Cupped Vs. Broken Wrist Bowling Hand Positions

By: bowlingball.com, Originally Posted: 11/5/16; Updated: 1/9/2022

There are hand positions in bowling which can extend your bowling ball skid distance or shorten the skid distance based on how your wrist is hinged at the moment of release.

If you examine the cupped vs. broken bowling hand positions, you will find the “cupped” position helps you to exit your thumb out of the ball quickly and help it pick up traction on the lane surface more quickly than the “broken wrist” position.

A “cupped” position of your wrist means that the back of your hand is nearly 90 degrees tilted forward and not straight with your forearm.

If you extend your arm outward with your palm facing upward and your fingers forward, then “cup” your wrist to allow your fingers to face the sky, you will be in the commonly referred to “cupped wrist” position.

A “cupped” wrist position promotes a fast thumb exit from your bowling ball. This allows you to apply decisive finger action to the bowling ball and add revolutions in the process.

With an opposite hinging of your wrist, the “broken wrist” position means that you extend your arm outward with your palm facing upward and then allow your wrist to collapse downward tilting back as far as it can in the opposite direction of the “cupped” position, your wrist will hinge backward and that position is typically known as a “broken wrist” position.

The “broken wrist” position can also be referred to as an "unhinged wrist Position;" it promotes a slow exiting of your bowling thumb from the ball, after your fingers exit the ball first, and thereby increases ball skid length distance with few revolutions applied to the ball at the moment of release.

A “flat wrist” position, as you likely suspect, is one where the back of your hand is straight with your arm and provides a neutral release position with modest revs and with moderate ball skid distance.

It is important to mention that although many, many bowlers set-up on the approach using the “cupped” wrist thinking they will remain in that position throughout their swing and release movements, they actually collapse the wrist on the downswing and lose the “cupping” position established at set-up.

By the time the bowling ball swings back and downward to the release zone, the “cupped wrist” totally disappears and more often than not, the wrist is in a slight “broken wrist” position when the ball exits the hand.

This common release tendency can fool the bowler into thinking he or she is in a strong release wrist position when, in fact, he or she is not.

Rather than lengthy explanations as to how to effectively use a “cupped wrist” position, it is best to say that using a wrist support device which can be adjusted to both “cupped” and “broken” wrist positions is the quickest and best method to set your wrist in a predetermined position and then simply allow the release to happen.

The device can be set to a straight wrist position also. This is a much easier way of retaining “cup” or “broken” wrist positions or a “flat wrist” position by choice because the support device locks in the hand position throughout the swing cycle.

Unless you are gifted athletically and have a very strong wrist and arm, it is difficult to retain a cupped wrist position throughout your swing and release.

If you are dead set on trying to gain revs, consult with your bowling instructor before attempting any special wrist and hand actions to avoid any risk of injury and to develop a proper technique.

If you are a “stroker” type player delivering your ball with a small amount of hook, use a slightly broken wrist position to free up your swing and apply a consistent release action to your bowling ball. The power release requires a swing alignment change compared to a slight hook release because the ball will hook more with added revs. Since your release is an extremely important component of your game, it can be repeated that using the services of an experienced instructor to help this process is in your best interests.

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