Grip it and rip it, or relaxed hand release?

[AZBowla]

Hi there, as some of you know I am the proud owner of a new, freshly drilled DV8 Marauder. Love the ball except for one thing - it likes to hang on my thumb. Happens at least once every session. I almost chucked it into the ceiling tiles last night, that's how hard it hung on to me this time. I knuckled it for a while after that (fingertipped the thumb) and I immediately felt back in control, although it also made it harder to have a consistent release because my middle and ring fingers were moving around with each shot. With my old ball, the thumb hole is enormous so I've always had to squeeze that one. The new one is drilled so that I don't have to do that, but old habits die hard. I've found that I *like* to squeeze the ball and I feel more confident when I fingertip the thumb hole on this new ball because I'm not wondering in the back of my mind if it's going to suck in my thumb and end up taking me with it down the lane with every shot.

So my question to the group is this: Should I get the thumb hole drilled bigger so I can squeeze this thing (grip and rip) and stop worrying about it, or should I leave it as is and train myself to stop fighting the ball and relax my hand more? I'm having the ball I won here drilled next weekend (not this one coming up, but the one after), so I want to make a decision on this by then so I can have both balls drilled the same way. I figure having the exact same grip on both balls will be one less thing to worry about and keep track of when bowling. Right now, I use my old ball for spares on the left side, and I have to keep reminding myself that I have to hang on to that one, which isn't helping me learn NOT to hang on to the other one.

Thanks for your advice, gang.

[75lockwood]

I would take it back to the pro shop, the thumb should not be that tight, normally you should have the thumb hole so its a bit loose to compensate for swelling, and when your thumb is "smaller" you can add tape to get a conferrable grip.

you may not need to have the thump plugged to fix this, often the pro shop can just expand the thump slightly either by shaving down the slug or drilling it out a bit more.

the marauder shouldn't be taking your thumb prisoner!

if it's just a matter of you not letting go, then relax your hand and let the thumb come out freely, but i don't know how this could cause you to "almost chuck it into the ceiling tiles"

[AZBowla]

I exaggerated a bit on the whole ceiling tiles thing, but it did end up flying into the air and landing hard halfway down the lane before unceremoniously flailing itself into the gutter. I was lucky that it didn't go into the next lane over. It really screws up my mental game when that happens, and I've already been back to the pro shop twice to have them shave a little more out of it. The fingertips are perfect and the span is dead on when I put my thumb all the way in it, I'm just scared to do it because I'm always worried it's gonna hang on to my thumb and end up launching into the air like a basketball going up for a 3 pointer. Very frustrating.

[GoodGorilla]

You shouldn't have to put any grip pressure on the ball for it to hang on to you in your swing. I had a ball with this issue, and I just told the pro shop about it. He opened up the ball to a minimum, tried the ball again, opened it a bit more, and it was good. I trust my pro shop operator.

[AZBowla]

You shouldn't have to put any grip pressure on the ball for it to hang on to you in your swing. I had a ball with this issue, and I just told the pro shop about it. He opened up the ball to a minimum, tried the ball again, opened it a bit more, and it was good. I trust my pro shop operator.

Yeah, I must be squeezing it when I shouldn't be. I trust my guy too and he insists it's big enough. I'm going to leave it as is for now and try to just keep my hand relaxed throughout my entire arm swing. Time for some arm swing and release drills at home tonight! I really should stop squeezing as that just robs my swing of power when I do. As Yoda said, I must "unlearn what you have learned".... ugh.

[75lockwood]

Yeah, I must be squeezing it when I shouldn't be. I trust my guy too and he insists it's big enough. I'm going to leave it as is for now and try to just keep my hand relaxed throughout my entire arm swing. Time for some arm swing and release drills at home tonight! I really should stop squeezing as that just robs my swing of power when I do. As Yoda said, I must "unlearn what you have learned".... ugh.

if only this was the matrix, then it would be as easy as downloading the correct method <-- neo LOL

[AZBowla]

if only this was the matrix, then it would be as easy as downloading the correct method <-- neo LOL

Wouldn't that be awesome? Not only would I do that but I'd also have a custom bowling simulation with my own personal lanes and every bowling ball I could ever want at my disposal. Picture the scene in the original movie where Neo says he needs lots of guns - only in my Matrix, it'd be rows and rows of bowling balls. LOL!!

[75lockwood]

Wouldn't that be awesome? Not only would I do that but I'd also have a custom bowling simulation with my own personal lanes and every bowling ball I could ever want at my disposal. Picture the scene in the original movie where Neo says he needs lots of guns - only in my Matrix, it'd be rows and rows of bowling balls. LOL!!

Lol if that was reality then id be ok with living in the matrix

[billf]

Once per session isn't the equipment. As you suspected it a bowler induced error. As you also stated, gripping and ripping will rob you of power (speed and revs) plus has shown to reduce accuracy. As for identical, have your old ball's thumb plugged and drilled to match. As you also said, it's hard enough to learn not to grip never mind complicating it more by having a ball you HAVE to grip. You're going to have a lot of things changing now that you're getting more serious, which is great, just add less grip to the list. I still grip on occasion. It sucks but that's life.

[AZBowla]

As always Bill you're the sage voice of wisdom. I also had some additional confirmation this evening when I picked up the ball and attempted to do some armswing drills. My fingers and thumb were all sore from not holding the ball right last night and I could barely hold the ball, plus my thumb was too swollen for the drills to do any good. I put the ball away shortly after getting it out. I will have to give my hand a break and wait for the soreness and swelling to go down before I can try this again. Even if I chose not to listen to anyone here, my hand won't let me get away with holding the ball incorrectly for long. So there's my answer.

As for the old ball, I'm going to have it plugged and redrilled, but not for me. My teenage son wants to get serious about bowling too, so the ball is going to be handed down to him since it's a good beginner's ball. I've got the new plastic ball I won here that I am going to be using for those left side spares and (sigh) I'm going to have it drilled just like the Marauder so it's one less thing to think about.

I guess after all the reading I've done I should know better, so I will just have to keep practicing once my hand will allow it again.