The Perfect Fit (part 1)

[Duke Harding]

UPDATE: Some of the ideas & information expressed here may be considered outdated, because of current modern ideas & methods.

This was written by an acquaintance of mine...very interesting....

As a former golfer, one of the sayings of a good golfer is you can spot a golfer's level just by his grip and stance before they ever move.
It is pretty accurate. Golfers with great grips that come to mind are
Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Sam Snead, all come to mind.
There grips are so good and so perfect for their anatomy that it is tough for them to play bad golf. I think of so many golfers that I have seen that are done before they get started. The advice to just put ones palms parallel to each other and the back of the left hand pointing straight at the hole has ruined so many golfers start it is incredible. (Frequently I read on this forum of people complaining of their slices). This is so often preprogrammed just because of the lax way they take their grip).
So it is with bowling. Thie difference is that in bowling it is difficult to see the grip within the hard confines of the ball. And yet many a game is held back because of errors in span and pitches that are inappropriate for a person's personal hand anatomy.
The perfect full span grip is defined so well by Bill Taylor in his book "Fitting and Drilling a bowling ball". In it he describes methods to determine the perfect span(middle of last and next to last joint to lip of finger insert or hole), perfect thumb pitches(forward/reverse are based on span), lateral thumb pitches(based on the coke bottle test)and differences in span length's for middle and ring finger(based on laying hand on ball and observing difference in lengths).
His method usually ends up giving a satisfactory result for supplying ideal elements of hold, lift and turn for most common bowling situations. Note most people end up following his method with some reverse thumb pitch(if span over 4 1/4 inches), some lateral under palm pitch(if right handed right pitch) (if left handed then left pitch) this element ends up supplying turn while the bowler throws with a straightish elbow position and straight or cupped wrist.
Now however we find many bowlers saying things like I want to have foward pitch on my thumb. My question is why? The usual answer is something like, "well there's a guy at my house who shot 300 last night and he uses forward". OOOOOO KAAAY? "What's that got to do with you?"
Another comment, "I want to have lateral out"? Why? "Well, I heard, Brian Voss or Kimbo use lateral out!". My response, "I see!"
To be continued!!!!

[onefrombills]

looking fwd to pt 2