To kill some time and to gather some information from the "experts" while at nationals, I stopped by the amf/circle/columbia/track booth and had my span measured and grip checked.  I wanted to compare their recommendations to what I am actually using...  Currently, I had been using a span of 4 1/4, 0 middle finger pitch & 1/8" reverse ring finger pitch, and 1/8" left & reverse thumb pitch.  For me, it always felt on the short side, but when I completely put my thumb in the hole and relaxed my fingers over the ball, the edge of the grips fell approx 1/2 way between the first and second joints of my fingers.  I even talked them into walking out and watching me throw a few shots...  

Recommendation:  grabbing the ball too much as a result of too much reverse in my thumb, too short of a span, and not enough reverse in the fingers...  It was recommended that I increase reverse in the fingers to  5/8 (and possibly even more on future equipment), and increase my span to almost 4 1/2 while keeping my current thumb pitches.  I decided to give them a shot and had a power drive drilled up with those specs...  although I haven't thrown it yet, the ball feels as if it just lays in my hand...with my hand fully in the ball, I have almost no space between my hand and the ball.  Previously, I had a fairly sizable gap...  we'll see how it goes!

S^2
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-Strapper Squared

Alias Generator

Strapper,

Are your fingers, thumb actually, very inflexible?
My span is currently 4 3/4", fingers have 1/4" reverse for old age inflexibility, but my thumb has the Blutarski pitch, 0" x 0". I found forward thumb pitch a little uncomfortable (hard to get out of) but I might not have shortened the span enough. In any case, I find your shorter span unusual with 1/8" left and reverse. Could be inflexibility. just wondering.

(Blutarski pitch: In Animal House, Blutarski did so badly his grade poitn average was 0.0, which the Dean enunciated as "zero dot zero. When I asked my driller to move me from 1/4" reverse and 1/8" left to 0" pitches, he called it the Blutarski thumb.)

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"...for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise...."
J. R. R. Tolkien


Edited on 3/3/2006 2:39 PM

No, thumb and fingers aren't really inflexible... I would say normal.  When I had my hand fully inserted into the ball with my old span, I had a fair amount of room between the ball surface and my hand.  This sort of caused me to squeeze to hold onto the ball.  Lengthening my span actually allowed the ball to lay on my hand (inserted into the ball, there is little space between the ball and my hand).  The idea of increasing forward pitch (well actually keeping pitches the same while increasing span, which has the same effect as increasing forward) was again to help eliminate squeezing..more relaxed grip.  Reverse in the fingers was to get the ball to lay more naturally in my hand... and to reduce the likelihood of grabbing it at the bottom.  We were just trying to get the ball off as clean as possible.  We started with 5/8", but I can see myself actually going with more reverse..  the guy who fitted me up claims that some of the guys on tour use 1" for more reverse in the fingers.  Overall its much more comfortable than my old grip.  Initially it felt a little stretched, but after bowling with it for a week and a half now, it doesn't feel that bad.  I have noticed a couple things with the new grip.  First, my ball speed has increased a couple mph.  With my old grip I was  always fighting to keep speed up to prevent over reaction.  Now it just doesn't seem to be a big problem and I have been able to play straighter on the lane as a result.  Second, my revs may have decreased slightly, but nothing major.  I think now I have a better speed/revs match.  Overall, I think my number of revs are more consistant from shot to shot because I am getting out of the ball much cleaner.  

Its only been 10 or 12 days now, but I'm very happy with my new fit.  I'm in the process of plugging and redrilling my spare ball (I used to hand up in it pretty bad)...  If I can get out of it as cleanly as I have been getting out of the power drive with my new specs, I think my spare game will take a turn for the better (FINALLY!)... lol.
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-Strapper Squared

Wow...Pick up Sam Adams and LaVaar... What a DEFENSE!Bengals News

Strapper,

(Just back from vacation; so pardon the delay in replying)

If this new set of pitches and span is comfortable, & your thumb release is good and no pain results and no blood blisters or other indicators show up, then all is well and good.

Some notes (as far as I have learned):
- drilling standards used to say, with a properly fitted span and pitches, you should be able to place a pencil between your palm and the ball surface with having to force it into that space. Now I haven't seen anyone say that in a while, nor say against it; so I must assume it's still true.
- whenever you go to more reverse pitch in the thumb or the finger holes, the span must be increased, and
- whenever you go to more forward pitch in the thumb or the finger holes, the span must be decreased, in order to retain the same & proper feel,
IF the span was proper to begin with.

In summary, a(the) span(s) is(are) only correct for a bowler, given the fixed set of pitches for each of the gripping holes. Once a pitch changes, the span for the thumb to that finger (or both fingers) [iMUST[/i] change.

As an example for me, personally:
Back in the early 80s, my thumb had 3/8" reverse, 0" lateral; fingers had 0 reverse; spans were 5" and 5 1/8".
Currently, my thumb has 0 reverse & lateral; fingers have 1/4" reverse and span is 4 3/4" for both. (Dropped the ring span due to tendonitis that I don't want to return!)
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"...for advice is a dangerous gift, even from the wise to the wise...."
J. R. R. Tolkien