An oval thumb hole just fits more snug and still allows you to get out of the ball cleanly.  When you have a circle thumb hole it's tough to get the pad and the top of your thumb snug enough without having the sides of your thumb smashed too tightly.  That's why people that use circles will generally have them drilled to fit the sides of their thumb and add tape to make up the difference on the padded and back side of the thumb.  If that makes any sense at all lol...
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STORM!  DEXTER!  CAN'T GO WRONG!  THIS IS MY TOURNAMENT!


http://maddox.xmission.com/

oval here and NEVER going back.........
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JEFF
Better....much better!

I joke with people who see my thumb hole and say ... " what the @^^)!@^% "  And I tell them,....it's like sex!  Perfect fit !

Then I always get the raised eyebrow look.... "reeeaally" ??
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JEFF
Better....much better!

Edited on 4/7/2004 7:45 AM

And.........in trying a ball without grips........I have oval finger holes too!
Nice
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JEFF
Better....much better!

MY thumb shrinks and swells as it pleases.

so far the fit is night and day. I use have the ball drilled so it was at my biggest. the problem would be more of expansion sideways.

I would go through 10 pcs of tape in a night. Now I have Oval thumbs and I use maybe 1 pcs a night at the most.

you will have to work with it. I had one ball drilled a little bigger oval and It was too big.
 I was using 700x700 ( I have no idea what that means LOL!) I went to 100x100 too big.

so I had the drill bit size reduced a 1/32 and split the oval size to 850x850. and it's the best  fit I have had without having to tinker all game with tape.

it's worth a try.
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"deserves got nothing to do with it."
-- William Munny

I use oval inserts for my fingers in most of my balls now (10th frame lifter/oval inserts) and I really want to try an oval thumb hole, I have had more trouble with thumb holes then you can ever imagine.
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15 years and still going strong! 15 years old that is! The names Warrior Princess, Xena..Warrior Princess
AM not A CHICK OF BOWLING but I wanted to be in Manda's clique And why would I "saw" pins in half, THATS A WASTE OF PINS! I'd rather blow it over with my storm, and 21mph ball speed on dry shots.

Everyone should use oval thumb holes unless their thumb happens to be perfectly round which is extremely unusual.

Most bowlers who drill round holes shape the hole into an oval using tape, or magic carpets, or both.

I tried oval thumb inserts and did not like them. Like Steven I couldn’t find one that was right from the start and had to sand on them to get the right shape. Even then I didn’t like the fact that they were not tapered.

Oval thumb inserts are great if you happen to fit a size with little adjustment and you don’t mind the lack of taper.

I used to drill a 29/32 thumb hole and work the sides out by hand till the width is 63/64. Doing this much shaping it was hard to get a consistent feel in the thumb.

I finally went to custom thumb inserts a few years back. I took a thumb that I liked and had it replicated. Now I simply make and insert and slap it in and I’m done.