Hi All,

I love reading bowling articles, watching instructional videos, etc.

I read many of Ron Clifton's articles including his concept that many bowlers have too much reverse pitch and can benefit from forward pitch.

I have done this and it seems that the callous on the right side of my thumb (to the right of the top of my thumb)seems to be getting larger. My driller gave me a bit of left pitch but the callous seems to be getting bigger to the point where I have had to regularly shave it down and use larger thumb holes (I use the Vise I.T. slugs).

Is it probable that too much forward pitch is putting my thumb in the awkward position and causing the growing callous? With the cold weather and dry skin, the callous split last week and I noticed a ton of pressure at the middle point of the callous (which is at the knuckle).

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Louis

I am personally at 1/4 forward with a relatively short span, i clear the ball fine. i think it depends on the person, how much grip pressure they use, any of the operators on here like sk8shorty01 could give you more advice than i can

Forward pitch allows you to relax your hand in the ball more, which will allow you to loosen up your armswing and be more accurate. It sounds to me like you're still knuckling the ball (bending your thumb forward while in the thumb hole). Try keeping your thumb nail pressed against the back of your thumb hole throughout your swing.
The location of the callous also tells me you're turning your hand early- while it's still in the ball. Keep your hand behind it until your thumb clears the hole, and your callous will shrink.
As we get older, our hands lose strength and flexibility, so to combat this, we use forward pitch in the thumb hole. I'm at about 1/8 reverse, but my span is about 4 3/4 and 4 7/8, so my next move will probably be to cut about 1/8 - 1/4 off the span and go to about 1/8 forward. I hate to redrill a dozen balls like this, so I'll have to experiment with one first. It's what I did when I went from 5/8 reverse down to 1/8. Drilled a ball with 3/8 reverse, then one with 1/8. Then after a game or two, had all my stuff redone.

I don't mean to barge in on this thread, but my bowling quest does pertain (to an extent) this thread.

Does forward thumb pitch allow a bowler, especially one who is of less strength (this applies to me), to throw heavier ball weights? I'm getting my new ball drilled in either the end of this month or the beginning of next. I'm planning on upgrading in two ways: 1) Moving my ball weight from 10 to 12 pounds, and 2) Converting from a conventional to a fingertip.

Because forward thumb pitch, in addition to reverse finger pitches more or less force(s) you to relax your hand, would this be recommended for me if I, as a bowler who is not known for his physical strength, was going with a fingertip span and moving up in ball weight?

Thanks for your input!!

Hi Fin09,

Thanks for your reply, I had not thought about knuckling the ball as I can honestly say I cannot feel myself doing that...I try to keep my hand relaxed with the exception of slightly pressing on the ball with my index finger when I want to cup my wrist more. I see your point about turning my hand early since I fight coming around the ball a lot. I am often told that I have a lot of hand - although I don't feel like I do, in fact I often try to hook it less...but again, do fight coming around the ball often! Outside of that I have a pretty strong (physically) wrist and hand...I say that to share that my forward pitch increases were due to thinking that moving the pitches forward would help keep the ball on my hand and I wouldn't have to fight the temptation to squeeze the ball. I will try pressing my thumbnail to see how that works! Thanks for the thoughts. My span is very close to yours - about 4 3/4" to 4 5/8". I hear what you mean re: having balls slugged and re-drilled...I just did 6 of mine with the current pitches...and it would just suck to have to re-do them again...an option would be to have a new thumb slug (I use the Vise I.T. system) done with less forward pitch to see if that helps. Thanks again!

You might be turning the ball with your thumb still in the ball. How about a picture of your thumb so I can see where the callus is.

One other thing it might be is you might be bending the thumb in the hole you can look at your thumb as it enters the ball, most people who bend their thumb in the hole, will actually start bending it before it even enters the hole.

Thanks Coach! I am adding the pic as a file to this post. Your comment makes sense, I will pay closer attention, but to my recollection, I don't think I bend my thumb, but I cannot say for sure...