Clearing the Thumb During the Release

All right, so we want to get out of that thumb properly with a good exit. We're gonna look into ways we can clear that thumb the right way. Well, why is this important? Number one, it's critical to have a good release of the bowling ball. It happens in a matter of a split second.

Not a lot of time to create that thumb to get out of the ball the right way. What are some challenges that we face? Well, first of all, number one, sometimes I'm sure you've thrown a bowling ball where the ball just sticks on your thumb a little bit too much and it lofts down the lane. You can see here the ball doesn't leave the thumb, lofts a little bit on the lane and doesn't react the right way. Now just the opposite, you know what, sometimes when we drop the ball, it feels like we got to hold onto the ball for dear life a little bit too long.

It's a little bit sloppy, falls off our hand, hits the foul line a little bit too early, and the ball goes into a very, very weak roll. All right. Another way we can train our hand for success to have a clearing of the thumb hole, doing a couple of really good drills. First of all, the stationary drill. Slows things down a lot, allows us to feel our hand, especially our thumb, come out of the ball in the right way.

One way to attack this, we actually just want to stand up at the foul line, relax our swing, have a little bit of a knee bend, and let the ball go at the right time. What you don't want to do is have too much grip pressure and feel like you're gonna have to squeeze that ball. What we want to feel is coming off your hand, nice and natural. Another one is the one step drill. So we actually simply take one step back.

Relax the swing a little bit. Get it into the right time, and we want to, we actually bend in and release the ball. Same idea, not a lot of squeezing or grip pressure happening, but the thumb come out naturally. This one speeds things up a little bit more than the stationary, but allows us to feel the right way our thumb can exit out of the bowling ball.