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Author Topic: Drilling help, advice please.  (Read 2675 times)

Geigs

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Drilling help, advice please.
« on: March 06, 2018, 05:06:13 PM »
Starting to get thumb pain. Have a dark burn on tip of nail. Question, should you pitch toward the irritation? Meaning going more away, rev pitch. Span check is ok, crease in first joint falls in mid of fing hole. Specs, span 4 3/8 mid fing, 4 7/16 ring fing, oval thumb switchgrip with 1/8 fwd and 0 lat thumb. Mid fing 1/4rev, ring fing 1/8 rev. I believe i’m more fwd in thumb than what’s recommended according  to span to pitch ratio charts. I have a long thumb, 2 1/4 inch with dry slick skin. I feel I always struggle to hang on to the ball especially during cold winter months here in New York. Any help, advice, drilling suggestions would be appreciated.
« Last Edit: March 06, 2018, 05:10:18 PM by Geigs »

 

Skip H

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Re: Drilling help, advice please.
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2018, 08:53:02 AM »
I will start it off here but I'm guessing you will hear from others too.

I think you're definitely correct about your thumb pitch. Just a quick guess you probably need to be at least 1/4 reverse.  Your hole might be a little big too. I don't know how you could get get out of it cleanly if if it wasn't.

Geigs

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Re: Drilling help, advice please.
« Reply #2 on: March 07, 2018, 05:24:23 PM »
Thanks for the response. By going that much reverse in thumb do you think I will have more trouble holding on to the ball? Have that trouble now. My friends tell me I’m squeezing, knuckling the thumb. I use orange vise tape in front, tackiest and white in back med tackiness with very little bevel. Remember I have a very dry, slick thumb. Last year I even cracked the thumbnail tip, where the black mark is. Also get a burn mark on front tip of thumb. Feels like all the pressure is on thumb and no pressure on fingertips. I’m confused, need help, advise.

Skip H

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Re: Drilling help, advice please.
« Reply #3 on: March 07, 2018, 06:13:04 PM »
Your friends are right. Sounds like you are squeezing the he11 out of the ball. I squeeze a little bit and wish I wouldn't.  You will need a tighter thumb hole more likely. If you are young enough to try two handed you can skip the thumb. Your local good pro shop should be able to get your pitches and hole size correct.

As one of the local pros that I know told me when I asked about how little bevel he uses on his thumb hole. "I don't squeeze the ball." Work on that and it will help but you will need to see your pro shop to fix that pitch.

Geigs

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Re: Drilling help, advice please.
« Reply #4 on: March 07, 2018, 07:35:04 PM »
I’m 50 so no on the thumbless release. To old to teach this dog new tricks. I’m an accomplished bowler. 220+ average and bowl tournaments. Come to think of it now, a lot of my thumb discomfort has come lately because of a cupped, full tilt cocked hand position that I’ve had success with in recent tournaments. I read in one of the posts that someone had same thumb problems and went left lateral pitch to relieve burning. Coke bottle test puts me more toward forefinger and tells me I probably could go left pitch lateral. Currently at 0. Anyone used left lateral to relieve thumb pain with success. Do you think this will help my problem?