A couple of weeks ago I visited the pro shop and talked to the expert about pain and numbness in my thumb.  This fellow had "fixed" a couple of balls for me, but I never went so far as to actually have him measure me to see if my drilling sheet was correct.  This time we did the whole thing, measuring, checking flexibility, all the good stuff.  He suggested I go to a more relaxed grip, shortening my span by almost 1/2 inch.

Of course, I doubted this advice, but I took my least favorite ball out of my bag and told him to go for it.  He warned me that I'd likely see a pretty dramatic drop in my scores until I got used to the new drill.  Oddly I went out and tossed four games right around my current average.  The hardest part was adapting from my strike ball drilled the new way to my spare ball drilled the old way, so I took in my spare ball and asked him to set that one up the new way, too, and I'd spend a couple of weeks working with the redrilled equipment.

Since that time, I've only taken the two redrilled balls for league and for practice, and I've been amazed.  Each outing has produced scores consistently over my book average.  The three league sessions with the new stuff, my average has increased every week and the next week I score even higher.  We're not talking hundreds of pins, but a steady 10-15 pin increase each week.

So on Monday I started studying what was different besides the drilling.  Here's what I discovered.  Since I only had one strike ball, I HAD to move or make a hand adjustment when I saw the ball reacting poorly.  There was no indecision about which ball to throw.  There was no bail-out alternate if my main ball didn't seem to be working.  I'm finally learning to read the lanes and read my ball as it rolls.  I'm trying different lines to the pocket (unheard of for a lefty, I understand).

All in all, getting rid of my "arsenal" is making me a better bowler.  I can't wait for my next trip to the center to see what else is different.  I was going to run in and get my other stuff redrilled, but I think I'll wait a bit and then talk to the expert about drilling the other stuff to do different things on different conditions.  For now, my least favorite is getting the job done on the THS, so why reintroduce the multi-ball confusion on league night?

Just wanted to share.

Deb