How is pitch for your fingers in a ball figured out?

[Hammer]

If you go to a pro shop for a ball and buy a new one how do they figure what pitch to put in the ball for your fingers? I guess the one with more concern would be the thumb? I guess depending on how the pitch is drilled will determine how the thumb comes out at the release. How should this be handled?

[bowl1820]

Here's some reading to get you going. (Not saying this is the only method)

They call this the wiki fit on bowlingchat, if you study this . you can figure your baseline grip yourself. (you might need to tweak it later to fine tune it)

Click for The MoRich Fitting Guide

Click for the Simplified Fan Chart Instructions

Click for the Thumb_Angle_Pitch_Chart

Click for the Lateral Finger Pitch Fan Chart

Center Line Transposition (CLT) Drilling Instructions
Click for the CLT_DRILLING_INSTRUCTIONS.pdf

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This is old but still should read it
Bill Taylor's Fitting & Drilling A Bowling Ball
Click for Bill_Taylor_Fitting_Drilling_A_Bowling_Ball.pdf

Sample from the wiki:
Lateral pitches can be found with a standard sized beverage can.
For a right hander, negative is left and positive is right pitch.
For a left hander, negative is right and positive is left pitch.
The proper lateral pitch in the image is 0.

(Depending on the size of your hand you might need to use a little smaller can. bowl1820)


Lateral_thumbpitch.jpg

[Hammer]

WOW! That is more to it then I thought. Or maybe it just seems complex to me.

[slmrcs]

Lets be honest about some things.

If you go to 90%+ of proshops, they will not figure out your lateral finger pitches. They will drill you to 3/8th lateral right and left for no reason other than that's how they drill everyone. Perhaps in extreme cases, there will be an exception, but just about everyone will get that.

If you ask about the pitch, many will tell you it doesn't matter and the only reason there is any pitch at all is so the finger holes don't run into each other. Bull****, if that's correct, I'd challange anyone to drill a ball, with 0 pitch both fingers and try to get hand into ball. Unless there is some deformity, it will be impossible.

It's not that just about everyone needs 3/8th in both, it's that the pro-shop people are largly ignorant. The only thing to do, is research online and then work with someone who will at least do what you say, or actually seek out a good ball driller. (after 5 years of unable to hold a finger tip ball, and 7 years of giving up on bowling, I ended up driving over 2 1/2 hours to get a true expert to give me a perfect thumbhole - which I have since molded).

So there are basically 2 answers to your question - how to figure out lateral pitch and how does your pro-shop do it. One has nothing to do with the other. In terms of finger pitch and thumb pitch, the pro-shops basically give everyone the exact same fitting, except they make it all larger or smaller based on how big hand is. Many can't even measure span.

I've gone from 3/8 m, 3/8 ring, to 3/8, 1/2, then 1/4, 5,8 and 1/8 forward and go back to proshop and want to add another 1/8 lateral and the guy looks at me like I'm crazy. But the extra lateral is so good, I can't go back and use even the 3/8, 1/2.

After going through the trial and error, this is what I recommend.

Use the online guides as a starting point.

Then fine adjust based upon how it feels when bowling. If one side of your finger is bashing against the side of finger hole, while other side isn't coming close, something is wrong. To me, the basic goal of lateral finger pitches is to simply line up the pitch, with the angle the fingers are naturally entering the holes.