Just wondering if anyone has used one of these devices to prevent them from bending their thumb and to help give them a cleaner release?

Cannot put down the site because it is a banned url, but if you do a google search under "thumb straight" it comes up. Thanks.

That the one from Brunswick ? I used simlar device back a year ago when i first was getting back into bowling. However, i found have Pro Shop open the thumb whole a little because i could hardly get my thumb in the ball with it on.

A thumb strait is a useful tool to help learn to keep your thumb straight in the hole and learn proper gripping technique.

The problem is that unless the pitch is right for your hand to where you don't need to knuckle the thumb to hang onto the ball. It doesn't fix a grip that has too much reverse pitch in the hole and you will still have to excessively squeeze the thumb to hang onto the ball.

I know what it is and I think it is kind of a gimmick. If you timing is out of wack this device may keep your thumb staight but you will still deliver a bad ball due to bad timing. Keep your thumbhole shaped so that you can turn your thumb 360 degrees and you shouldn't have a problem with the knuckle rubbing against the back of the thumbhole if you crimp your thumb.

It is a device you put down into the thumbhole so that you cannot bend your thumb while in the ball because it forces your thumb to be straight by the shape of it. Keeps your thumb against the back of the hole. Like Coach Jim said though... it will only work if the pitch in your hole is correct otherwise you wont be able to hold onto the ball. I just thought it sounded interesting.

As I said, I am familiar with the thumb straight as it has been on the market for several years now. Should you decide to get one, you'll need to drill a hole a bit larger than normal, and remember that this devise adds 1/8" reverse to whatever pitch you choose because of the thickness of the device.

I don't have a 'thumb straight' device because my thumb is severely injured and the joint at the tip is not able to bend.

But I can testify as to the necessity of having the correct thumb pitch. It was extremely difficult to hold onto the ball until I found a good Pro Shop with an experienced driller. Thanks to him, my ball now fits like a glove.

I'm having hand surgery on April 18th. There are still some glass shards lodged in the base of my thumb and I hope that the surgeon will be able to find and remove them.

Hopefully, bowling will be less painful after that!

Gee, I'm no surgeon, but if I had to guess I would say it is going to feel much more comfortable without the F-ING GLASS SHARDS IN YOUR THUMB! Are you crazy?

You are almost as bad as me, I exploded my patella tendon and am laying at the foul line with my knee cap sticking out of my leg wondering how I am going to be able to continue bowling, then when the paramedics show up and help explode the patella tendon in my right knee while trying to pull myself up, I finally gave up and decided I would have to get someone to sub for me in league.

There is another guy on here asking how to bowl with a sprained thumb last week. Are we all insane or what?

I went almost 3 months with a torn ACL before I went to the doc to see what was wrong. During that time, I was still working out 3 times a week running a couple miles during each session. Sometimes, guys just aren't the smartest mammals

I find bowlers, mainly males, will try to bowl through anything. I have a teammate that broke his ankle of his slide/plant foot in a motorcycle accident around this time last season. Once he got into a walking cast he was on the lanes with that foot just balancing him as he stood at the line. Then he had shoulder surgery for a torn rotator cup, once he could move his arm properly he was at the lanes trying to get his swing back using lighter equipment. I call it the Yoda effect. You can be hurting all the way up until its time to bowl, once you get on the lanes no pain.

Come to think of it one of the kids in the youth league came to league last year with a chainsaw cut on his thigh, then bowled with a knee injury after a motorcycle accident a month later.

Look at this stupid game we play too, it has to be the most frustrating sport going, and we torture ourselves trying to get better and better and for what? Even if you do make it to the pros, a manager of a McDonald's makes more money than most of them.

Once we decide we have had enough and quit bowling it takes a lot to get us back into a bowling center.

What's even crazier is our medical system and my HMO. It took me 4 months to convince them to try to get the glass out.

In December they took an X-Ray and found small glass shards in my hand, but the surgeon said he thought they were deep and it would be risky to remove them (could hit a nerve or something).

About a month ago they did an MRI and the report said 'No foreign objects are in the hand'. BS I said, I can feel them if I press my hand and the doctor who examined the X-Ray saw them too!!!

In the meantime, I have developed a small cyst or tumor in my ring finger. Now, since they have to operate on my hand anyway, they will try to take out the glass in the same operation.

That is astonishing, I am sorry to hear that, it was funny thinking it was you trying to be Super Man, but when it is an HMO that will not do it's part to help cure you, then it's not funny any more, I hope you get well soon.

Thanks, I just hope they dont give up too easily when trying to extract it. Ironically, I'm glad I developed the finger cyst/tumor because that was the ticket I needed to have hand surgery and get the glass out too!

The pain is tolerable. Most of the glass in my thumb is outside of where it goes into the ball. And like someone said above, you hardly notice the pain at all when you're at the lanes!

Haha, sounds about right, we're definitely not the brightest crayons in the box when it comes to pain and sports... Eighth grade football I break my humerus, not very funny I tell you that much :-P. Well not even two months later I'm back on the field at lunch playing football again, and BAM re-broke what was starting to heal... Now with messing up the flexor tendons in my ring finger/hand I'm still at it (bowling). Even after the consecutive frames of excruciating pain. I took a week off and now I'm just fighting through the pain when it shows up again. LOL

yeah, i believe both of my bowling fingers have been injured in other things and i ignored them, when i put my hands out relaxed, my right middle finger bends more than any other finger, and my right ring finger bends slightly toward my pinky. go figure.

Oh man, those stories had me squirming.

Coach Jim that must've been horrible, i used to have dislocating kneecaps, painful! And to this day, when warming up, my patella tendon on my right leg often is very sore until I get warmed up and get some ibuprofen flowing. I worry about that tendon and now your story dramatizes that.

Sorry about the thumb too! yuck.

Had to join in on the fun of this post. I can't say I've done anything quite as bad as the ones listed before me, but last year during my summer league in the first game, I took a shot and at the top of my backswing, my shoulder popped out of socket and then went back in during the downswing. Hurt like anything, but it was a doubles league, and my teammate was not there. After about 5 more shots, the shoulder started to feel normal again. Ended up still over average for the night, but it still felt a little funny afterwards. By the next week, I was fortunately fine.

Mark

We are all nutZ? With a capital Z.

I bowled last night after having oral surgery twice in the past week. I am on 900 mg of Clindamycin antibiotic, and 880 mg of Naproxen pain killer daily. My arms and legs felt like rubber from the drugs. My jaw is swollen. An infection spread to my ear which I have drops for. My eye constantly tears. I can't swallow, and my sinuses hurt.
I have 22 stitches in my jaw, inside my mouth.

But, miss a night of bowling? NOOOOOO! My teammates welcomed me because I was quiet all night.

Dennis I bet you had an above average night too, sometimes distractions like that help us concentrate better, and the drugs don't hurt either

Sorry to disappoint you, just an average night. Only had trouble in the first thru 9th frames. I seem to be able to double in the tenth for some reason. Won 2 games in the last frame again by less than 10 pins.

Mkirchie ---I had that happen during a softball swing once....last time I played slow pitch softball.

My first commandment of bowling is, thou shalt not fall down OR hurt yourself.
I take it real easy during practice, just trying to get everything i've broken or had surgery on during my "youth" to pop, stretch, loosen, quit hurting!

I'm pretty determined to bowl, but the next day I always feel like I ran a marathon.
Bowling back to back days/nights is hard. I only do it for nationals.