Hey guys.

any of you know what causes this kind of finger insert wear? I noticed I'm the only one with this specific type of wear around here.

It's only on the middle finger insert, on the side closest to the ring finger. I do have this exact same wear on a ball with 0" lateral middle finger pitch AND on balls with 1/2" left lateral.

Is this caused by incorrect lateral finger pitch or perhaps my release? Has anyone had this before and has since fixed it? How?

Luksa, do you see a corresponding callus on your finger? Seems like you are increasing your middle finger pressure at release. Probably in your finger rotation.

I normally wore on the inside of my middle finger, but that was due to slight arthritis in that finger, being broken a few times, and slightly bend to that side. I backed off an eighth in reverse pitch, only on that finger, and that solved it.

No, I don't have any calluses on the fingers. Sometimes, though, the skin gets a little tender there, but maybe that's because the insert is already worn and pretty sharp there?

I'm trying to figure out if this is a pitch problem, because I will be drilling a new ball in the following days.

I'd have to agree with Dennis. It looks like you are applying more pressure with your middle finger, but you said that you have no corresponding calluses. I don't know, it could be that.

I would suggest having a ball drilled for Vacu-grips. It is wonderful in my opinion. The finger inserts fit nice and snug and the calluses that I used to get have practically vanished. However, I do think that finding out there is a finger pitch issue is a good course to take.

How big are your hands? The pitch maybe okay but if your hands are small, the bridge may be too big which is causing this wear and tear. Have you tried not using inserts?

Another thing that I noticed was that you have the solid inserts. I have switched to the clear ones that seem to be softer and last longer.

It's not so much more finger pressure as the fact that your hand is rotating in that direction. As your hand turns, that's where the weight of the ball is being focused.

He's a righty so what you just said doesn't make sense. The wear and tear is on his middle finger hole towards the ring finger. He doesn't bowl backup so his fingers don't rotate to the left.

Actually, I don't think what Lefty said is all that wrong. Let's say I start rotating the ball and thereby also giving it a decent amount of axis tilt (not rotation!) - this would partly make the ball spin like a top. If I then stop rotating my hand. The ball would still be rotating, while my fingers would be getting out of the ball. This would cause the ball to scrape my middle finger in that area. I don't know.

What is so interesting to me is the actual shape of the wear. The edge is intact but just below the edge there is like a small depression. Just as if the side of the tip of my middle finger was carving the depression.

Could be that your fingernail rubs that spot on the way out.