proper thumb fitment?

[Big Nick]

This may be a little long winded, but I want to provide some info before asking my questions.

I just got my first fingertip-drilled ball last week, and after rolling a few games and a lesson, the back of my thumb was pretty sore. There weren't any open blisters or anything, it was just a little raw. The pro who drilled the ball for me was pretty sure that we opened the thumb slug too much while fitting it, and after my lesson and seeing how much tape it took to keep me from losing the ball too early in my downswing, he replaced the slug and re-fit the thumb. We both erred on the side of caution with the re-fit, and I got hung up pretty bad during practice at league last night. Luckily the pro was still in the pro shop, and he was able to tweak it and get me back in time to throw it two or three more times before practice was over. After the tweaks were made and with liberal use of hand conditioner, I didn't get hung up in the ball at all during league. My thumb was still sore from the ill-fitting slug that had been replaced, but it wasn't any worse after league that it had been before. Now, close to 24 hours later, my thumb is ever so slightly red on my knuckle and isn't painful at all, even to the touch (I've got my other league tomorrow night, and I'm hoping it will be back to normal by then). Given that I'm no worse off after league last night, I'm guessing that my fitment issues aren't issues any more....... kind of hard to tell, though, since it was already sore before the games last night.

With all that out of the way, I'll get to my questions.
1) Is the thumb supposed to be tighter front-to-back or side-to-side? I'm just trying to figure out where the main frictions points are supposed to be.
2) I know that you aren't supposed to really squeeze the ball to have to hold onto it, but surely you have to squeeze a little right? Just a little pressure or should it truly be none at all?
3) I've seen illustrations that show where callouses can develop on a bowlers hand and what the causes might be, however I'm of the mind set that a little callousing is normal. Could some of my trouble on the back of my thumb be caused by the change in grip and not necessarily be indicative of anything being wrong?

[bowl1820]

With all that out of the way, I'll get to my questions.
First with your thumb still sore from before, you should really let it clear up. Then see how the new fit is working and if your rubbing anywhere.

Also remember since this is your first FT grip. It can take some time to tweak the fitting to get it just right.


1) Is the thumb supposed to be tighter front-to-back or side-to-side? I'm just trying to figure out where the main frictions points are supposed to be.
Thumb fit is a real personal thing, but assuming you have a oval thumb hole. Put your thumb in the hole and hold it against one side (not hard), the other side of your thumb should have a small gap or just barely touch. Front and back would be similar. As a starting place at least.


2) I know that you aren't supposed to really squeeze the ball to have to hold onto it, but surely you have to squeeze a little right? Just a little pressure or should it truly be none at all?
Ron Clifton describes it as "Hold the ball like you had a baby bird in your hand" your holding it, but not squeezing it.
See this http://www.bowl4fun.com/ron/tip7.htm


3) I've seen illustrations that show where callouses can develop on a bowlers hand and what the causes might be, however I'm of the mind set that a little callousing is normal. Could some of my trouble on the back of my thumb be caused by the change in grip and not necessarily be indicative of anything being wrong?

You can get some rubbing on the back of the thumb if your "knuckling" the ball. Bending the thumb in the hole (Can happen a lot when someone is squeezing the ball), your thumb should be straight.

If you know, what pitches were used for your thumb?

As for callousing I'm of the school there shouldn't any.

[AZBowla]

Sounds like you're squeezing it with your thumb to keep it in your hand. I learned with my first FT ball to cup it in my hand instead so that my thumb stays straight and then straighten my hand when I wanted it to drop off my thumb. Once the thumb is clear, whip your hand up and around the side (like the old analogy goes, "answer the telephone") and it should spin right up and hook nicely down the lane. As with anything new, it takes practice. You can practice your release by setting up some pillows to let it drop into or just spin it up on a towel over some soft carpeting. A few repetitions of this and you should get the hang of it. That's how I did it.

