That's how I kinda feel now. I feel I've gotten good enough squeezing, because I've done it for so long, to just get by. I've placed in a couple of tournaments and won a couple of leagues, even winning one tournament within the last 8 years.

While I value these accomplishments, it's not quite good enough for me because I know I can do better if I can just get my ball fit right. After all, proper ball fit is the first step to consistency, which is one of the major things I need more of.

And like you've been saying, squeezing robs you of revs. Some time ago I was watching Mika Koivuniemi and thought, "Wow, look at how smooth his armswing is and how many revs he gets." It's all natural for him from what I can see, and I really want to be like that too.

I just wanted to follow up on my original post. To recap what I said earlier (for those who don't want to scroll back), I use conventional grip and my ball feels like it'll fall off my hand during the swing unless I squeeze it.

If I put my hand in the ball and let it hang at my side with arm and hand relaxed, the ball will stay on my hand--but just barely. Any sort of added force pulling the ball away (or any movement of my fingers) will cause it come off my hand.

After experimenting unsuccessfully with white "grip" tape at the front of the thumbhole, then pondering the problem for a while, I realized that I what I really needed to do was to pad out the thumbhole at the back (knuckle side). The other day at work, as luck would have it, I happened to come across a roll of 1" wide by about 1/16" thick white Velcro "loop" material. (The corresponding roll of "hook" material had vanished a long time ago). Remembering what I had read about "Magic Carpet", I decided to try a 2" long piece at the back of the thumbhole.

What a difference! The thumb fits snugly and the ball stays on my hand now. As far as I can tell from rolling it on the carpet at home, it still releases cleanly, too. It'll be a couple or three days before I can try it out at the lanes, but I'll let you know how it goes.

Velcro loop??? This is a first for me. Seems to tell me that your thumb hole has been too big. Did you try the black tape on the back (nail side) of your thumb?

Putting the white tape on the thumb pad sometimes makes me grip more with my thumb. And, if I sweat, the adhesive spreads inside the hole. A piece or 2 of the black does the trick for me.

Well, better a little too big than too snug, I guess. There's a little room in case my thumb swells, and I can always add tape or other filler as needed.

I don't have any black bowler's tape at hand. I have loads of electrical tape, but I'm concerned that it could leave sticky residue in the thumbhole. If you've ever unwrapped a bundle of wires which have been taped up for a period of time, you know why I'm concerned!

Is that velcro loop stuff something that you just happened to find or can you buy it from your store/somewhere else? What does it feel like in the thumb hole?

I'm not opposed to black tape, in fact it might be something my thumb might need in order for me not to squeeze but yet get out of the ball clean. The problem with any tape that goes in the back of my thumb hole is after bowling enough with it, it rubs the back of my thumb past the knuckle and before the joint and it sort of tears the skin.

You could probably find it at any craft supply store, although you might not be able to buy the "loop" material separately. At my job, we buy Velcro in fairly large rolls. I just happened to have this roll of "loop" laying around.

It doesn't feel bad on my thumb, kind of like short carpet but a bit softer. I suppose it could irritate the skin after a lot of bowling... I'll let you know how I make out.

Yeah, I would imagine a softer feel would be necessary so the thumb doesn't get scratched up or anything. I'm open to other grip accessories because right now I use white grip tape by Ebonite. I just may need to have the front of my hole clear for some reason or another, I just don't know it. Like I said though, things on the back of my thumb hole tend to rip my skin(between the knuckle and joint) after a while. Keep me updated.

I shot four games with the Velcro today. It worked great when I remembered to loosen my grip! On my first shot, I squeezed out of force of habit, the ball hung up on my thumb, lofted halfway down the lane, crashed down on the boards and rolled into the gutter. Whoops! On my next throw, I kept my hand relaxed, the ball released cleanly, rolled straight and true and decimated the pins. This trend continued for the rest of the session: good shots when I could resist my tendency to squeeze the ball, poor shots when I couldn't.

One thing that seems to help is if I take a test swing on the approach before getting in my stance. This seems to provide "reassurance" to me that the ball will indeed stay on my hand, and this gives me the confidence to relax my grip. I suppose this won't be necessary once I overcome my bad habits.

I need to overcome that same habit. I went today for the first time in about two weeks, and the first time with the 16 pounders. I noticed I gripped sometimes, mainly towards the bottom of the forward swing when I should have been releasing the ball. This is just one of many things I need to work on, which includes footwork, timing, swing, release and mental to get my confidence back.

Hey I was just wondering something. How would you tell if you're hanging in a ball because of too much forward pitch instead of a hole size problem?