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Numbness in Ring Finger

Posted: March 11th, 2018, 11:56 am
by Bruhls
Hello everyone.

For the past 2 weeks I've been feeling numbness on the pad of my ring finger (last joint) after bowling. I've been using the same drilling on all my balls since December, and I haven't had any issues until 2 weeks ago.

I've gotten a new Son!q yesterday, and we decided ro reduce the ring finger span by 1/8th.


That didn't change a thing, other than the ball feeling much less secure compared to my old ones, and I've been catching myself knuckling again and sometimes dropping the ball, an issue I haven't had with my old drillings. Picutre of RF span shows span actually beeing too short now.

I don't feel any pressure on the nails with the finger inserted, I just feel a lot of weight on the ring finger during the swing. But this has always been the case, and I've been trying to deliberately shift the ball weight towards the index finger in the stance and during the swing.

Full Spans:

MF: 4 1/4, 1/4 left, 0 linear
RF old: 4 3/8, 9/16 right, 1/8 reverse (have 1 ball witth 1/4 reverse on both fingers, same issue)
RF new: 4 1/4, 9/16 right, 1/8 reverse

Thumb: 1/8 left, 1/8th reverse, sweaty thumb, thumb angle 80 degrees (very tight to average tight),

Does anyone have any idea why this might happen? Why was i able to bowl 12 games a week without any issues for 3 months and now Im starting to have troubles?
Could it be technique related? Been working a lot on my swing and release.
Could a drilling that naturally shifts the ball weight more towards the middle/indexfinger help? (something I've been pondering about for quite some time now) if yes, what would you recommend?

I appreciate any help.

Re: Numbness in Ring Finger

Posted: March 11th, 2018, 2:24 pm
by EricHartwell
I am not a Doctor nor a ball driller/fitter. I am a trouble shooter and can be obsessed with finding root cause.
You have only come up with a couple of reasons why this has happened. The span change or possible technique issues.

One method for troubleshooting is the 5 why's. Let me ask some questions and raise some points...

Does the numbness go away or is it there all the time?

The nerves travel a long way to get to your fingers. Through the wrist, elbow and shoulder to get to the spinal column then through the neck to get to the brain. There could be an injury anywhere along that path that can create numbness in your finger.
You could have inflammation anywhere along that nerve path.
Have you tried taking any anti-inflammatory meds (ibuprofen) to relieve the numbness?

This is your first season back into bowling after a long hiatus and you are bowling 12 games a week and are reaching the end of the season. This could be an accumulative type injury.

What do you do for a living?
Do you have alot of physical activity at work?
Something could have happened there that could be the cause.

Trying different things with your technique could have tweaked something.

I hope you are able to figure out the cause and heal well so you can enjoy bowling without issue.

Re: Numbness in Ring Finger

Posted: March 11th, 2018, 4:35 pm
by TonyPR
Is the RF insert too tight? Finger should be easily inserted up to crease.

To shift the ball weight towards your index side you can change laterals MF 1/8, RF 11/16, thumb 0”. Basically moving all lateral pitches toward the same side.

Maybe it’s technique, when I present (hinge) the ball, I like the weight to be distributed between my MF and index finger, to do this I make sure I have enough ball side shoulder drop which creates lateral spine tilt and that my ball side elbow remains touching my torso.

Hope this helps!