Is your fit good enough?

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ModernGame
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Is your fit good enough?

Post by ModernGame »

How does a bowler know if their fit is good enough? It's impossible to bowl well consistently without a good fit; but at what point should a bowler know that their fit is good enough and they simply need more practice to improve?
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EricHartwell
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Re: Is your fit good enough?

Post by EricHartwell »

ModernGame wrote:How does a bowler know if their fit is good enough? It's impossible to bowl well consistently without a good fit; but at what point should a bowler know that their fit is good enough and they simply need more practice to improve?
When is a fit good enough? Why have it good when you can have it good enough, just kidding.

It is good enough when you don't tear up your thumb or fingers. You don't have pain in your hand or wrist. You don't feel like you are going to drop the ball in your backswing. You are not squeezing the ball. You should be able to let the ball hang at your side for an extended period of time without feeling any fatigue in your hand. It will feel like the ball is hanging on to you rather than the other way around.

A good fit will have the thumb hole shaped to the contours of your thumb. This can be an oval drill, carved, sanded, tape to create the shape or any combination of these.
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TonyPR
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Re: Is your fit good enough?

Post by TonyPR »

Fit is something that will keep changing as your game changes and as your hand changes, for kids every three months is a good time range to check for growth, for adults checking your fit once a year will work. Comfort is number one, bowling should not hurt. The goal of a good fit is to eliminate grip pressure. I am currently using the most comfortable fit I have ever had, it was recommended by coach Del Warren but keep in mind I am a no thumb two hander: 3/8 both laterals (would be different for crooked fingers) and 1.25" reverse conventional depth, no inserts, plenty of bevel 3/8 bridge.
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Re: Is your fit good enough?

Post by ads »

A good fit or relatively good fit will free me from worrying

1. the ball will drop off during the course of swing;
2. the ball can't be released from my hand at the foul line

It also has smaller chance of
3. developing callous around thumb or fingers (viewtopic.php?f=13&t=13516" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. Obviously my new switching thumb hole is not fit enough)
4. having swollen thumb or fingers

I worked out my fit following the Wiki fit 2 years ago (thanks TonyPR), and based on that, did some adjustment subsequently.

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=10660&hilit=wiki+fit" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Re: Is your fit good enough?

Post by guruU2 »

When is the fit "good enough":
EricHartwell wrote:It is good enough when you don't tear up your thumb or fingers. You don't have pain in your hand or wrist. You don't feel like you are going to drop the ball in your backswing. You are not squeezing the ball. You should be able to let the ball hang at your side for an extended period of time without feeling any fatigue in your hand. It will feel like the ball is hanging on to you rather than the other way around.

A good fit will have the thumb hole shaped to the contours of your thumb. This can be an oval drill, carved, sanded, tape to create the shape or any combination of these
TonyPR wrote:Comfort is number one, bowling should not hurt. The goal of a good fit is to eliminate grip pressure. I
When does the bowler have "THE FIT"?- no definitive answer but THE FIT includes the above plus whatever "the extra" is. For most bowlers, they know it when they feel it. This FIT, in most cases, comes after many, many fittings by various pro shop technicians. I suggest you go to as many pro shop technicians with experience and education/training and get as many perspectives as possible including some of the recognized masters. Remember: ALL pro shop technicians are a product of their education, training and experiences. They are, like all of us, biased to their given perspective. Seek out the ones who have the most education/training (the understanding of different methodologies), experience AND demonstrate the mental construct of OPEN MINDEDNESS. These are the pro shop professionals who will, more than likely, get you to THE FIT.
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Re: Is your fit good enough?

Post by LittleTiger »

EricHartwell wrote:You don't have pain in your hand or wrist.
Bowling should not hurt of course but how about after bowling? I have been lately bowling more that earlier have had some wrist pain after bowling. Especially during night time and mornings.

But how to know if that is caused by bad fit or that just normal which happens when start bowling more than usual?

I still can bowl normally and without pain as long I make sure that I use enough time to warm up before bowling.
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Re: Is your fit good enough?

