One finger bowler here.. need help with hole placement

[RingMaster]

been bowling casually with friends for about 2 years now & finally bought my first ball yesterday. Ive always bowled with my middle finger by choice I average about 180 with house balls & hope to do a little better with my own ball. Ive tried bowling with 3 fingers & 2 fingers and not nearly as comfortable & only average about 140 so please no lectures or reasons why I shouldnt bowl with one finger Ive heard it all. Anyways what I need help with is where should I get my main hole placed on the bowling ball? I bowl with middle finger so should I get the main hole where the thumb hole should go or go with stardard hole placement? I want to have the most control possible.. Im 5'9'' 150 pounds & my ball is a 15lb Taboo heres link thanks http://www.bowlingball.com/products/bowling-balls/Hammer/10139/Taboo-Jet-Black.html

[bowl1820]

When you say you Only use one finger, do mean you dont have your thumb in the ball either? Which is what I'm assuming.

Regardless You would layout the ball, like you would any other. With the middle finger where it would normaly go. So the ball would react the way it was designed to.

If you put the fingerhole where the thumbhole should be, it throw off everything about the layout. The pin and cg would be way above your finger, the mass bias would be in your palm. Not to mention things like top weight.

Ok little lecture: the reason you were uncomfortable using 2-3 fingers would be because you were using house balls.

Using a properly fitted fingertip or even conventual grip ball, Im sure you could have easly average 180 or better.

But after all is said and done, it is up to you.

[RingMaster]

yes only middle finger is in a hole.. i cradle the ball in my palm until i release it to take the pressure off my middle finger.

Im still pretty new to all this & would like to take bowling a little more serious so I deff try out 2-3 fingers with my new ball.

Another thing I saw a guy who bowls with 2 fingers only (no thumb) and all his balls only had 2 holes in them. If I stick with bowling with only my mid finger is there anything wrong with getting my ball drilled with only ONE hole? how would that effect ball behavior etc or would people consider that cheating of some sort? thanks

[striker12]

well you should go to 3 fingers or 2 and put a thumb hole in cause then your ball will balance out, if your drill a ball with 1 hole then your ball wont be balanced all together and it wont move much cause of a balance problem, ik this cause my brothers a 2 handed bowler and he tryed jsut drilling teh fingers in it and it would not move at all untill he put the thumb in it then it started to move much better cause the ball know has a equal balence on it,

you can drill it with 2 holes but 1 hole will go deepers and more threw the core reducing hook there then the other one to find the perfect balance cause the ball is not balanced all the way arond as bowl sead theres a top weight.

[billf]

Not using a thumb creates more revs for anybody I have ever seen bowl that way. Yes, most went to a thumbed grip later to increase accuracy. Given what history says I will assume you will have a high ball speed with a high amount of revs. If so, that Taboo may be too much ball for a typical house pattern.
As long as you are getting it drilled, why not get it properly fitted for both fingers and thumb anyway? That way if you so choose, you can always practice occasionally using all the holes. Knowing a different way to roll it can come in handy when lane conditions dictate it. PBA star Osku Palermo bowls two handed but also uses what is considered a normal grip for the majority of his spares.
I think it's great that you are different than the rest but don't let it be to the detriment of your progress. Good luck and bowl great.

[martin]

1 finger? doesn't that make a high risk injuring your finger?

[RingMaster]

thanks (billf & striker) I will deff be getting it drilled properly in that case... @martin ironically the only injured finger I have is the mid finger i use to bowl. i broke it when I was younger & once it healed its permanently thicker in the middle. its my strongest finger now I think thats why I have so much control over the ball idk

[striker12]

that could be how you have controll over the ball but also remember this it could start hurting again but idk it might or it might not but we will see in the future cause thats where everything is that will help us with bowling and making good friends to help us.

and not a problem

[martin]

maybe it's better to bowl with 2, 3 fingers rather than risk injuring again.. 1 finger bowling is sort of like using 1 finger to hold the weight of a 14, 15 pound ball