I began bowling a bit less than two years ago. My search for the perfect grip began about a year ago, as I increased the weight of the ball from 12 to 14 to 15 lbs. My search was motivated by pain in he distal joint of my middle finger and the growing callas on the medial side and top of my thumb. It seemed that there was no limit to how big my thumb could get, and of more concern was that I would wake up the morning after bowling with pain and limited ability to flex my middle finger. It was clear that if bowling was something I wanted to do then I would have to find a solution for my grip problems.
I didn't know where to start, so I bought a Columbia video about drilling and fitting. I got the idea of moving the angle of the drill toward the pain.
I went to see a driller and explained my problem. He measured my span on the fitting ball and drilled the thumb 1/8 reverse and 1/8 left lateral, my span was 4 7/16 and 4 9/16, I am right handed. This was much worse for my thumb and my finger joint pain was unchanged. I thought, well, could be I didn’t move far enough toward the pain. The video was clear that the move should be toward the pain. We slugged and re-drilled every other week for several weeks. He thought my thumb should be under palm. And we went there too. I found that my thumb was unhappy no matter what angle it went into the ball.
Chuck, who drilled my first ball, had stopped drilling several months ago, but now fate had returned him to drilling and fitting on a part time basis. I decided to start over with Chuck. I asked him if he would work with me on finding a fit that didn’t hurt, he agreed, and has since become a great friend.
Chuck suggested that I might need to work on my swing and release by getting my thumb out of the ball ahead of my fingers. He said that if I would keep my arm straight, keep my hand behind the ball, not make an effort to turn the ball, but to feel the weight of the ball on my fingers as I felt/watched my hand and arm define the line that I had chosen. He was gently telling me that my release was a part of my problem. He was right.
I am not sure of the month, but I think it was this year that I visited this forum for the first time. I read luckyleftys’ answer to a question about where to go for all of the drilling information. I began to visit the forum often. I saw that there were a lot of questions about how to fit a ball so that injury could be prevented or minimized. I read every post related to span and fitting. I enjoyed the open spirit that included praise and criticism. Many of the posts were very informative but I found a tone in luckylefts’ writing that felt friendly and more, his posts seemed to answer some of my own questions very directly.
It is one thing to have the information – it is another thing to understand it. All of the questions and answers have contributed to my knowledge of bowling. I am not a knowledgeable bowler, but I am gaining.
Toward the end of last month I read several posts that explained - the coke bottle test. I had recently purchased a used ball and it was waiting to be re-drilled. I spoke with Chuck about the coke bottle test and picked a bottle. Chuck said that it looked like 3/8 to ½ under palm. I asked him to split the difference for this test drill, and give me ¼ reverse. My league started 10 minutes later. I rolled the 3 games with the new drill and found that I now had the most comfortable thumb fit that I have ever had, almost just right!! I now think that I will find the anatomically perfect thumb drill this month.
I want all of the contributors to this forum to know that I appreciate their individual questions and answers.
Edited on 10/15/2004 7:12 PM
