As a former golfer, one of the sayings of a good golfer is you can spot a golfer's level just by his grip and stance before they ever move.

It is pretty accurate.  Golfers with great grips that come to mind are
Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Sam Snead, all come to mind.

There grips are so good and so perfect for their anatomy that it is tough for them to play bad golf.  I think of so many golfers that I have seen that are done before they get started.  The advice to just put ones palms parallel to each other and the back of the left hand pointing straight at the hole has ruined so many golfers start it is incredible.  (Frequently I read on this forum of people complaining of their slices).  This is so often preprogrammed just because of the lax way they take their grip).

So it is with bowling.  Thie difference is that in bowling it is difficult to see the grip within the hard confines of the ball.  And yet many a game is held back because of errors in span and pitches that are inappropriate for a person's personal hand anatomy.

The perfect full span grip is defined so well by Bill Taylor in his book "Fitting and Drilling a bowling ball".  In it he describes methods to determine the perfect span(middle of last and next to last joint to lip of finger insert or hole), perfect thumb pitches(forward/reverse are based on span), lateral thumb pitches(based on the coke bottle test)and differences in span length's for middle and ring finger(based on laying hand on ball and observing difference in lengths).

His method usually ends up giving a satisfactory result for supplying ideal elements of hold, lift and turn for most common bowling situations.  Note most people end up following his method with some reverse thumb pitch(if span over 4 1/4 inches), some lateral under palm pitch(if right handed right pitch) (if left handed then left pitch) this element ends up supplying turn while the bowler throws with a straightish elbow position and straight or cupped wrist.

Now however we find many bowlers saying things like I want to have foward pitch on my thumb.  My question is why?  The usual answer is something like, "well there's a guy at my house who shot 300 last night and he uses forward".  OOOOOO KAAAY?  "What's that got to do with you?"

Another comment, "I want to have lateral out"?  Why?  "Well, I heard, Brian Voss or Kimbo use lateral out!".  My response, "I see!"

To be continued!!!!

REGards,

Luckylefty

This

Bull, does cupping your wrist vs having a straight wrist, play any factor in having a 33 degree gripping angle..? =:^D

Lucky, well that's what I was trying to get at. So, thumb pitches that are standard, i.e. BT standards, are negotiable, depending on a bowlers release, cupped vs. non cupped. I would assume bevel would fall along the same lines. =:^D

What if the perfect fit results in an imperfect roll? My perfect fit is 1/4 reverse and 1/2 under but this pitch combination results in so much axis rotation that I'm always in an over/under problem. When I go to 0 lateral and 1/4 reverse I get the ball to read the lane much better and have a better reaction but the pitches cause the thumb nail to crack. So what to do? Toe every tournament with comfort or not practice much and hope the pitches don't cause major trouble during a tournament.

I redrilled  V2  and a spare ball to 1/4 under and 1/4 reverse. I want to get the thumb nail crack healed then I might push the 0 line again. After being used to seeing the ball roll with 1/8 away or 0 palm, I couldn't believe how much axis rotation the 1/4 under gave me. I'm thinking of drilling something symmetrical-cored with a pin 3 inches from the pap and 1 inch from the val. The cg close to 3 3/8 from pap and the balance hole on the pap or a little closer the grip centerline.  It might be rolled out at the arrows but at least I will know I can kill the axis rotation.

I have heard of the guys using more forward in the thumb and reverse in the fingers but I have not had trouble with the ball jumping at the end of the pattern. Last year most of my trouble was when I had to move in and I couldn't get a reaction with enough angle to carry well. I was usually caught in the 4 10 trap. I would square up a little and 4 pin then in a little and flat 10.
 As for the pitches the 1/4 reverse is a little much, but I knew 1/2 under and 1/4 reverse caused no thumb problem. So I went with the 1/4 x 1/4 to make sure the nail healed. So far so good almost completely healed. I have some tape deep in the thumb to make the feel ok. I think I will try 1/4 under by 1/8 reverse when the crack is gone and see how that works.

ttt

Greg T -- It's been a couple of years since I read Bill's book, but best I can remember it's strictly about fitting, no info on mechanics of drilling.  --  JohnP