Go with what will benefit you over the long term. Your thumb situation indicates something is off. What if that something ends up costing you some type of serious damage to your thumb other than some torn skin, such as a ligament tear?
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You're not Mr. Purple.
 Some guy on another job is Mr. Purple.
 You're Mr. Pink.

Andy, Ide say no thumb it. Befor the end of last season and I knew I was going to stop bowling, I decided to have some fun for the last month or 2, and bowled no thumb, something I can do with some success. I can help you with the spares.

When I first started doing it, I spared with my whole hand, but found that it always missed right, seen as my body had been projecting the ball so far right on the first shot. So what I did was get my plastic, and instead of trying to kill the revs, or compensating for the hook, I revved the bejesus out of the ball, but DIRECTLY up the back. Went pretty much perfectly straight. I used it for 10's and 6's, funnily enough I spared them almost as well as I used to whole handed.

For 3's and 9's just take a less agressive ball, and bowl your strike line, its that simple. If you dont feel confortable with that you can always move way left throw it at the gutter with a bit of hook and pick it up easy.

Left hand side spares were pretty easy. If your comfortable turning the ball most of the lane, use the revs, play the gutter, and your set. If you dont want to play so much hook, use your plastic, and it will give you less turn. I never tried it, but I guess you could always go up the back of the ball ala 10 pin conversion release that I said earlier.

Dont try and swing the whole lane just because you can. But dont try and kill it to keep the swing down. The most power I generated using no thumb was playing a pretty conventional line, through 15-17 out to about 6-7 and back again with a Medium condition ball (my favourite for it was my Triple Threat).


Dry lanes are the problem with this, as you said. Try not to go with plastic, I never had much success with it. The biggest advantage I got from no thumb was the ease at which I could project the ball right, and from deep. As weird as this sounds, play a tight deep line with it when it gets dry. Dont try and swing it the whole lane. Ball will only burn up, and all that power will go to waste.

Have fun with it, cause you know if you get locked in, the strikes are going to come thick and fast.

Im sure there are some full time No thumbers on here that could help you more, but on the off chance they dont see this in time, I thought I would chime in.

good luck and high scoring
matt

Thanks for the advice matt.

Strider, I signed up for the state tournament in the beginning of the year, so I'm obligated.  And no, I don't suddenly need pitches, I've always needed it, but now I REALLY notice it, now that my thumb skin has become softer.  Actually, I always had this problem, but during the past season, my thumb skin became stronger and I wasn't affected as much.  I tried about 1/8th lateral before, and that helped some of the pain, but not fully so that's why I'm assuming I should try more anyways.  And the forward is due to the fact I've always had to grip the ball.  Actually, as a test today, I tried to have my hand as free from gripping as possible, and the thing just dropped straight down with a loud bang.  But that's all another issue.  I'll have to have a long discussion with my (new) driller about that and see what he says.  Like you said, it's probably not helping by my lay off, but I needed pitches before anyways.

What I think I'll do, is come prepared to no thumb it, but as you said, take some shots (with tape) with my thumb in and see what happens.  What I'm hoping at the least, is that if I can't just bowl normal, hopefully I'll be able to use my thumb for at least 10 pins or something.

Also, about the lateral thing.  I'm also assuming I need more, because on the downswing, I could feel my thumb pressing and ripping against the right side of the thumb hole, and I remember learning a while back, that you pitch to the side that has pain, which would be the palm side.

Oh and about the revs, yeah I'm sure.  If Nick Smith is around 475-500, I'm definitely above that.  it looks somewhat similar to a video RPM Max posted earlier, in which the rpm rate was around 560-570.
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- Andy


Brunswick...........'nuff said.

Edited on 6/2/2005 8:59 PM

If you use New Skin or any of the equivalent products, use it with a thin layer of cotton and it will hold up much better.  Put down a layer of New Skin and while it's still wet, lay a very thin layer of cotton on top.  Then coat again with New Skin, being sure to "plaster" in all the edges of the cotton.  Let that dry, then add one more coat of New Skin.  Be sure to let it dry completely before throwing a ball.  --  JohnP