Edited to add: Also, like bowl1820's sig line says, it's not how much it hooks, it's where. I'm a lefty, so I used to stand clear over by the right gutter and spin the ball like no tomorrow, which chewed up my fingertips something awful. Sure I had a mean looking hook but no control. Now I stand in the middle with my left foot on the center dot and I lay the ball down over the second dot from the left when throwing (if you're right handed, it'd be the second dot from the right) and it has a nice controllable hook that finds the pocket pretty reliably. Now that I've got a better technique going, I'm ready for a bit more reactive ball. Hoping for some good results from my HR Terror I'm getting in a couple weeks (can't wait) but the old Brunswick Cyclone is staying in the bag for spares and dryer lane conditions just in case.

Good luck with the new ball!

[Big Nick]

First with your thumb still sore from before, you should really let it clear up. Then see how the new fit is working and if your rubbing anywhere.

Also remember since this is your first FT grip. It can take some time to tweak the fitting to get it just right.

With the exception of league tomorrow night, I'm not even going to touch a bowling ball until next Sunday.



Thumb fit is a real personal thing, but assuming you have a oval thumb hole. Put your thumb in the hole and hold it against one side (not hard), the other side of your thumb should have a small gap or just barely touch. Front and back would be similar. As a starting place at least.


Ron Clifton describes it as "Hold the ball like you had a baby bird in your hand" your holding it, but not squeezing it.
See this http://www.bowl4fun.com/ron/tip7.htm

After fitting, my thumb hole does have an oval shape, and it fits much like what you're describing. I'm definitely going to read that link just as quick as I get done writing this post.



You can get some rubbing on the back of the thumb if your "knuckling" the ball. Bending the thumb in the hole (Can happen a lot when someone is squeezing the ball), your thumb should be straight.

If you know, what pitches were used for your thumb?

As for callousing I'm of the school there shouldn't any.

I originally assumed I was knuckling the ball, but I was making a conscious effort to not turn the tip of my thumb in. Whether or not I was successful, your guess is as good as mine. Regardless, the original thumb hole was definitely too big and it seemed to me that my thumb was getting cocked inside the hole with all the pressure being on the inside of my thumb at the base and on the outside at the knuckle. I'm not sure of the pitch of the thumb hole, but whatever it is, it is very minimal.

As for the callousing, I guess what I meant was just a slight toughening of the skin.... something similar to how your fingertips will become sore and then toughen as you learn to play guitar. There's no real callous there, the skin just has to become accustomed to the new stimulus.

[Zothen]

Your thumb is suppose to be a snug fit! The reason the back of your thumb is sore is your still squeezing the ball. If you relax your thumb,it wont be sore.

Zothen

[Big Nick]

@zothen, I know for a fact that my thumb isn't relaxed, but I'm not sure how to do that without dropping the ball on my back swing. Could it have to do with wrist strength and not being fully accustomed to the weight of the new ball?

[Zothen]

When I changed my thumb from reverse pitch to 0 pitch I had to learn to relax my thumb and stay under the ball. I did this by changing arm swing from short to long and keeping my hand under the ball. You'll have to practice this,but,you'll get the hang of it! Take the lightest ball you have and practice lightly tossing it on your bed keeping hand under ball till release point or go to alley and practice. Also use a nice slow arm swing.

Zothen

[billf]

Nick, the thumb is suppose to be used strictly as a balance point. Most of this is accomplished with the base of the thumb. Having a snug fit and exiting properly should allow the entire thumb, or at least the two opposite sides of the thumb, to handle equal amounts of pressure of the ball and not callous the knuckle. Given that the thumb was too big to start, you had no choice but to grip. It's very common. Unfortunately only time will tell if it's correct now but it sounds like you have a good pro shop that's willing to work it until it's 100% perfect.
Good luck tomorrow night!

