Thumb Pitch. What else is there to sort out?

Question
Hello. Warren. Thanks for your input as it makes life a lot easier for some. I hope to be one of them.

Here are my stats. 45, 5'9-1/2", right handed bowler, right eye dominant, stroker, speed 14 to 15, medium revs, PAP 4-5/8" over 1/2" up, 40 deg rotation, 13 degs tilt, balls I have are blue hammer, fire road, and epidemic. Blue Hammer laid out stacked, fire road and epidemic laid out with ebonite 90 deg layout. Ave 224 THS.

Span 4-3/8" middle finger, 4-5/8" ring finger, MF pitches 3/16" reverse, 1/8" to the right, RF pitches 1/16" reverse, 1/16" to the left, Thumb thick oval, there is a callous on the finger side which gives it the shape of a camel's hump. Pitch is 0 and 0. Come out with thumb, bent. Thumb sits in the whole nail facing 7 O'Clock, pulp facing 2 O'Clock. Skin is mixed, not so dry, not so moist, but thumb tends to swell as night moves on.

I seem to have problems lately with the release. I tend to squeez the ball it seems right from the start of down swing in front when I drop it. It is effecting my release, some times I chicken wing it and get laughed at by friends.

Do you have any advice for me, like you always have for people in need? Someone told me to go forward and under palm pitch in thumb. What does that mean?

I drill my own (bowling) balls.

Would greatly appreciate your valuable advice.

Regards.

Answer
Sam,
It's difficult to get a good look at your own fit/hand. You might have a bit more span or bit less, do both fingers sit flat on the ball? From your description (thanks very thorough BTW# your thumb hole may be too big, ring finger span a touch long, and/or thumb pitch could help a little more, in allowing the hand to relax while ball is hanging from your hand.

When your hand is in the ball and you hang it by your side, can you relax the hand and have it hang onto you?  

You have a couple things that are "off" in your fit if your hand was absolutely average in size, finger lengths, flexibility, and texture. Your PAP and tilt tell me you could use more pitch in the ring finger and that it may be a little long in span. I'm hoping you mean MF is pitched left and RF is pitched right #or are the holes running into each other?#? You could have some ligament or joint damage that requires the pitches you describe, but your thoroughness reveals, that's not likely.

Squeezing can be because you can't clear the thumb #ring too long#, or need to bend the thumb in the hole #hole to big#, or not enough pitch to have the ball hang on the pad of the thumb #pitch angle#.

I'd expect your hand is flexible and dry at the start, but the length of your thumb may be causing an issue. With little lateral pitch in the ring finger, and away pitch in both fingers, you might want to try some forward pitch in the thumb. Take the angle to 1/8 forward and 3/16 left. Does the ring finger swell or have a callous? You won't get around the ball so easily and the change should help you control the ball with less effort and take the track up closer to the grip #moving the PAP out maybe 1/2 inch or so, reducing your axis rotation a little#.

I'm really interested in seeing your hand in the ball, can you send digital pics? Ball hanging from hand, ball at your side, and ball supported, hand in, view from the side. thanks for the question. I hope to confirm a couple things, but I believe I have a good idea of some adjustments that will help.