You should feel like the hole is digging into the base of your thumb, but not causing pain. Get a bevel knife and some sand paper and have the driller put no bevel in your thumb and just hit it with the sander once or twice so the hole is not razor sharp, then bevel it yourself as needed.

You should feel like the hole is digging into the base of your thumb, but not causing pain. Get a bevel knife and some sand paper and have the driller put no bevel in your thumb and just hit it with the sander once or twice so the hole is not razor sharp, then bevel it yourself as needed.

This got double posted because I responded to it 7 hours ago and the post flipped pages, and was hiding the post, I didn't think anyone was going to respond again to Flip the page, so I double posted it since I still could paste it. Hopefully they can fix this problem.

When laying out a new ball, is the thumb hole drilled at 0 and then the slug is adjusted to one's current pitch? Or is the thumb hole drilled to one's current pitch and then the slug pitch is adjusted if need be?

The slug hole should be drilled to the current pitch, and then the thumb hole drilled into that stays centered. If you were to drill the slug at 0, then put the thumb hole in at 1/2" forward or reverse, you would run the risk of drilling out the side of the slug near the bottom of the hole.

Amateur,

You might want to check your span. With a 1/4" forward pitch you should not be dropping the ball. Perhaps your 4 1/8" and 4" span is a wee bit short. You might try increasing the span to 4 3/16" and 4 1/16".

Erin and/or CoachJim would you elaborate on this comment?

With my 5/8" forward pitched thumb, I get out of the ball clean but still think about it. After seven or eight games when I'm getting a little tired or my mind drifts, I may hang onto one ball. Should I start backing off the forward pitch? What are the top pro's thumb pitches?

~ John

P.S. My thumb is 2 7/8" long.

~ John

Johnw1, actually I've had my span shortened(driller's mistake) but for the better. I believe it was 4 1/8" and 4" at the time of that post, maybe even longer. But now my span is 4" across with the ring finger long by 1/16" I believe. A really good feel on my hand, relaxed the way it should be. If I do the span test now I'm where I should be. Still at 1/4" forward, if the thumb hole is tight enough I don't drop it. I shrink as I bowl, though, and at a certain point the hole gets a bit big and I start bending the knuckle to hold on. I apply a little pressure even when the hole is tight enough. I've come to the conclusion that my thumb is not going to stay flush in the hole so a little gripping is needed since the thumb wants to slip. I'm about to start using velcro and maybe even some tape on the back of my thumb to make it more snug but still allow a clean release.

Since you feel that your span is now correct, you might consider investing in one of those interchangeable thumb inserts that comes in various sizes. Keep several handy to be used as your thumb shrinks.

I've considered that but decided not to go with it mostly because of the investment.

I guess my thumb to begin with is swelled up and either the hole is too tight or pretty tight but I can get out of it. So if I can't get my thumb in the ball and get out clean, my only option is to remove tape. Then, as I said, I shrink a bit as I go and I have the option of adding tape to keep it as tight as it was when I started but normally don't do it. Anyways, that's not necessarily the issue. What's frustrating is, normally, if I go to see how my equipment fits the next day I have just as much trouble fitting in as I did when I started the previous day even with less tape. My thumb plays weird tricks on me like that and it makes me think eventually I'll get to no tape left and wonder how the heck to get in the ball. It's gotta stop swelling at some point right?

So I'm thinking of drilling my thumb holes bigger on purpose just to make it fit to start with and I'll have to add to tape as I bowl and probably remove most of it to bowl the next time. In that sense, interchangeable thumbs might actually benefit me because I could drill one like I just stated and drill one for my shrunk size.