We all know that in the typical T grip that spans are measured from the center of the thumb to the center of the finger holes.  Lip to lip of the setup, from Thumb to fingers.

I had recently consulted with the true KING, King of the Mill on my on going small nick on my thumb.

He ended up in essence lenghthening my span slightly but also in essence lengthening my middle finger span in relation to my ring finger.
For once my middle finger does not look crinkled up in the ball(more off ball surface than the ring), (now the ring looks more relaxed in the ball both fingers appear to have the same curvature! now.  

My previous span was crafted after rigidly following the Bill Taylor concepts of spanning from his timeless book "Drilling and fitting a bowling ball".

One of the things I noted for the King in his evaluation was that ever since I had gone to an oval grip from a round I had noted a feeling of my middle finger being shorter in feel than when I used the same span with a round thumbhole.  Of dropping unless I actually used stronger pitches in the thumb vs the pitches I had used with a round grip in the same span.

Therefore his solution of lengthening the ring(before I typically had a 1/16 longer ring often)  now I have a 3/64 longer middle finger per King.

From this change I came up with a concept I call "Release point spanning".

That is that instead of measuring spans to the center of the grip, that we instead measure spans from the center of the finger holes to the release point of the thumb hole.  I define the release point as the last place that your thumb touches as your thumb leaves the thumbhole.  Drillers also call this spot the hang spot.

This spot is located at the corner of your thumbhole for a righty(the right corner), and for a lefty it is the left corner of your thumbhole.

I probably need this concept more as thumb is truly oval, and my angle of oval is near 45 degrees.  What this means is that when I replaced a round thumb insert with an oval one because of the ovalling and because of the angle I may have moved my release point distance(the distance from the hang spot to center of my middle finger) middle finger distance oh, at least 1/16 to 1/8 closer.
In addition if the measurement from the ring finger had been recorded though it would be longer than standard(ie we are measuring from the center of ring finger) to the corner of the thumbhole, we would find that the ring would also now be slightly shorter for an angled oval hole.


(I would have trouble illustrating this here but it should be easy to picture).

Ah what the heck, let me try!


Traditional

--X------X
---------
---\----/--
---------
----\-/----
----\T\-----
----------

Release point span recording
--X------X
----------
---\----/-
----------
---\--/---
----\/---
----\T\--


The idea above is for the righthander above to measure to that corner of his thumbhole(LEFT) where his thumb exits the ball LAST.

Then record these measurements (note for the same set of drilled holes and inserts this measurement will be longer for the ring finger and shorter for the middle finger).  However if we measure to this point for both ovals and round holes and keep the distance always the same it will FEEL exactly the same for ovals and round thumbs!  Yes thumb must be placed in a slightly different spot for ovals.

Also note the point on the thumb where one measures from is not always the exact same place from bowler to bowler.  Bowlers with a greater angle of rotation than others will be more in the "corner of the thumbhole", bowlers with less angle of thumb rotation will be measured to a spot more to the center of the thumbhole.

To summarize, the adjustments King has made for me(lengthening middle finger in relation to ring) and a slight overall lengthening would have been the result if these measurements had been kept constant for me when I first went to an oval thumb!  Approximately. (PS he has made other adjustments for roll and tilt also, the man is a genius of the mill!)

REgards,

LUckylefty
PS this concept reminds me of the picture in Bill Taylor's book where he shows a driller measuring with a thin metal flexible ruler from the thumb to the middle finger.  Bill is poo pooing this method in his book as an out of date method.  However, maybe if we applied this old fashioned out of date method to a measurement from the hang spot part of the thumb to each of the fingers we may actually end up with a drilling method that works for all thumbs.  Regardless of shape, (round or oval) and accounts for the amount of thumb rotation in the hole.

Sounds like I"ve written a poorly written post that is undecipherable.

Because the concept is easy.  I think I must have explained it poorly.


REgards,

Luckylefty

I agree that the adjustable ball is a great too.

I was not proposing above to do the pitches off the new line from middle finger to Release point.  No go ahead and do thumb pitch off center line.
Ie one must know that the release point for that particular bowler is 1/2 inch off thumb center or 3/8 whatever(varies from bowler to bowler).

My real point is the following.  The release point span varies(as one uses either oval or round thumb)  shorter for one who has a definitive oval and a 45 degree oval angle versus one who has little oval and a 30 degree thumb oval angle.  And then longest if one just puts in a round thumb hole.

Assumption above is all three types of thumbs are put in a hole drilled at the same spot on ball.  

HOWEVER the ball drilled with the 45 degree oval angle and large ovaling amount of thumb will be almost 1/8 shorter straight up the release point - middle finger line.

Therefore I believe taking this second set of measurements from center of fingers to the release point(which will give one a longer measurement for ring and shorter for middle in most cases if not all as release point for all seems to be more towards middle finger than the center of thumb).  Will produce the most consistent results of maintaining the release point span.

My other point being taken a real comfortable grip with the adjustable ball which has round thumbs and then throwing in an oval insert in to that hole makes the release point span shorter in both fingers.

What King of the mill recently did for me I believe has reestablished my proper release span, he lengthened middle a good bit, near 1/8 and also lengthened ring near 1/16.  This resulted in reestablishing a proper release point span that the oval had shortened.

REgards,

Luckylefty

Only one epiphany allowed per day, LL.

You can now relax until tomorrow.
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two of nine

Lots of food for thought, my brain is full now.  

Back when I was still using oval thumbholes, my ball driller ovaled both the front and the back.  However, he compensated by adjusting the cut-to-cut span for the pilot, so that the spans ended up matching those that he had measured when he fitted my hand.

When I started drilling my own stuff, I started using round thumb inserts, as I don't have access to a mill.  I thus had to change the cut-to-cut spans accordingly.
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Horrid in Doubles, torrid in Singles...
...that's The Curse of Dusty.

LL, how the hell I missed this topic I will try this in the shop tomorrow. the guys formlly named King of the Mill is off the chain when it comes to this stuff. I think he's on a well deserved vaction this week.
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www.bowlritelanes.com
www.nextlevelproshop.com

A little update I showed a pro shop buddy of mine who enjoys brainstorming with me the new oval I created.

I showed him how all of a sudden I have a lot of versatility to break the wrist back for spares or cup for strikes which I had lost a bit with the symmetric oval.  (Had to make tight to hold on due to shorter release point span).

He was impressed with the fit, lack of tape (down to 1 or 2 pieces) and cleanliness of release.  I was impressed with how easy it is to do!

REgards,

Luckylefty