Let’s see if we can’t put all this together for you -

Your Stance

This is where it all begins for every bowler. How you set yourself up for each throw is absolutely crucial to your success. Now depending on how you bowl will determine what arrow to focus on, but the approach should be relatively the same for each bowler.

As you stand facing the rack (slang for the pins), keep your knees straight and hold your ball up near your mid-section. Some people hold the ball too high or too low. This will do one of two things. It will either not give you enough power in your swing OR it will create too much movement causing your aim to be off.

Having the proper stance sets up everything for a bowler and if that is off, everything thereafter will too be off.

Your Approach

This is another crucial step to learning how to bowl a hook. Much too often, bowlers will rush their approach because they want to be able to throw the ball as hard as possible. Believe it or not, this is not necessary when bowling. You are better off having an accurate release than throwing the ball as hard as possible! So here’s what you do -

Slow your approach down. Keep your head as still as possible. Now I’m not sure if you use the four step or the seven step approach (this is how many steps taken before you release the ball – I’ll cover that in future e-mails), but you want to act as though you have a bowl of milk on top of your head. If you head is moving all over the place, you eyes too are moving.

As you are approaching the lane, remember that a majority of your power is coming from both your knees (again, we’ll get into that later) and your downswing. What you want to focus on is WHERE you are throwing the ball and letting the bowling ball do the work for you. This brings us to the next segment – your release.

Your Backswing, Downswing and Release

This is where you will generate the rotation on the ball to create the hook that you want!

As you bring the ball back on your backswing (this is the motion in which you bring the ball BEHIND you), make sure that your palm is directly behind the ball. If done properly, your palm should be directly parallel with the lane. This will provide with a more of an accurate throw.

Now for the good stuff…

As you bring the ball down (creating your downswing), let the ball carry your arm down. Do not force it through. The bowling ball is heavy, so allow gravity to do its thing! Keep your arm as straight as you can. Again, this will allow you to throw the ball with better accuracy.

Now once bowling ball passes your knee, start to turn your wrist towards your waist. Think of bringing your hand up to shake someone’s hand. It is this turning over motion that actually creates the spin on the ball.

Go ahead and stand up now and give it try. Act as though you are going to throw your bowling ball and bring your wrist around. Do not come past the “shaking the hand” motion otherwise you may hurt yourself or your shot will go completely awry. Do that a couple of more times to get used to the motion.

These are just a few tips to get you STARTED with bowling a hook. There is obviously a heck of a lot more that goes into bowling other than just this, but it definitely is important.

If you are reading this, then you understand the importance of learning how to bowl a hook. Compared to a straight ball, a hook ball offers superior control and maximizes pin action. These two attributes alone will help you bring your bowling game to a whole new level! The problem however is that a lot of people do not know how to bowl a hook.

I have outlined three very basic, yet extremely useful ways to start getting the rotation on your bowling ball needed to get that ball to hook!

Easy Tip Number One

Slow down your approach. This is the steps that you take before you throw the ball. This is especially true if you are relatively new to bowling. By nature, we want to throw the ball as hard as we can. This causes you to lose control of where you are aiming. Naturally the end result will be a lower score. Slow down your approach. Relax. This will keep your mind AND your body focused on the pins. Trust me!

Easy Tip Number Two

Allow your back swing to do the work for you! You do not need to be weightlifter to in order to be a good bowler! Yes I know that bowling balls are heavy, but they need to be. When you bring your arm back, allow the weight of the bowling ball to bring it down. The ball is heavy enough to where it will create a powerful release without using an extreme amount of arm muscle. Not only does it put less stress on your body, but it also helps to control your swing giving you more accuracy.

Easy Tip Number Three

Now it is time to bowl a hook! Now right before you release the ball, start to slightly turn your wrist towards your inside leg (that is your right leg if you are a right-handed bowler and your left leg if you are a left-handed bowler). After your release, your palm should be parallel with your leg. The motion of turning your hand should mock that of coming up to give someone a hand shake. By turning your hand like this, it puts the rotation on the ball needed to bowl a hook!

Learning how to bowl a hook can seem to be difficult, but it does not have to be as hard as you think. It does take some practice and some getting used to, but it is the furthest thing from impossible. Yes it is an unnatural feeling, but it can be done!

Take your time, practice and most importantly, enjoy bowling! Bowling is a wonderful sport that you can do anytime of the year. It can bring family and friends together or just give you an outlet to get away for a while. If you work at, you can learn how to bowl a hook!

In a “perfect” release, the thumb does come out of the ball before your fingers do.  What this does for that split second is transfer the weight of the ball from your thumb (that is what should really be supporting your ball through your approach) to your fingers.  In turn, this creates the revolutions needed to get that hook on your
ball.

There is a big misconception out there.  A lot of bowlers want to actually try and “lift” the ball instead of letting it come out naturally.  What happens here is your fingers and thumb actually tense up delaying the release of your thumb.  It also creates an excess grip that actually lowers the revolutions needed to hook the ball.

I know this sounds a bit complicated or hard to follow, but just read it a couple of times and it will make sense!

You want this to be a fluid motion however.  If there is a delay in either the release of the thumb or the fingers, you are going to lose a lot of revolutions.  DO NOT CLINCH YOUR FINGERS OR YOUR THUMB!

If you have a good arm swing, the momentum of the ball will be doing most of the work here, so you don’t need to hold on to the ball for dear life!  Let your fingers roll the ball.

Have you ever bowled or seen someone bowl and the ball is actually spinning backwards as it’s traveling down the lane?  Do you know why this happens?

Basically the fingers are coming out FIRST and the thumb second!

Their fingers are not rolling off the ball.  As the ball is thrown, the thumb stays put causing a halt in the momentum (for just a split second – but…) and creating that backwards spin.

Once you get the motion of releasing your thumb first and allowing the ball to roll off your fingers, then you can start with the wrist movement to get a sharper and tighter hook on the ball.  If you can’t get your thumb and fingers to work properly though, your attempts to bowl a solid and consistent hook will continue to fall short.

Give it a try!