[Big Nick]

Thanks for the info, guys! I worked on the thumb fitment yesterday after work, and I think I've got it to where it needs to be based on all of your suggestions. I wound up with a piece of black tape both in front of and behind my thumb. It's quite snug, but my thumb was still coming out without any issue when I rolled the ball onto the floor. It did still feel as if the knuckle of my thumb was supporting more weight than it should, and I was trying to keep my thumb straight and squeeze as little as I possibly could. The skin on my knuckle was still a little aggravated at the time, so that could account for why it still doesn't feel quite right.

Hopefully tonight will go well without causing any more irritation to the back to my thumb. I'll also try to work on staying under the ball, but since I'm not 100% accustomed to the weight of the new ball, I can't always do that... especially later in the night as my forearm starts to fatigue. I have a wrist support that I haven't worn in while that I may wear for a while tonight to see if it helps. It isn't one of the fancy ones, it just helps keep my wrist straight instead of flexing backwards.

**EDIT**
I was reading some of the articles over at bowl4fun.com (specifically this one -> http://www.bowl4fun.com/ron/tip12.htm) and I may be trying to control my push away too much. If I just let it fall, like it says in the article, that should help some of this problem, as well..... i think :p

[Big Nick]

I just wanted to update everyone on how things went tonight. As I stated in my previous post, I started the night with a piece of black tape in front of and behind my thumb. It was a good snug fit, and for the majority of the first game, my thumb came out of the ball without any trouble. In fact, I was sure I had found the proper fitment, until the second game started...... At the beginning of the second game, my thumb hung up again, so I took out the piece of tape in the front of the thumb hole. Then I hung up again on the next shot, so the second piece came out. After that, the only time I got stuck was when my thumb wasn't relaxed (I've finally figured out what you guys mean :D). The only down side to taking all the tape out was that I stared losing the ball too early in my down swing... so I might need to put another piece of tape back in. I'm going to take the next few days off to try and get my thumb fully healed, and then hopefully I'll be ready for a practice game or two on Saturday where I can fiddle with tape placement and get it ready for Sunday.

[billf]

Now that you have felt the relaxed thumb you can understand why it's so hard to explain in print lol
Tape is meant to go in and come out to adjust for swelling, humidity, etc. Don't be surprised to fiddle with the tape a lot. Rest your thumb before it ends up looking like mine :)

[Big Nick]

Now that you have felt the relaxed thumb you can understand why it's so hard to explain in print lol

Tell me about it, LOL! The real kicker in the situation is that I don't know if I was getting hung up because the hole was becoming too tight because my thumb was swelling or if I was inadvertently pinching the ball.... truth be told, it was probably due to pinching way more than my thumb actually swelling. I started the first game off with three strikes, and I'm sure I got a little antsy and started pinching in anticipation of delivering the ball. The rest of the game was back and forth between good releases and late releases because my thumb was flexed somehow.

Now that I know what a relaxed thumb is supposed to feel like while it's in the ball, I'm going to spend my entire next practice session working on thumb fitment. I need to figure out what my go to tape regimen will be so I can start close and adjust from there depending on how swollen my thumb may or may not be on any given night.

[Big Nick]

Hopefully this will be my last update in this thread. I had every intention of staying out of the bowling alley until Saturday or Sunday in order to give my thumb time to rest. However, the skin on the back of my knuckle was back to normal by the time I got up for work yesterday morning....... and, one of my favorite bowling alleys had $8 unlimited bowling yesterday afternoon. So after work, my wife and I headed that way and we each bowled 6 games. I spent most of the first game messing with thumb tape, and I finally found something that I thought was close. However, I was still sticking in the ball a little, and I was noticing that my wrist was more sore than normal. About mid-way through the second game, I decided to put on my wrist support and see if that would help. Not only did it eliminate the wrist discomfort, it also helped me get out of the ball better. I came to the conclusion that some of my thumb problems came from my wrist being unable to support the ball at the bottom of the swing. I'm going to work on strengthening my wrist so that I can bowl without the support, but for the time being, I'm keeping it on. With it on I bowled my highest game ever in that particular house.