Balance hole freedom or PSA wherever you want?

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TonyPR
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Balance hole freedom or PSA wherever you want?

Post by TonyPR »

A question for Mo and other ball gurus:
On symmetric balls, what is better for a two hander?
1) Drill a 1-3" pin ball with no thumb and by using a balance hole, position the PSA where you want?
Or
2) Drill a 4-5" pin ball with a half thumb (and use it) and have the freedom of using regular balance holes?
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Re: Balance hole freedom or PSA wherever you want?

Post by Mo Pinel »

TonyPR wrote:A question for Mo and other ball gurus:
On symmetric balls, what is better for a two hander?
1) Drill a 1-3" pin ball with no thumb and by using a balance hole, position the PSA where you want?
Or
2) Drill a 4-5" pin ball with a half thumb (and use it) and have the freedom of using regular balance holes?
From my experience, I prefer option #2.
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Re: Balance hole freedom or PSA wherever you want?

Post by cheech »

dont two handers have to choose whether to use a thumb or no thumb on ALL of their bowling balls. in other words all of their equipment either needs to have a thumb hole or no thumb hole.

or is it basically as long as it has 3 holes or less its legal (assuming the statics are legal based on the ball's center of grip
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Re: Balance hole freedom or PSA wherever you want?

Post by elgavachon »

cheech wrote:dont two handers have to choose whether to use a thumb or no thumb on ALL of their bowling balls. in other words all of their equipment either needs to have a thumb hole or no thumb hole.

or is it basically as long as it has 3 holes or less its legal (assuming the statics are legal based on the ball's center of grip
If you throw a ball without a thumb inserted & the ball has a thumb-hole, it is considered a balance hole & the ball has to be legal on the scales with the center of the grip between the finger holes (no tape in the thumb-hole). If you insert your thumb, the center of the grip shifts to half way between thumb & finger holes & has to be legal on the scales when weighed with that point as the center of the grip. You can throw with or without thumb & with or without thumb-hole, but the trick is having the ball legal when you throw it that shot. You can only have 1 balance hole, so if you do not use the thumb-hole, you are not allowed a 2nd balance hole.
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Re: Balance hole freedom or PSA wherever you want?

Post by TonyPR »

Yes, so one can have:
-a ball with only finger holes, statics must be legal with center of grip between fingers in the bridge.
-a ball with finger holes and 1 balance hole (no thumb inserted, ever) hole can be where thumb would be or in any other place as long as statics are legal but hole can not have anything in it (slug, tape etc.), statics must be legal for center if grip between fingers in the bridge.
-a ball with finger holes and thumb hole (thumb inserted always) this one can have tape/slug in the thumb hole and/or a balance hole plus the thumb hole, statics must be legal with center of grip between thumb and fingers.
-a ball with finger holes and thumb hole that can be used with or without thumb (thumb hole can't have anything inside, ie tape/slug) no other balance hole is permitted, statics must be legel both with center of grip between fingers in the bridge and center of grip between fingers and thumb.

Option 3 can be done with a half thumb grip with a lot of left pitch (Right hander) which I think would not affect the release of a two handed approach yet would permit regular balance holes if the thumb was always inserted.
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Re: Balance hole freedom or PSA wherever you want?

Post by snick »

The USBC static weight and balance hole rules for thumbless bowlers are bordering on stupidity.
TonyPR just kludged his way around these ineffective and unfair rules. Bravo!
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Re: Balance hole freedom or PSA wherever you want?

Post by TonyPR »

We will see if I don't clip the thumb hole snick, you have read about all my strugles with different grips one handed and some have been ok/good for me, mainly the wiki fit and to some extent the ADT but I have found that eliminating the thumb has magically improved my release 100%. My hand is too small to bowl thumbless one handed therefore I decided to substitute my thumb with my left hand. So far progress has been much better and only 2 or 3 people have given me negative vibes about two handed bowling and mainly because of misinformation (they beleive one twists the ball with two hands at release vs the one handed release that it actually is). It's a two handed approach. Personally I only know one person who is a one handed bowler, his name is Will, good friend of mine, he has one of his arms amputated from the elbow down... Everyone else uses two hands, some let go of one of them early on the approach, some just before release, all release with one hand... Except maybe for the little kids who throw it under the legs...
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Re: Balance hole freedom or PSA wherever you want?

Post by MegaMav »

TonyPR wrote:Personally I only know one person who is a one handed bowler, his name is Will, good friend of mine, he has one of his arms amputated from the elbow down... Everyone else uses two hands, some let go of one of them early on the approach, some just before release, all release with one hand... Except maybe for the little kids who throw it under the legs...
Completely agree.
The rule is garbage, and an ill conceived attempt to cover up the real reason behind the scoring boom, new millennium technology rolling on 20th century lane condition restrictions.
I wish the USBC would just go under already and get it over with.

Where is Gary's signature when I need it?
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Re: Balance hole freedom or PSA wherever you want?

Post by TonyPR »

Sorry, I am relatively new at the game, been playing a year after a 20 yr break... Who's Gary?
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Re: Balance hole freedom or PSA wherever you want?

Post by guruU2 »

Hi TonyPR-
MegaMav was referring to my signature statement. See below. Best to you in bowling (after 20 years- a different game now. Just think how much it has changed since I started in the mid 50s.).

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Re: Balance hole freedom or PSA wherever you want?

Post by DarkHorse »

I would like to add that USBC did modify the Static Weight/balance Hole rules from the initial release last summer for the actual Equipment Manual released around 08/14.

The big difference (which would have saved a friend a lot of money in plug work) is "Slugs and tape will be allowed, however interchangeable devices are not allowed."

So you can leave a slug and tape in the thumbhole of a thumbless bowler, so long as the other rules are followed.

Most recent version (03/15), Page 7:
http://usbcongress.http.internapcdn.net ... Manual.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Balance hole freedom or PSA wherever you want?

Post by rf67pccb »

I am with MegaMav

My beef is as follows:

In our area the lanes are only checked at certification time (clearly against the published rules) and there has NEVER been an unannounced inspection. I have brought this up with the parent USBC with basically no response.

I say who really needs the USBC if they WILL NOT follow the rules. USBC please go under and go away or force local associations to do lane checks and prove to paying association bowlers that all is on the up and up.

Ball weights used to be checked when a honor score was shot....not anymore.....so other than some tournaments the USBC does nothing. What are we paying for? Trips to conventions and the National Tournament?
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Re: Balance hole freedom or PSA wherever you want?

Post by Mo Pinel »


If you drill a hole for the half thumb, you must use it on every shot. If you don't. it is considered a balance hole. I drill for a few half thumbers.
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Re: Balance hole freedom or PSA wherever you want?

Post by JohnP »

Mo Pinel wrote:
If you drill a hole for the half thumb, you must use it on every shot. If you don't. it is considered a balance hole. I drill for a few half thumbers.
This is true, but if the static weights are legal based on both a grip center between the fingers and a grip center based on the half thumb grip you can throw the ball either with or without using the half thumb. I drill for some no-thumbers that like to be able to legally throw the ball using the thumb for spares and have been able to make it legal both ways by placing the cg slightly below the center of the finger holes and drilling the fingers deep enough to make the finger weight legal on the half thumb grip. When you find the cg location, rotate the pin to get the pin to PAP you want (the ball's pin out may limit the pin to PAP). -- JohnP
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