Fitting and the Modern Game

Welcome to the National Bowling Academy. My name is Eric Vermilyea and today I'm joined by Scott Pohl. Multiple eight time Eagle winner, multiple time team USA member, heck of a nice guy and also the owner of OnTrack Pro Shop here inside Cedarvale Lanes, in Eagan, Minnesota. Scott today I wanna talk to you a little bit about the bowling fit. Let's say a person just walks into the pro shop here, introduces themselves. What do you go about in order to fit them into a ball for the first time? What are you looking for? Yeah, that's a really good question. So first time bowler, what I'm really wanting to get out of them is number one, you know what they're looking for. How often do they bowl and what skill level they're at. Of course. And a lot of the time we need to get information from them and them tell it to us. And then we go from there. If they have a bowling ball already, how long they bowled, you know, where they like to be, what bowling center, things like that. Perfect, yeah, the environment makes a big difference. Environment Exactly. So along those lines, let's say you're , you know a customer walks in the door they've been bowling for 30, 40 years, you know, a lot's changed in, in fitting over over time. You know, let's say they bring in their resinol ball they've had for three or four years. What are you looking for? What are you asking them about? And what are you looking to do with that bowler? For sure, I'm looking at number one, the fit. You know if the fit is matching their style of play. And there's lots of things to look forward to. We'll talk more about that. And if I still am unclear as to what they're doing or what they're saying, I definitely get them out on the lanes and watch them throw some balls. All right, very good. So let me go a little different direction here. The current state of the game, the modern game if you will. Quite a bit changed with both bowling ball technology, fitting techniques, oil patterns, lane conditions, all that sort of stuff over the years. I know back in the urethane days, when we all first kind of started the way you approach the game, the way you fit quite a bit different than now. Can you speak a little bit about that? Absolutely. The urethane days, you know which was up until 1992 before resinol came out the fit was very simple. It was very oriented towards how much can I do to this ball? How much force can I put on the ball? And it wasn't so much of now the modern fit is a relaxed grip and that's just evolved over time. Very much. Yeah, I know back in the urethane days, it was a lot about getting the hand as stretched as you possibly could, get the fingers pitched back to really lift up on the ball. Exactly. And create as much you know, upward lift force to make the ball slow down so you can create hook. If you think of it, you know, think of like a Mark Roth. You know, he was the type that had that old fit school, Old school fit. Old school fit of really hitting up on the ball. Exactly. And then trying to make it hook. Yes. But so now you speak of the more relaxed modern fits. Talk a little bit about that and a little bit about what it creates on the lanes, show the differences it makes. It's happened twofold in my opinion, it's bowling balls have created this lean conditions and the fit. Today's modern fit is more relaxed in the thumb. And it's more getting it off my hands, smooth on the lane and seeing what it does down at the end of the pattern more so than early on the pattern where it was with the urethane days. Very much getting the strong, powerful, reactive resinol bombs, if you will down the lane to do their damage there and not so much in the front part of the. We like to say, you know it's more letting the ball do it instead of the bowler do it so much anymore. Very much, so we've got some balls here. So, you know, as we said, back in the day, it was about getting the fingers pitched back, the thumb back and the hand as stretched as possible. What specifically now are we doing differently with the span wise? Differently span is definitely a lot shorter. Okay. A more relaxed you know, just less grip pressure on the hand. You know when it was longer years ago, we had more stress. More stress on the hand and more effort. So now we're trying to create more relaxation with the hand the shoulder, which gives typically better timing. Perfect. Okay so as the hand gets more relaxed, easier to hang on to the ball. Probably easier to repeat shots also I would imagine. Absolutely. Absolutely. So that's a big thing there. And then also just, you know, the injury factor. I know back in the day you saw a lot of guys with torn tendons and that sort of thing. You know probably not as much nowadays correct? Not as much. If things are happening correctly and you're getting a good fit to start with, it really isn't happening as much. I mean you're seeing youth players now global national events and play four or five, six, seven days in a row. Whereas, you know, back in the day of the urethane days, if we bowled four, five, six seven days in a row, we need time off. Well, I know some of us still need that time off anyways but- All right, so let's walk into another kind of cool new technology that's been around for a few years now. I know has definitely made a difference as far as the thumb and the wear and tear on the thumb. You know, again, you go back to Mark Roth. I know back in the day you used