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Thread: Did he miss my fit?

  1. #1

    Default Did he miss my fit?

    Recently got my first bowling ball, and had it drilled for a fingertip grip.

    When the guy measured my hand span on the (wheelie thing?), my hand was pretty relaxed, and not pulled taut or anything. It went way past the 5" limit on his measurement, so he had to guess at it.

    I'm pretty sure he got it wrong, but he gently refuses to lengthen it. I've been back for 2 adjustments, in which he added a thumb slug, and then fingertip grips, which seemed to lengthen it a tiny bit.

    I might very well be wrong about this, as I'm not experienced in ball fitting whatsoever. But when I hang the ball loosely at my side, I can relax my grip completely and 'let it hang', because my joints are wedged into it. However, if I try to curl it, like one would do in a backswing, I am mainly pulling with my thumb to do so. My palm is never flat against the ball - there's probably a 1/4-1/2" gap there, no matter what. Shouldn't I be able to palm it?

    Also - and I know this is really hard to explain - My thumb is rather loose in the hole, there's never a catch or anything. Some of the forum posts seem to indicate that there should be a very slight 'squeeze' on the thumb, to the point that the ball can't fall off of it?

  2. #2
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    Quote Originally Posted by GrumpyCatFace View Post
    Recently got my first bowling ball, and had it drilled for a fingertip grip.

    When the guy measured my hand span on the (wheelie thing?), my hand was pretty relaxed, and not pulled taut or anything. It went way past the 5" limit on his measurement, so he had to guess at it.
    One of these? A BT ball fitter goes up to 6" and your span went past that!!!!!!!! Somebody is looking at something wrong or you have monster big hands.


    To double check your span.

    With your thumb inserted in the thumb hole and laying your fingers across the holes and your hand relaxed, the half way point between the first and second joint should be at the gripping edge of the hole. If your using inserts it's the gripping edge of the insert not the drilled hole.



    See at the 17:45min. mark in the below video.

    Just to double check,

    With your fingers laying across the holes, hold the ball like your going to roll it. So that it settles into your hand, then without moving your hand.

    Example:


    Rotate the ball back up so you can see where the edge of the holes are in relation to the midpoint between the two joints. (or get a picture form below like this one.)


    Getting Fitted at a Bowling Ball Pro Shop USBC Academy

    Last edited by bowl1820; 03-29-2018 at 04:23 PM.

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  3. #3

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    Quote Originally Posted by bowl1820 View Post
    One of these? A BT ball fitter goes up to 6" and your span went past that!!!!!!!! Somebody is looking at something wrong or you have monster big hands.
    Yep, that's the device. His little measurement area only went out to 5", though. Maybe he needs the big-boy version.

    To double check your span.

    With your thumb inserted in the thumb hole and laying your fingers across the holes and your hand relaxed, the half way point between the first and second joint should be at the gripping edge of the hole. If your using inserts it's the gripping edge of the insert not the drilled hole.

    Just to double check,

    With your fingers laying across the holes, hold the ball like your going to roll it. So that it settles into your hand, then without moving your hand.
    This is where I'm unsure. If I really relax my hand, it lands just a bit back from there. But I can stretch my hand to put that edge right on the second knuckle...

    Rotate the ball back up so you can see where the edge of the holes are in relation to the midpoint between the two joints. (or get a picture form below like this one.)
    Yeah, no. That puts it right about second-knuckle. I'll post a picture in a bit - heading to league-night now.

    Getting Fitted at a Bowling Ball Pro Shop USBC Academy
    I love that video - huge fan of his!

    I'm not a giant or anything - 6'2 and a little heavy. I do have some big paws, but nothing freakish - my younger brother's are even bigger than mine.
    I just wish he'd made it clear that my hand should be flat against the measuring device. He emphasized rather heavily on 'relaxing' my hand, so I assumed that meant to go wet cod, and let him move my fingers around. Lessons learned, I suppose...

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  5. #5

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    Welp, I bowled with the new fingertip grips, and I have to say, I'm pretty happy. They lengthened the span just a tiny bit, but the extra grip from them is wonderful. Had a MUCH more consistent night.

    Now I think I'm ready to work on the rest of my game. Thanks so much for your advice!

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