In Feb. 2005 I had my middle finger on my bowling hand severely smashed in the underground of the ball return. I made what seemed to be a good recovery with a few movement problems but what appeared to be nothing major. I actually was able to throw the last few weeks of the 04-05 season in late April. Obviously I had feel issues but just happy to bowl. I bowled summer league but put in no practice due to other obligations. Now with the season started up I have now began to practice and I have found a major problem. I cant feel the ball on my middle finger anymore at the bottom of the swing. I am putting major workout on my ring finger, but I cant get it back with the injured finger. Before the injury I was averaging 230's(house shot) and could play anywhere with different ball rolls. Needless to say without being able to feel the ball at the bottom my game has fallen badly. My current finger pitches are 5/16 reverse in both fingers this gave me great projection and allowed for really good ball roll. Has anyone ran into this before and have any suggestions for instance putting forward pitch or zero in the middle finger to try and make the finger do some work?? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time

Track, that's a toughy! Is your finger actually still injured, is it just numb, & does it hurt at all when you bowl? If it is injured even slightly, & you can't feel anything when you bowl, you may cause more injury without even knowing it. Assuming it is not injured, just numb, I think you could leave the pitches alone & change spans slightly. If you are not stretched, I would add 1/16" to the middle finger, and/or decrease the ring span by 1/16". that should place more load on the middle finger, but be sure you're not doing damage to it. I would do that in 1/16" increments until you notice a difference. Wish you luck! If the end of your finger is like dead with no strength available, then that's a whole different story.
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Wayne
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