sore fingers

[Mike White]

In modern bowling, we don't "lift" the ball, we rotate through it, feeling the ball on the palm of the hand as we roll it. This release is actually easier with a little away pitch on the fingers.

What you call modern bowling is a joke.

With people using the lack of lift technique, you find balls "burning up" when they encounter too much dry area.

With a little more fingers in the ball, the ball would make it back to the wall of oil before losing all of the axis rotation, and once there, the oil reduces friction, and guides the ball down the lane.

USBC should deem all bowling on a THS to be a game, not a sport, and therefore not worthy of any awards or records.

Before the THS came along, the record for 5 man team series was about 3500, by a team of 5 professionals.

Since the THS, it's been beat many times, and just recently a team of 5 amateurs shot 3986.

[Aslan]

Never had finger pain. One time...I had a ring finger insert that must have been just a smidge too small...that league night it hurt like the dickens...changed it out the following week...no problems.

[djp1080]

I've experienced stiffness of the fingertips after a session of bowling, but no blistering. First shift was to go away from grips with lifts and go to ovals (i.e., just turn the grips upside down). This helped for a while. Several months later I had my grip examined and it was recommended to go with a reverse pitch for the fingers as I was getting some pretty bad stiffness in the fingers. The stiffness was bad enough that trying to bend my fingers the next morning was difficult. Ended up with a 3/8ths reverse pitch of the fingers which has helped. Even bought an aid called steel fingers which might give more help. Now I feel like I can rip the cover off the ball and yes, I'm a senior bowler...
Going with some reverse pitch on the fingers didn't seem to effect anything regarding the release of the ball. Just relieved the pain. Good luck and hope this helps...

[JohnN]

Took the Mastermind in today and after the PSO looked at my fingers and the ball he recommended changing the pitch and the span slightly. If that works will bring the balls in one at a time to fix. Can't remember what the change in pitch will be but the span was a 1/8th shortening.

[RobLV1]

What you call modern bowling is a joke.

With people using the lack of lift technique, you find balls "burning up" when they encounter too much dry area.

With a little more fingers in the ball, the ball would make it back to the wall of oil before losing all of the axis rotation, and once there, the oil reduces friction, and guides the ball down the lane.

USBC should deem all bowling on a THS to be a game, not a sport, and therefore not worthy of any awards or records.

Before the THS came along, the record for 5 man team series was about 3500, by a team of 5 professionals.

Since the THS, it's been beat many times, and just recently a team of 5 amateurs shot 3986.

Modern bowling is what it is. Throwing plastic and pretending it's 1985 doesn't make it. Of course balls burn up when then encounter too much dry area. That's why bowlers who insist on playing the second arrow and using plastic or urethane ***** and complain because they refuse to accept the fact that finding oil is now a good thing, and not something that is going to keep the ball from hooking. It's not going back, Mike, regardless of how much you want it to!

[billf]

What you call modern bowling is a joke.

With people using the lack of lift technique, you find balls "burning up" when they encounter too much dry area.

With a little more fingers in the ball, the ball would make it back to the wall of oil before losing all of the axis rotation, and once there, the oil reduces friction, and guides the ball down the lane.

USBC should deem all bowling on a THS to be a game, not a sport, and therefore not worthy of any awards or records.

Before the THS came along, the record for 5 man team series was about 3500, by a team of 5 professionals.

Since the THS, it's been beat many times, and just recently a team of 5 amateurs shot 3986.

Mike, while I agree with 99.9% of this I wonder; WTH does this have to do with the question? And as far as amateurs go Matt McNeil is still an amateur (by choice) yet even the pros admit he would win on tour.

[billf]

Another option to consider

www.steelfingers.com

[Mike White]

Another option to consider

www.steelfingers.com

A friend of mine tried the steel fingers thingy..

It was a waste of money.

[Mike White]

Mike, while I agree with 99.9% of this I wonder; WTH does this have to do with the question? And as far as amateurs go Matt McNeil is still an amateur (by choice) yet even the pros admit he would win on tour.

I don't think Matt McNeil should be lowered into the same category as the 5 amateurs that just set the team record.

Matt I believe has won 1 or more events at Nationals, where as of the 5 amateurs, I was able to identify 3 who have bowled at nationals.

While their home averages are 220 -> 240, their national averages were 170 -> 190.

I'm pretty sure 170 -> 190 is going to be far below Matt McNeil's Nationals average.

But I couldn't find any info about Matt on Bowl.com.

The connection to the original question was according to Rob, the fingers wouldn't hurt if the OP was properly playing the modern game of bowling where you don't lift the ball. Which is crap, because if you don't lift even resin ball, it dies.

This comes from Rob not understanding what lift really is.

Lift is just another way of saying apply torque to the finger holes to increase revs compared to just dropping the ball and requiring friction to create revs.

Since the fingers are supposed to be below the center of the ball with the release begins, torque is applied in an upward direction, and therefore known as lift.

But torque is a physics term, which is WAY over Rob's head.

[JohnN]

All I know is that when I properly apply lift with my fingers I can feel it and I can see the improved reaction of the ball. I have been working on keeping my hand more behind the ball and lifting more and my last 4 series really show the improvement.