I am beginning to wonder if my ball truely fits me correctly. I was out in the back yard running through some release drills on my lawn. I was trying out some things to change my axis of rotation and to get a couple more revs when something dawned on me. Back when I was a thumbless bowler the weight of the ball was in the palm of my hand, especially the palm knuckles of the middle and ring fingers. This just isn't so with my current setup. I noticed that my middle finger knuckle does touch the ball and hold the weight pretty well along with my index finger palm knuckle. My ring finger however seems to be a different story. In order for me to get my first knuckle to be in the middle of the ring finger grip hole I have to have my palm knuckle off of the ball. My pinky finger palm knuckle is even further off the ball than my ring finger.

So when this dim lightbulb went on in my head I figured I'd try a couple of releases with my middle finger in its hole and my ring finger laying on the ball with my ring palm knuckle on the ball, more like my thumbless feel. It definitely felt more comfortable but I couldn't tell if there would be any more benefits than that.

Now to my question... to have a correct span/fit am I to have all four palm knuckles on the ball when I put my thumb in and lay my fingers across the top of the ball when I check my finger spans?

Here are a couple of pictures when I have my thumb in the ball, have all four palm knuckles on the ball, and lay my fingers comfortably across the ball.





Am I right in thinking that my ring finger span needs to be increased? If so, I'm off to the Pro Shop in the morning.

I also noticed I'm in need of an angle change of my grips too.



Thanks in advance!

Craig

When doing the span test, your hand should be flat on the ball.

From the first picture it looks like your middle finger span is too long. The ring finger span looks ok.

If your hand is relaxed and your thumb is in the ball I would agree with Luksa, the middle finger hole is a touch too long like maybe 1/8". It stands to reason that if the middle finger is too long it will pull the ball toward the index finger too far for the pinky knuckle to be on the ball. The palm should not be on the ball however, the ball should sit up on the knuckles, just saying this in case any newb readers get confused.

Agree that the middle finger looks long, and the ring finger might be 1/16" short, but no more than that.

If your thumb is in the ball all the way, sunk in, then the middle finger appears to be too short.

Erin

Can someone do a video on YouTube showing the "perfect" fit?

I'm getting measured again tomorrow and I need to know what to look out for. Just hearing about it is one thing; I'd like to see some close-up vids of a good ball fit...

Erin, for real? In the top pic, the crease is centered over the fingerhole. How much longer would you make the span? Maybe you meant ring finger is too short?

Sorry I did mean Ring finger. At first I couldn't tell if he was right or left handed.

Well I wanted to give you all an update. I went in to the alley on 8/30. Unfortunately the Pro Shop was closed. I ended up waiting until Tuesday 9/2 to go in.

Well, my visit didn't go exactly as planned. Another of the driller's assistants worked with me; this was the same guy that originally fitted me from the very beginning. I had told him the purpose of my visit (to verify my spans) and he was all confused. All he kept talking about was how the last time I was in that they only redrilled my thumbhole (I went more forward with it) and how the spans would not have been changed. I told him that I understood that re-drilling my thumb would not have changed my spans and that I was there to verify that the spans that are drilled into the ball fit my hand correctly and not to verify that the spans are what my drill sheet says they are. Let me just say that this was a very cyclic conversation.

He then proceeded to set up the fitting ball to fit me from scratch. He set up my thumb pitches correctly and proceeded to move the finger spans to the location where he thought they should be and compared it to my drill sheet. He had it set to almost 1/4" longer than my current span on both fingers. I thought to myself that this could not be correct and that perhaps I should approach this from a different angle.

I then asked him how should the ball feel in my hand. I described to him that I am a converted thumbless bowler and that when I bowled thumbless the weight of the ball was mostly on my middle & ring finger palm knuckles with some of the weight distributed to my outer knuckles too. I told him that I emulated this while lawn bowling (practicing on my lawn) by not putting my ring finger into the hole but rather lay it across the ball to a more natural feeling location (similar to the pics above) and it felt very comfortable. I then proceeded to ask him now that I've converted to using my thumb how should the weight be distributed in my hand. He told me that I should feel the weight in my index and middle finger palm knuckles at address and that I should be using that area to push into the ball during my release. He then told me that the best bowlers have callouses on the palm side of their index finger palm knuckle. If this is true then I don't need to change anything as that is exactly where the weight of the ball is for me at address.

We left it pretty much at that point. I said that I don't think I'm ready to have it re-drilled at this point in time and I thanked him for his time. I thought to myself that this guy doesn't know what he's talking about and that I'd talk with the driller myself. Now I have to find out when the assistant that helped me won't be there to go back to the shop. He is a nice man and I don't want to hurt his feelings.

Was there any truth to what the assistant was telling me?

Some people get callouses, some don't, even with a properly fitted ball. A callous on the index or pinkie is friction with the ball surface but no everyone gets these even though there is a good chance of it.

The thing about the assistant is he might be learning all of this from the actual Pro Shop operator and you might hear the same things from him. The Pro Shop I recently started using has at least 5 people that work it plus the owner and I've heard the same thing when asking certain questions from any I've dealt with including the owner.

I will second what cal said, the best thing to do is to go back and say "I want to try a different grip" this will take the point of blame off the Pro Shop. Then you can tell them what you want and they can either do it, or take the ball to another shop.

Well one good thing is that once again... I've finally re-scheduled my first lesson with Jeri Edwards. She is one busy lady! When I go and see her I'm going to have her evaluate my grip. If she feels that something needs to change in it I will take that information with me to the Pro Shop and then use the approach that Coach Jim stated.

Thanks for all of your input everyone! I'll let you know in about two weeks what my results are.