How do you make a ball hook?

Intended Audience: Beginner through intermediate bowlers

How do you make the ball hook/curve/spin?

This is one of the most common questions asked by novice bowlers.

As with many aspects of bowling, there isn't one correct answer. One of the best answers I've ever heard to this question is "practice, practice, practice". Ok, that's a bit smart-alecky, but it is also true. It takes some practice and patience to learn how to hook a ball correctly.

By "correctly" I mean without risk of physical injury and in a fashion that will help improve your scores.

Before discussing how to make a ball hook, let's understand a little about why a ball hooks.

Think about a front-wheel drive car driving in slick, rainy conditions. When you stomp the gas the car moves forward. You get going fast, say, 60 miles per hour (roughly 100 kilometers per hour for my international friends) When you turn the wheel sharply, what happens? Remember, we're on an extremely wet, slick road.

At first nothing is going to happen because even though the wheels are turned to the side, they can't create enough friction to "grab" the road and change the car's direction. Eventually, the tires will create enough friction or you'll slow down enough that the car will slowly (the gradually faster) begin to move in a new direction: the direction in which you've turned the tires. Eventually the tires will stop spinning/slipping and start rolling in the new direction in which you want to travel.

Bowlers who throw the ball straight usually roll it straight. The ball rolls in the same direction in which the ball is travelling. It's like when the wheels of the car are not turned.

Some bowlers who throw the ball straight do impart some spin on the tires, but not enough for the ball to create enough friction to "grab" the lane so that the ball can change direction. Or, they throw the ball too fast for the spin to create enough friction to grab the lane and change direction.

So to get a ball to hook, like getting a car to turn, we need the rotation of the ball to be in a different direction than the direction in which the ball is travelling and we need to have enough rotation on the ball to get it to create friction and "grab" the lane.

Method 1: The Suitcase Technique

One of the easiest and oldest ways to learn to throw a hook is the suitcase method. This was how my father taught me and how my father's father taught him.

Stand up. Go ahead it's ok. Let your bowling arm hang straight down at your side with your thumb touching your leg and your fingers be furthest away from your leg. Now look at the angle between the outside of your forearm and the back of your hand. Curl your wrist slightly so that the outside of your forearm and the back of your hand form a straight line/flat plain. Now imagine a heavy briefcase that you will hold with that hand, but imagine holding it with your fingers only (not connecting your fingers to thumb).

Now pick up your bowling ball, insert your hand, and duplicate the above process. If you've done it correctly, you should feel some strain in the muscles of your fingers and your forearm.

Throw a bowling ball with your hand and fingers in this position. The trick is to maintain that arm position (back of hand and forearm form a flat plain) and finger position (like holding a suitcase with fingers only) throughout your entire swing. Let go of the ball slightly in front of your ankle. Don't twist your arm or your hand. You should feel more pressure on your fingers and less on your thumb just before the ball leaves your hand. Just like holding the heavy suitcase, but only using your fingers. It is the fingers that impart the curve on the ball.

It takes a little muscle in the forearm and the fingers to impart rotation on a bowling ball.

If this isn't working for you, start again at the beginning and think of the suitcase. The suitcase should stay in the same position through your swing. If you were throwing the suitcase down the lane, the suitcase shouldn't fall over or turn sideways. Try throwing the ball half your normal speed at first. Slowing things down will help you feel what you're doing a little better. Also, if you're throwing it too fast, it may not hook until after it leaves the lane. Remember, too much speed and you run the risk of not creating enough friction for the ball to hook.

Method 2: The Football Method

Advanced bowlers will understand the suitcase method (above) but will likely be quick to point out that you can't create a large hook that way while using a "normal" ball speed. While my father and his father taught the suitcase method, the modern method of hooking a bowling ball has changed. There are a number of reasons why this is true and all of them are outside the scope of this discussion.

Another method that can be used to learn to hook the ball is the (American) football method. Henceforth, when I say "football" I'm referring to the American version which is oblong and pointed on both ends. You know, the "pigskin".

If you can pick up a football with your bowling hand and throw that football in an underhanded spiral, you can hook a bowling ball. Mind you, it isn't as easy to impart revolutions on a heavy bowling ball as it is to impart revolutions on a light piece of air-filled leather. You'll need some muscles in your wrist and forearm.

Go ahead and stand up again with your bowling arm at your side and your thumb touching your leg. If you have a football (if you don't you'll need to use your imagination) hold it in that hand with your thumb touching your leg. The nose of the football is pointed away from you. If you were standing on a bowling alley, it would be pointed at the pins. Remember this position.

Now if you pay close attention to the motions of your body when you throw a football in an underhanded spiral, you'll notice that at first you cup your wrist, meaning, you curl your wrist in towards your forarm. When you spiral the football underhand, you un-cup or collapse your wrist. That's actually the technical terminology for this type of bowling method: cup and collapse.

There are three things that make this technique difficult:
1. Bowling balls are heavier than footballs
2. The arm's natural motion in a bowling swing tends to over-rotate
3. Timing is crucial

The first is easy to understand. Put your hand in a bowling ball and try throwing it into a couch or bean-bag underhand-spiral-like the same way you do with a football.

The second challenge is to avoid over-rotation. A car's tires are limited in how much they can rotate left or right. Your wrist and arm can rotate more than your car tires. Imagine a car that allowed you to turn the wheel almost 180 degrees (so it is near pointing "backwards"). That's not much help in turning a car. The same thing is true of your arm.

Remember holding the football at your side with your thumb touching your leg. The nose of the football is pointed in front of you. When you attempt to use a normal bowling swing and throw the bowling ball in an underhanded spiral like the footbal, your hand and arm will tend to keep rotating beyond this point. Hold your bowling arm in front of you at shoulder height with your palm pointed towards the floor. Now put a football in your hand. Where is the nose of the football pointed? Now throw a spiral with the football from that position. Watch the rotation of the football when you do that. If it was a car tire instead of a footbal, which direction would it be travelling in? It would be coming right at you! We want to make the bowling ball hook, not rotate backwards.

So when using this technique, throw the underhand spiral, but don't let your arm rotate around. Keep the palm of your bowling hand pointed towards the pins. Think of throwing an underhand spiral with the football where your palm (not the back of your hand) and the belly of the footbal is pointed towards the pins. Nose towards the pins, belly towards the pins. Halfway between is the goal. I'll try to get some pictures of this to help.

Finally, timing. The quicker you can move from cup to un-cup, the faster the ball will rotate. This is true for a football as well as a bowling ball. The bowling ball must be cupped through almost the entire bowling swing. So think of waiting until the ball is almost right next to your leg, almost at the bottom of the swing, before trying to throw the spiral. If you begin the spiral too soon, you won't get any rotation on the ball. It is better to be too late. The better the timing and the quicker the uncupping motion, the more rotation.

How do the pros do it?

The pros don't use any one specific method because different lane conditions require different types and amounts of hook. That's a lesson for another day. However, all include a firm wrist, strong fingers, and good timing.

I don't know how long this link will last but the Discovery Channel show "Time Warp" did a nice piece that explains some of what is going on. Maybe more importantly, it shows in very slow, clear detail what is happening. It could be better, but it's the best video I've seen that I can share with you via the Internet.

News Story: http://www.pba.com/news/feature.asp?ID=1020
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr5SBkoyxtk