Ball Fit

[bowlersam]

Hey. I'm new to Bowling. From a place where no Pro Shop or coaches available so I learn bowling from forums and by watching YouTube videos and try to apply what I learn.

Average is 165, we don't have league play or books. It's from the record I keep. May be off by 5 pins plus minus.

I've read that one can not out bowl a bad fit and that may be my case as I fitted my self through the advices I received on different forums.

So in a nut she'll, life has given me lemons and I'm making lemonade.

Came here in hope to get some better advice. The forum I was at for last few months has a fitting system designed by Mo Pinel. But pros there are not as helpful as I would like them to be. A slight deviation from the norm and they act like I had committed a sin.

Anyway. Long story short. I need advice in fitting department.

My specs so far as I have done them myself to the best of my humanly abilities are as follows. I'm a righty by the way with dry skin and a little less flexibility than I wanted to have. My MF bends to 80* RF to 45*. Thumb doesn't want to go back beyond 90*. On a Coke Can I fall between index and MF and when I let thumb bend towards palm (I put a tennis ball on the floor, picked it up and then let it slip and allowed my fingers and thumb to meet) my thumb hits the fingers between MF and RF, don't know if this information would help.

PAP 4 and 7/8 over 1/4 up. Have no Armadillo, so I marked the first ring nearest to finger holes and brought it to horizontal and marked the top of ball. Don't know if that actually is my correct PAP, but I did my best.
Speed 14 mph off hand
Rev Rate 200 or so
Axis Rotation 45 to 55*
Axis Tilt 8 to 10*

Like to play up the boards and down and in.

I squeeze the ball. Tried not to but I do. I reckon it's because of bad fit but don't know how to correct. My fingers hurt and fingers and thumb have callouses. Over all, I'm in pain after bowling 6 games and can't bowl for next 2 days.

With minor tweaks, the pain has gone down quite a bit, but it's there, none the less.

My drilling specs are as follows.

MF 4 and 3/8, full Span, 3/8 left and 1/8 forward. Full span. Finger hole size 25/32. I started out with 11/32 but it's permanently swollen with callouses on both side of first crease.

RF 3 and 3/8 (Sarge Easter, developed trigger finger and can't go back to full finger tip in RF any more), 1/2 right and 3/8 Reverse

Thumb size 31/32, 3/16 Reverse and 1/16 Left. My non bowling hand thumb can fit in 27/28 easily, but bowling hand thumb is permanently swollen and has a bump on the first knuckle. Which I have to scrape off every week to keep it at little less in size.

That's my story in a nut shell.

Can I get some help please. I'm desperate to get rid of this pain in my fingers and hand.

As far as span is concerned, I have gone from 4 and 1/8 to 4 and 1/2. 4 and 3/8 seems much comfortable and Web around my thumb and index finger is taught but not tight. My nail hits the back of the Finger Hole a hair may be but not always.

Help please.
 

[WOWZERS]

Lefty, you should take your own advice. Why did you have to include the pot shot in your answer which you posted first. If you don't want someone else finishing what you started, don't start anything and focus on your own advice, and only focus on what the original OP asked. You could have posted your response without including the pot shot.


Sam....as for the fit, this is going to be trial and error. In my experience almost NEVER do you get the right fit the first time out. You are going to have to get it close, go try it on the lanes, see how it feels, and if it is good, keep trying it over a few days. If it is not good, go back, make an adjustment, and go back until you get it to where you want the feel. Don't make a wholesale change in every ball until you can bowl for a few days over multiple games to account for swelling and shrinkage in your hand/thumb. Once you get comfortable and you have taken some time, then make the change in your other equipment.

With you being in the middle of the season, it is tough to make a change like this. Feel is everything and if you are thinking about your thumb, you are not going to be concentrating somewhere else, especially during league. Practice practice practice.

[bowlersam]

Lefty, you should take your own advice. Why did you have to include the pot shot in your answer which you posted first. If you don't want someone else finishing what you started, don't start anything and focus on your own advice, and only focus on what the original OP asked. You could have posted your response without including the pot shot.


Sam....as for the fit, this is going to be trial and error. In my experience almost NEVER do you get the right fit the first time out. You are going to have to get it close, go try it on the lanes, see how it feels, and if it is good, keep trying it over a few days. If it is not good, go back, make an adjustment, and go back until you get it to where you want the feel. Don't make a wholesale change in every ball until you can bowl for a few days over multiple games to account for swelling and shrinkage in your hand/thumb. Once you get comfortable and you have taken some time, then make the change in your other equipment.

With you being in the middle of the season, it is tough to make a change like this. Feel is everything and if you are thinking about your thumb, you are not going to be concentrating somewhere else, especially during league. Practice practice practice.

Thanks. But there is no league. There never has been.

I now understand that I can not make many changes at one time. But the hand is interconnected bones and flesh. If I have the thumb pitch right for my hand but have wrong finger pitches, my hand will sit differently on the ball and correct thumb pitch could feel all wrong. And Vise versa.

I know it is hard. A hell lot hard to get a correct fit DIY kinda way but my choices are, we'll, none. Only one way. I do it myself, blow it, start over.

First it was span. Thank God it's corrected within 1/16th of an inch.

Thumb all the way in, upto to the knuckle, finger laid on ball, and no feeling of stretch anywhere.

I need to get this feeling after putting my fingers, too, in the ball.

I tried MF with. 4 and 1/8th to 4 and 3/8s. 3/8 doesn't make it feel too bad. Still pinches at the sides of the crease though. Nail very seldom touches back of the hole.

Next I'm thinking of moving my MF pitch to 3/8 Reverse instead of 1/8 forward. This might make it easier to feel the ball with the pad of my finger without pulling my thumb up.

Let's see what advices I receive and how good they work.

[WOWZERS]

Sam

You are correct in your description of how everything in the span/grip is connected. The tough part is knowing what is right versus what feels right but may be not there yet.