to watch him on TV and he'd have, you know a new scan and glue just covering his thumb. Cause it was just screwed into that round hole that he had drilled. You know, nowadays we have, you know much more advanced drilling techniques to oval the thumb to fit your hand properly. And then also an interchangeable thumb system to where you can just simply drill the one thumb and swap it in and out of your walls. So you wanna talk about the systems and kind of who it's designer for? Sure, sure, you know, it's designed for all players. There really is no one style or type of player. Today, it's definitely oriented. If you live in a climate per say where we live in the Minnesota area, you know, climate changes, our hands change, our thumb sizes are different all the time. Very much. You know, if you live in San Diego, well you and your hand, isn't going to change but if you're playing a lot, your hand will change. So what the interchangeable system allows is for you to just have multiple inserts in the ball. You can have multiple sizes, you can have multiple angles of the thumb if things are happening a certain way. Sure. So it really allows the bowler to have what we're talking about, more of that modern fit, relaxed feel. That's great, so basically, instead of having to swap tape in and out constantly. Again in Minnesota you bowl in the summer versus when you bowl and it's 20 below out in the winter your thumb is definitely not the same size. So being able to, just to take the same effect from ball to ball- Right. And then also have multiple thumbs of different sizes, different angles, different pitches, huge tool for both the competitive bowler as well as probably just the league bowler. So simple as just put in, twist it and very simple for the pro shop person to make one two, three, however many you need. For a different example for you. Let's say a player walks in they're you know a college bowler, a competitive younger bowler they bowl at tournaments. They get a lot of games and do a lot of practicing. What would you be looking for in their fit and what might you point them more towards in the fitting to maximize their potential? Yes, it's a really good question. I would definitely point them in the direction of to what we say now is more of the modern fit. Okay. You know, the youth and the collegiate players it's a different game from 15, 10 years ago. Absolutely. It's all about what we're talking about that modern fit, relaxed hand, get it off my thumb nice and clean, less effort, a little more forward in the pitch per se- Yep. A little more reverse in the fingers. There are those situations where it's not available with certain hands, you know, it's not an absolute rule but if it's possible, it's definitely recommended. And that's something we really can't stress enough. You know, even though there is a modern fit and kind of a blueprint to go by every hand certainly is different. Absolutely. You look at my hand for example, it's thinner, it's pretty flexible. Still a little bit on the younger side I like to tell myself. Your hands are conversely, definitely a little bit more meat on it. Not quite the flexibility you use to have. I have the thick Midwest hand, if you will. And for me, I use a little bit of the modern fit but I can't go as extreme as let's say someone who's very flexible and young and has that going for him. Very much. Definitely why it's important to go see a knowledgeable experienced pro shop guy. Absolutely. But so let's even go a step further back. Let's say someone walks into your shop, you know, 10, 11, 12, 13 year old just getting into the game. You know, what are you looking for with the fit for them? Are you looking to just kind of go conventional plastic ball? Sure Starting on an entry level, reactive fingertip, what are you looking for? What's with that place? It's lot like every customer that comes in. I'm looking to see, what are you gonna do? Are you gonna play an open bowling just go fun with your friends? Then I'm gonna do a conventional fit. I'm just gonna keep it simple. Now, if they're gonna be let's say on a junior league or a high school team- Okay. Which you can start as young as fifth grade, these days, you can practice with a team. I'll probably get them into a fingertip. Okay. The coaches want them started young. You know, I mean you equate it to other sports, get them going early. That's true. So that's our philosophy. If your goal is to, you know, advance in bowling, just clearly then getting another fingertip as soon as you can, it's probably the route to go. Is there an age that's too young for a fingertip in your experience? In my experience, I mean, I would at least say I'd like to see them get into third fourth grade before fingertip. Okay, yes. Very good. And then as far as, even on the younger bowlers, as far as getting into their proper weight is there a rule of thumb you go by with that? There's couple of things that I look for it's strength within the bowler, I also look at athletic ability- Okay. And I also ask them, you know do you play other sports? Because that comes into a lot of play. If they're athletically sound then you can go a little heavier per se. But if they're really just getting into it and physically stature not very good, we'll keep it lower. Very good advice. Do you have any questions? Feel free to stop by your local Pro shop run all this info by them. And hopefully this will help them help your game.