Post by J_w73 »

Knowing when your fit is right is a hard thing to tell. This is because you don't know, what you don't know. First sign is if there is any excessive rubbing, excessive callousing, tearing of the skin, or pain when holding, swinging, and releasing the ball. For beginning bowlers, if you don't have any of these issues then you will have a pretty decent grip to work with and progress your game. I think the biggest issue is that most people probably have a thumb that is too big and too much reverse pitch. This will usually cause squeezing. Most people think they don't squeeze and have no idea they do squeeze. Most drillers will do this to allow the average bowler to get out of the ball easily the first time without multiple fitting and tries. A proper thumb fit is one that is snug and a thumb angle that has the ball hold onto you vs you holding onto the ball. Once you have a proper thumb fit and pitch it is like a night and day difference between the feel. I must warn you that it might be difficult finding the perfect thumb fit and pitch. You will also probably drop your average score for while, hang up as you learn to not squeeze, and also get frustrated if you can't find the perfect fit right away. I got a snug, correct fitting thumb first and then modified my thumb pitch so that the ball held onto me with minimal pressure and I was still able to release the ball cleanly. I have a unique thumb pitch so I probably tried 10 to 20 different pitch and span combinations until I found something that worked well. But then again I got to the same point as your post.... is the fit good enough, or can it be better?
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Re: Is your fit good enough?

Post by J_w73 »

LittleTiger wrote: Bowling should not hurt of course but how about after bowling? I have been lately bowling more that earlier have had some wrist pain after bowling. Especially during night time and mornings.

But how to know if that is caused by bad fit or that just normal which happens when start bowling more than usual?

I still can bowl normally and without pain as long I make sure that I use enough time to warm up before bowling.
Wrist pain usually isn't your grip, unless your grip has your hand really contorted so that you feel the pain when you support the ball or cock your wrist. If you can put your hand in the ball, get in a ready position, and cock your wrist up and to the inside without any sharp pain, then I would say it isn't a fit issue causing the wrist pain.

Also check that you are not hanging up at release. Sometimes if your fit is off, you will have to put your hand and wrist in a weird position at release to make sure you can get the ball off your hand. That is another thing that can cause unusual pain. If that is the case, go see your pro shop and figure out why you are hanging up in the ball.
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Re: Is your fit good enough?

Post by LittleTiger »

J_w73 wrote:Wrist pain usually isn't your grip, unless your grip has your hand really contorted so that you feel the pain when you support the ball or cock your wrist. If you can put your hand in the ball, get in a ready position, and cock your wrist up and to the inside without any sharp pain, then I would say it isn't a fit issue causing the wrist pain.
Looks like so that I have (or had) a fit issue. If I put fingers like they are on my normal fit and cock my wrist even without bowling ball in my hand I can feel a sharp pain in my wrist.

I actually spent whole Saturday by trying to a couple of different drillings to some old ball and after all, ended up to drill one ball with ADT type of drilling where thumb-middle finger span is 1/8" shorter than I had earlier and thumb-ring finger span is 3/8" longer. I also did quite larger change to thumb pinches: earlier I had 1/8" right and 1/8 forward (I'm right-hander) now I have 3/8" left and 2/8" reverse. So thumb sits more outside than earlier.

After a couple of hours training with that new fit, I have decided to change all my most used balls to that fit. Probably it is not perfect still but at least it works much better with my current approach than an earlier one.
Unfortunately, it means a big amount of work, new switch grip outer sleeves to each ball and some modifications to all the inner sleeves but that is life...

Btw. One interesting note what I did with this new fit is that it increases my axis rotation so I don't need to cock wrist as much anymore which also helps with wrist pain.

J_w73 wrote:Also check that you are not hanging up at release. Sometimes if your fit is off, you will have to put your hand and wrist in a weird position at release to make sure you can get the ball off your hand. That is another thing that can cause unusual pain. If that is the case, go see your pro shop and figure out why you are hanging up in the ball.
Good point but looks that this is not the reason in my case. I'm using very tight thumb hole but as long I'm able to keep my hand relaxed enough ball "drops off" easily.
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Re: Is your fit good enough?

Post by JohnP »

After a couple of hours training with that new fit, I have decided to change all my most used balls to that fit. Probably it is not perfect still but at least it works much better with my current approach than an earlier one.
Unfortunately, it means a big amount of work, new switch grip outer sleeves to each ball and some modifications to all the inner sleeves but that is life...
I'd try the grip changes for a longer period before redoing the entire arsenal. -- JohnP
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