Author Topic: Gripping the ball (Read 1913 times)

VxSaUcYxV · « **on:** December 24, 2008, 11:20:16 AM »

I have somewhat of a slight problem of gripping the ball. What are some of the things you guys did to eliminate these problems?

Mike Austin · « **Reply #1 on:** December 24, 2008, 07:26:48 PM »

Make sure your thumb hole is tight enough.

Think about opening your hand, or pushing your thumb nail against the back of the hole. The key being trying to keep your thumb straight. If you drop the ball, that's good, some other adjustment needs to be made.

You may need to be refitted. Hands grow. Weight loss, weight gain. It's winter, your hand may be a little smaller, don't be afraid to add more tape.

VxSaUcYxV · « **Reply #2 on:** December 24, 2008, 07:29:07 PM »

I was thinking about trying some different lateral pitches to see if that helps.

quote:
Make sure your thumb hole is tight enough.

Think about opening your hand, or pushing your thumb nail against the back of the hole. The key being trying to keep your thumb straight. If you drop the ball, that's good, some other adjustment needs to be made.

You may need to be refitted. Hands grow. Weight loss, weight gain. It's winter, your hand may be a little smaller, don't be afraid to add more tape.

VxSaUcYxV · « **Reply #4 on:** December 24, 2008, 07:59:47 PM »

Yea my driller and I were thinking about tighten the thumb up and making the lateral towards my ring finger. I do not know if it will work, but I am hoping that it will.

quote:
I had this problem ever since i started bowling(been bowling for 6 years now) even had a small bruise on my thumb from last second squeezes, but my drillers eliminated my problem by a re-fit. The changes to my fit were we went with 0 lateral backed off my reverse by an 1/8th and offset my thumb to be almost under my middle finger instead of between the fingers. thats what helped me its worth a try.
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230-n-up-or-bust · « **Reply #5 on:** December 24, 2008, 08:17:30 PM »

After a rather drastic span change to reduce the stress on my grip, I've begun to place my thumb in the ball first and allow my fingers to "drop" into the hole ala Tommy Jones. Zero loss of feel or revolutions and reduced stress on my hand.
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JessN16 · « **Reply #6 on:** December 24, 2008, 08:21:17 PM »

quote:
Make sure your thumb hole is tight enough.

Think about opening your hand, or pushing your thumb nail against the back of the hole. The key being trying to keep your thumb straight. If you drop the ball, that's good, some other adjustment needs to be made.

You may need to be refitted. Hands grow. Weight loss, weight gain. It's winter, your hand may be a little smaller, don't be afraid to add more tape.

Mike,

I have tried for years to get comfortable with that feel, and I just can't. When I let a ball hang on my hand, and relax it completely, my thumb bends to self-bend inward, or away from the thumbnail. If I make it a point to open my hand wide, it's not all that comfortable. Plus, when I set a ball up to come off my hand that way, I'm very inconsistent in my lay-down point, and quite a few balls will hang on my thumb and hurt me.

I don't really squeeze the ball now, but my thumb is not straight in the ball, either. In fact, if I straighten out my thumb, it makes me press the pad of my thumb down, and that *does* feel like I'm squeezing.

So if what I do is the wrong way to go about things, I'm screwed.

Jess

Mike Austin · « **Reply #7 on:** December 25, 2008, 09:13:25 AM »

quote:
quote:
Make sure your thumb hole is tight enough.

Think about opening your hand, or pushing your thumb nail against the back of the hole. The key being trying to keep your thumb straight. If you drop the ball, that's good, some other adjustment needs to be made.

You may need to be refitted. Hands grow. Weight loss, weight gain. It's winter, your hand may be a little smaller, don't be afraid to add more tape.

Mike,

I have tried for years to get comfortable with that feel, and I just can't. When I let a ball hang on my hand, and relax it completely, my thumb bends to self-bend inward, or away from the thumbnail. If I make it a point to open my hand wide, it's not all that comfortable. Plus, when I set a ball up to come off my hand that way, I'm very inconsistent in my lay-down point, and quite a few balls will hang on my thumb and hurt me.

I don't really squeeze the ball now, but my thumb is not straight in the ball, either. In fact, if I straighten out my thumb, it makes me press the pad of my thumb down, and that *does* feel like I'm squeezing.

So if what I do is the wrong way to go about things, I'm screwed.

Jess

Jess,

If it doesn't hurt or you're not bleeding, then there is no wrong way. The open the hand visual (ala Norm Duke) usually helps to lessen grip pressure. With the thumb not kinked inside the hole, many times makes the ball fall off in the down swing.

Everybody is different. Depends on your thumb hinge, bevel, pitch, hole size, hole shape. It's just really hard to have a free loose swing and death grip the ball at the same time. Starting off with an ill fitting grip, starting/learning to bowl with bad habits causes knots on thumbs, blisters, etc... So many people think that is normal, it's not. I think this is the case with saucy, he doesn't know any better/realize his ball doesn't fit right. A little lateral pitch change is not going to make him stop squeezing it.

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VxSaUcYxV · « **Reply #8 on:** December 25, 2008, 08:37:42 PM »

Mike,

I do know that if I change the lateral pitch of my thumb, that it still won't help me from squeezing the ball. Honestly, how many bowlers have this problem. I think that a lot of people do grip the ball way to much. I am just trying to find out some ways that people fixed there problems.

dougb · « **Reply #9 on:** December 25, 2008, 09:43:38 PM »

I had the same problem for a long time. My coach helped me out in a couple of ways. He checked my balls to make sure the fit was right, sold me some tape to put on my thumb to give me a smooth release, and finally inserted a rubber device in the hole to prevent me from flexing my thumb at all. Once I used that for awhile on one ball I got the feel of what a straight, relaxed thumb was supposed to feel like and didn't need it on any of my other balls. Not sure what this handy gizmo is called... I did a quick search on some web sites and didn't see it.
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Brickguy221 · « **Reply #10 on:** December 25, 2008, 10:30:40 PM »

quote:
I had the same problem for a long time. My coach helped me out in a couple of ways. He checked my balls to make sure the fit was right, sold me some tape to put on my thumb to give me a smooth release, and finally inserted a rubber device in the hole to prevent me from flexing my thumb at all. Once I used that for awhile on one ball I got the feel of what a straight, relaxed thumb was supposed to feel like and didn't need it on any of my other balls. Not sure what this handy gizmo is called... I did a quick search on some web sites and didn't see it.

I'm guessing it was a "Thumbs Up-Thumbs Straight" that looked like the one in the following link???

http://www.bowlingindex.com/store/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=BI&Category_Code=FG&Product_Code=GR-ThStr
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Re: Gripping the ball