Ok, your driller is a moron first and foremost. Thumb is supposed to go in as deep as it can point blank and period. There is no way you can put it in too deep, that's bull. Thumb is going to tell you when to stop. Your span is now too long forcing you to grab it and, depending on you pitches, aslo forcing you to hold on to it.  If you span is too long and your pitches are reversed you will have no choice but to grab it because the ball wants to come off quick. Where ever you go to get your balls drilled, dont go back! I just hate to see guys do this, unnecessarily make drastic changes.

That being said, here's how you fix it. You can do this at home. Take a ball put your thumb in it, AS DEEP AS IT'LL GO! Set your palm flat on the ball. Mark where your thumb is in the ball. Then mark your fingers, splitting the distance between the 1st and 2nd joint. Put you thumb back in the ball and, with a grease pencil, mark the ball where the marks on the fingers are. THATS YOUR SPAN! Now put your hand in the ball fingers first and i almost guarantee the line on your thumb will be higher. Just for giggles, mark it in ball again and measure the distance between the two marks on your thumb.

Guys, for some reason want to lengthen span because they are too lazy to do the math and the work to fix a problem with pitches or they dont know how to do the math. Sorry, if this is the case, that you had to deal with bad ball fitting from someone who wasnt smart enough to do his job.

Pinbuster,

I completely agree. And great that you told him about the fingers as i forgot. Just tired of drillers doing this in general, stretching the span and then lying about it fitting. May not have been the case with his driller, but just in general. Determining how he throws the ball, we can, however, play with pitches. If he gets around the ball too much we can change how the ball sits in his hand, getting the center of mass of the ball in his hand to sit more on the palm, to get the ball to come off sooner. Then, as you stated, in watching him throw the ball, with proper fit, we can give an accurate picture of what to do with the ball and him. But the change in pitches would come after a base determination off fitting his hand properly first.

Just a quick note, you can also get pain in the back of your hand if the span is too short.

My advice is to find a reputable pro shop in your area and have your grip checked.  Nobody on the internet can tell exactly what your problem is.  There are too many variables in establishing a proper grip.

Thanks guys for all the info and I will post some pics of old and new spans tonight but I want to say my driller is very good and does take time to make sure everything is right and your happy I'm just a special case where whats right doesn't work for me I shoulda explained more but I didn't want to make you guys read a book.  Ok my span for the last say 3 years has been short not cuz of my driller thats just what worked and felt comfortable for me but I think at the same time I developed a bad habit of coming over the side/top to much from burying my fingers in way to far so this summer I said screw it lets start from scratch and measure me up where I'm supposed to be so with many tweaks and adjustments all I'm getting is horrible pain on both sides of both fingers

Great article Steven! Nailed it!

10 pin,
Not saying your driller isnt good but im assuming that you have had this issue for a while now so for him to continuously drill balls for you without taking time out to check is ridiculous. Unless he handed you the ball and said how does this feel, which is a no-no, as a driller, your responsibility is to set the ball on the cup and fit it. If he did that then he could visual notice the span was too long and let you know that. Then he should have fixed it. So either he knew and did care, he didnt know and didnt bother to check, or you knew and didnt tell him. Not picking on you, just saying either way he should have seen it and fixed it.
Any driller can hit lines, that doesnt make him good. And you need to be with someone who can do more than just hit lines.

here are some pics of my new span (blue/red ball) and old span (green ball)

http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/oo250/eck0unltd/IMAG0182.jpg

http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/oo250/eck0unltd/IMAG0175.jpg

http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/oo250/eck0unltd/IMAG0184.jpg

http://i380.photobucket.com/albums/oo250/eck0unltd/IMAG0177.jpg

Your last photo IMAG0177 looks like a good fit to me. IMG0182 looks long by today's standards but would've been considered a good fit years ago.

I think if you lengthend your span and have pain because of it your body's telling you it's not a good fit. Tendinitis and other issues are common due to too long of a span.

Is your ball driller someone who grew up bowling or drilling in the mid 90's or before that? Years ago it was thought that a stretched span was better and you could get more on the ball by doing that. Some pro shop guys still swear by that but using a stretched span will only make your pain issues worse. Now, if you talk to most coaches and knowledgeable people they'll tell you that's not true and to go shorter/relaxed.

IMO coaching is the solution if you want to stop spinning it.