With or without thumb????

[Evilash71]

one way of looking at it is this. Say you had to go to a bowling alley and pick four people and they would be your bowling team. Say all of them are decent to really good. So no beginners. Say there are twenty guys bowling with no thumb and there are ten guys bowling with the thumb with the same averages.
Who would you choose?
I would take all four from the thumb users every time.

[Evilash71]

a lil update, still bowling with no thumb, just rolled 209-247-238 for a very nice 694, crashed the head pin on the first ball in league play and didnt convert the split, that was my only open of the night! as long as i can continue to improve throwing two fingers i will never put my thumb in the ball!

I think the issue is, and this comes from a USBC coach and one former pro bowler out here that was talking to my wife and another bowler.

Comfort and such is great, but at some point you will be vunerable with the lanes transitioning and not being able to control your ball enough. At some point it will plateau and you can be very good, but you wont be able to improve upon it much without using your thumb. Why limit yourself for the future by sticking to what is comfortable now at the expense of getting much better for you later.

there is a reason you dont see pro bowlers using this technique.

Having said that. At the end of the day there will always be exceptions. But like someone else said, if i didnt use my thumb i would bowl two handed long before switching to thumbless one handed bowling.

[JaxBowlingGuy]

If all of the bowlers have the same ave it shouldnt matter who you pick...lol end the end you would come out about the same...lol

[Evilash71]

If all of the bowlers have the same ave it shouldnt matter who you pick...lol end the end you would come out about the same...lol

not really. House bowling is a bit different. The same average is over time for sure, and you have a point if i was saying id pick the guy with the highest average. But if ihad to pick a team id want a team that was more consistent night to night. An average can be raised or lowered over time. But on any given night. Id take the bowler using his thumb.

The point of the averages was to say that it wasnt a matter of scoring only. That would bring up the arguments, "well ive scored this or that." I mean a guy who bowls without the thumb can get a 300. Its possible. And he may beat a guy using his thumb 300 to say 220 that night.
Ill take the guy using his thumb still because my faith is in that technique to win out overall. The long haul.
That 210 average with the thumbless bowler most likely would drop before it would with the thumb using bowler.

House averages vary anyways depending onthe house. Most league players dont jump around much. Also once you get into sport leagues that thumbless bowlers pin average would drop like 40 pins or more. The one using his thumb. Maybe 20 to 30.

Just an opinion.

[tbrownie]

not really. House bowling is a bit different. The same average is over time for sure, and you have a point if i was saying id pick the guy with the highest average. But if ihad to pick a team id want a team that was more consistent night to night. An average can be raised or lowered over time. But on any given night. Id take the bowler using his thumb.

The point of the averages was to say that it wasnt a matter of scoring only. That would bring up the arguments, "well ive scored this or that." I mean a guy who bowls without the thumb can get a 300. Its possible. And he may beat a guy using his thumb 300 to say 220 that night.
Ill take the guy using his thumb still because my faith is in that technique to win out overall. The long haul.
That 210 average with the thumbless bowler most likely would drop before it would with the thumb using bowler.

House averages vary anyways depending onthe house. Most league players dont jump around much. Also once you get into sport leagues that thumbless bowlers pin average would drop like 40 pins or more. The one using his thumb. Maybe 20 to 30.

Just an opinion.

Tell it to Belmonte.

The FACT is, that ANY style can be honed in to being the next Walter Ray/Earl Anthony Its just a matter of how much you practice it, and how naturally gifted you are. If i wanted to bowl with no thumb, i garuntee i could be as good as i am with my thumb, especially on a wide open house shot like they have these days.

[JaxBowlingGuy]

as for the sport average.. I bowl without a thumb and actually average higher on the sport conditions than the house conditions... its all about hoqw much time and practice someone is willing to put into it... i have been bowling without a thumb for about 5 years now... With the right practice schedule and a coach if needed anyone can be just as good as anyone else on any given day... Look at it like baseball pitchers... you have the guys the pitch straight over the top... then some side arm and other "submarine" or throw almost underhand... different styles but all with the same results... Its just that the thumbless stuff really isnt as common yet since it just started to pick up within the last couple years.. But in a couple years i think it wont be such a uncommon thing...

[Evilash71]

as for the sport average.. I bowl without a thumb and actually average higher on the sport conditions than the house conditions... its all about hoqw much time and practice someone is willing to put into it... i have been bowling without a thumb for about 5 years now... With the right practice schedule and a coach if needed anyone can be just as good as anyone else on any given day... Look at it like baseball pitchers... you have the guys the pitch straight over the top... then some side arm and other "submarine" or throw almost underhand... different styles but all with the same results... Its just that the thumbless stuff really isnt as common yet since it just started to pick up within the last couple years.. But in a couple years i think it wont be such a uncommon thing...

If you bowl better on the sport conditions than more props to you. That is very rare. Anything is possible and there are always exceptions however mostly i am talking as a general rule, say someone was going to go learn how to bowl starting today. Would you recommend your style to them or more traditional with thumb, if they were a child beginning?

That is impressive though.

[Evilash71]

Tell it to Belmonte.

The FACT is, that ANY style can be honed in to being the next Walter Ray/Earl Anthony Its just a matter of how much you practice it, and how naturally gifted you are. If i wanted to bowl with no thumb, i garuntee i could be as good as i am with my thumb, especially on a wide open house shot like they have these days.

I do see your point mentioning Belmonte however, he essentially has honed a style that has more revs, more stability(two hands) and is really just substituting the thumb with the other hand. I give a lot of credit to his style. I would switch to that style next after the more traditional one, the last being thumbless one handed just because as a general rule 8 out of 10 of the bowlers bowling that way are very inconsistent it seems.

[JaxBowlingGuy]

I would teach the kid with a thumb but not due to me personally thinking its better than without but just because its easier to start with that to get the concept of bowling and the physics behind it. I started with a thumb then changed over. I can still throw with a thumb and usually do when the lanes get dry and I need to take revs out.. In my mind if you can "master" both then you wouldnt have a shot that you couldnt bowl on... Heavy oil drop thumb out and crank the 450+ revs.. Lighter or broke down shot, drop it in and back it down to 300-.

[mrbill]

Hi all, I have my wife and 3 out of my 5 kids + my self ofcorse that bowl.
1 of my boys likes to bowl without a thumb, he's a right handed bowler and wares his walking sneaker on his right foot and an old bowling shoe on the left sliding foot.
He just started 2 months ago and unlike other first time bowlers his hook/rev rate was what he had to deal with insted of the stright ball convent style.
It is so hard for him right now to controll his hook but he won't use his thumb even with all the advice that is givin him from different sorces.
We will see what happens I guess, He feels good doing it that way so I'm not gonna push him, I'll just try to help as best as I can
I wish I had his Rev Rate tho lol