Thumb swealing

[SwitchAxe]

Well I would go to my bowling alley and throw a really nice hook shot for about 7 throws...Then I wouldn't be able to at all after that. I would go out a day later and same thing. I think what is happening is my thumb is swealing and then my thumb doesnt come out first making me throw the ball akward and not hooking. Does this sound right? And if so should I use baby powder or should I get the thumb hole drilled just a tad bit bigger?

 

[Tiger]

I sometimes go and wash my hands in cold water in the toilet if my thumb starts getting too big, or I'm locking up in the thumbhole too much.
You could buzz out your thumbhole in the pro-shop, that might make it a bit easier to clear your thumb out, when your thumb goes down, whack some tape in your thumbhole.
Cut a hole in a potato, and stick your thumb in it, usually gets swelling down pretty quick.

 

[storm53]

i know a trick to get your thumb back to the right size, worked for me but i dont know bout you. what is happening is the build up of fluid in your thumb i think so just get like a towel or a micro fibre towel, place it around your thumb and put your thumb in the hole. this should push the fluid out of your thumb, i think thats how it works. hope this helped

 

[piequat]

bowl two handed and there's nothing to worry about.

 

[Samael]

The key is to drill the ball when your thumb has swelled up because it seems that your majority of your game will be spent like this. A lot of bowlers have issues with swelling, in a lot of cases it can be due to water retension (something you can speak to your doctor about if you want to exaimne it further), otherwise you just learn to play the tape game. That is with the thumb drilled to suit your swelled up digit so you can bowl comfortably, once it goes down you add insert tape to your thumb hole to take up the slack and still provide you with a good grip. It can be a bit of a pain to add and remove tape while bowling but you learn to live with it pretty quickly

I would suggest talking to your local pro shop person and get them to work the thumb out a little more, then have a talk about insert tape and where to put it. That should fix your problem.

Powder is good up to a certain point, it can be used to adjust the level of grip with your thumb, but if your thumb has swollen to a point it hangs up in the ball its not really the best solution, so see the tape method above

 

[RobbieB]

This can also be caused by a sweaty thumb. Try spraying your hand with antiperspirant spray before bowling. Otherwise, as others have said, drill it bigger & tape it.

Cheers, Rob.

 

[Princess]

I have recently had a similar problem to this one.... I tried everything from powder on the thumb to using a hanky to push the fluid back in my thumb..... my thumb got to the stage that I couldn't get it into the hole past the first knuckle..... sometimes even before that my thumb would stop.

I ended up getting my thumb holes drilled out because my thumb had swollen so much.... this was after I took about 3 layers of skin off my thumb about the size of a 5c piece..... It worked so well for me once I did this and if my thumb reduced in size I would just put a piece or two of tape in the thumb hole.

That was in winter.... now that we have reached summer my thumb has gone back to it's original size so I am back to using the bowling balls I put aside as I didn't get their thumb holes fixed. The ones that I did have changed I now have a minimum 8 pieces of tape in the thumb hole... I have gotten as high as 12..... 2 black in the back and 6 white in the front..... I also use tape on my thumb.

The suggestions that are in this thread are great ideas and I would suggest that the first thing to try would be to use a little bit of talcum powder on the thumb to help the ball slide off your hand easier in the release. This way you don't have to worry about redrilling if your thumb stops swelling.

I'd say that your thumb isn't swelling as much as mine did so trying these suggestions would probably help you.

It could possibly be that you are gripping with your thumb after a couple of shots and that's why your thumb is sticking...

 

[bowlrig]

You also have the option of using intechangable thumb inserts.

Different sizes depending on which day.

Rob

 

[Ice_Magik]

yep, this happened to me the other night also....

spose the 20 odd consecutive games i played didnt help !!!