Went practicing tonight and while I was out there, I started playing around with hand positions.

All by balls have pinky finger holes in them. Just kind of by accident the other night, I picked up a ball using fingers 2, 3 and 4 (rather than 3, 4 and 5, 5 being the pinky) and wondered whether I could pitch a ball like this and what would it do if I did.

So I took my Paradigm and instead of putting the middle (3rd) finger in the 3 hole, the ring in 4 and the pinky in 5, I threw a shot with my index finger (2) in the 3 hole, finger 3 in the 4 hole and finger 4 in the 5th (pinky) hole, and tucked my pinky next to it.

Talk about different: My track moved very high on the ball and my tilt changed. I'm betting my PAP moved all over the place. What I discovered was the ball got into a heavy roll and saved a ton of hitting energy for the back. I couldn't swing it very much, but if I wanted to play down and in with some speed, I could really score.

Also, shooting at the 6, the 10, or the 6-10 spare, I experimented with throwing with just the thumb in the ball, and no fingers. I had to squeeze it a little to avoid losing it in the backswing, but I found I could throw even the most aggressive ball in my bag at the 10 and not have it hook in front of the pin.

Jess