My lateral pitch is 0. I can't really tell whether it rubs during the swing or upon release. Looking at the back of my thumb, I thought left pitch will put more rub on the left side of my thumb, and more right pitch will put more rub on the right side of my thumb. Either way, I was rubbing on both sides but in slightly different areas. In the pic, a little more to the right is where I was rubbing on the other side of my thumb. I'm going to guess I was rubbing more upon release, but after the first game it hurt just to put my thumb in the hole. I must be a really determined bowler to through 4 games of that pain.

As for flicking my wrist, is that equivilant to hitting up on the ball? Well, either way, I don't think I was doing that. Besides, if I was twisting the ball off my hand, wouldn't I have some type of full-roller release going on? My release was the same since I stop hitting on the ball.

On the flip side, I did say I was squeezing. And by that, yes, I mean I was knuckling the ball a bit. At the very least I would have had to squeeze with the base of my thumb but when I did that I felt like it was slipping down in the backswing and I wouldn't release very well.

Do you not have room for tape in the thumb hole. With that much forward pitch, you shouldn't have to knuckle the ball if the thumb hole fits snug. Heck, even if I'm a piece of tape to loose I don't have to knuckle it to hang on.

To me, knuckling is still at the high end of squeezing. You can squeeze the ball plenty without knuckling. If you have to resort to that my guess is that you need to add tape.

My guess is you are turning the hand while your thumb is still in the ball. This would cause your thumb not to go out of the hole straight as it is supposed to.

As far as your squeezing, I'm thinking your span is too short. Try to take a picture with your thumb in the hole and fingers over finger holes.

Seems strange you have less than 4" of span, since you're not that small and you said your fingers are long if I remember correctly.

Lefty: I actually had two pieces of tape to start with, then went to 0 pieces by the end of the night because I had troubles getting in the hole without a lot of pain. I normally have tape though. I'm so used to the feel of it and helps for grip purposes. Th way it is for me now, I'm in between loose enough to have to knuckle it a little(2 pieces) and too tight that I can't get my thumb in all the way(3 pieces). And I do the method where you put each piece about 1/16 lower than the one before.

Luksa: I do have kinda long fingers but my hand as a whole is pretty small. I only weigh 125lb so i'm very slim. It is possible that I turn the hand a little with the thumb still in but not a lot if I do. This would likely be from the need to squeeze so I'm not letting go at the right time. If that's the case I've always done it and I don't understand why I have a really bad rip compared to the ones I've had before with a stretched span. At this point I can't put the thumb in a ball and you can see why, but I've checked my span quite a few times and I'm pretty much where I'm supposed to be. Maybe 1/16 long on the ring, 1/16 short on the middle(from midway).

That is midway between the first and second knuckle correct, not midway on the whole finger correct?

I would still like to see a pic of your hand in the ball and a pic of your thumb in the ball and your fingers laying across the holes.

That's correct Jim, midway betwen the first and second knuckle. I won't be able to put my thumb in a bowling ball for a while though, as you could probably imagine. Also, I was going to post a pic when I first got it fixed but it was kinda dark to really notice where midway was so I didn't even bother, and the night light didn't help any. Next time I go it I'll have to find lots of light.

Okay guys. I had a tournament in vegas this past weekend so I decided to visit K&K Bowling Services while down there. At this point I had shortened the span on my equipment to about 3 7/8 MF and 3 11/16 RF. You all said that was pretty short right? Well it turns out I think you're right because I was probably doing that span test wrong this whole time(kept my hand too limp if this was the case).

That said, they told me to put my hand in the ball and as soon as I did they said said the span was too short and I had to grip a lot because of it. So they re-fit me and came up with 4 3/8 MF and 4 1/4 RF. They also put me at 0 vertical and 1/16 right lateral pitch. I told them to do it to the ball that tore me up really bad because I just couldn't use it considering what it did. I tried it out and I really liked it so I told them to do it to my other stuff.

One of the guys watched me throw a little with the new fit so we could figure out why I'm squeezing. He told me I muscle the ball from the top of the swing down which would cause me to grab it more. So I got the hang of not doing that anymore, but I feel the soreness in the sides of my thumbs will always happen after a certain amount of games (usually 3-4). The guy told me to take a few days off to let my thumb heal and then that shouldn't happen anymore. That would make more sense to me if I didn't have to grip that much but I still have to grab it a little once I'm in the swing. On the plus side, when I have the right amount of tape, I'm not knuckling as much anymore, but I still grab it and am able to keep my thumb a little straighter while doing so. Is this still bad?

I knew something was fishy, you must have been scrunching up your hand.

You may have to start going forward with your thumb pitch until you don't have to squeeze the thumb to hang onto the ball.

Yeah, I don't doubt this span is correct although a 1/16 shorter would be my preference. Anyways, the guy that drilled this span for me advised against going much more forward for some reason. He said 1/8 forward might be okay but no more than that. He told me to email him in a couple weeks about how my thumb is doing with my new fit, maybe then he would suggest more forward if I'm still hurting. Any reason you think he'd be against it to begin with?

One thing I will say is that I'm definitely not squeezing as much as I was before. This is the best it has ever felt. The only thing is sometimes I don't realize my thumb is shrinking for a while and that I need another piece of tape, which does make my thumb hurt a little more due to the increased squeeze required.

So I want to make sure I get some opinions on my new fit. It's hard to get a good picture but I feel pretty confident in it, at least as far as span goes. I'd like to hear more from you Jim, as well as the others that are strong advocates of a relaxed grip. Is the guy in Vegas correct that I should just see how this goes for a while, or should it be really clear that I won't need to apply much pressure during the swing? I would like to think that a little pressure with the pad of the thumb is necessary and by all means okay as long as you aren't bending the thumb.