be a six-o’clock at the point of release.  There is no spin to overcome the force of the swing, so the ball continues straight where you throw it.  This is what is recommended for beginning bowlers by many.  It is easy, the ball goes where you throw it and life is good.  But this makes striking move difficult because of inertia.  (See the article on weight of the bowling ball).  When a “perfectly” thrown strike is thrown, the ball only hits four pins, the 1, 3, 5 and 9!  It is the first three that start a chain reaction, like dominoes, and cause the other pins to fall.  A straight ball has not right to left force, so the inertia of the pins wanting to remain stationary will overcome the force of the ball moving down the lane and it will deflect.  I know it is hard to believe, but just watch.  You will see it more with lighter ball, but it will deflect.  To overcome the deflection, you hook the ball.  Since the ball will deflect from the left to the right, having the ball to hook from right to left will overcome this.

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