When Olivia and I went to Al Louie's Pro Shop to pick up her new Mutant Cell, Al mentioned that her thumb slug was (intentionally) slightly large and that she should add one or two pieces of tape for a firm fit. Well, in all the excitement of getting started with a new high performance ball, we forgot about the tape.
You can see there is very little hook on Olivia's shots and most of them come up short of the headpin. One would expect an aggressive high performance ball like the Mutant Cell to hook a lot.
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The problem was the loose fitting thumb hole. Olivia was squeezing the ball to keep from losing her grip on it. Squeezing the ball prevents one from releasing it properly and getting the lift and rotation necessary to exploit an aggressive ball's hooking tendencies. With a proper fit, there's no need to squeeze the ball.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't until we had finished several games that Olivia remembered Al's advice to add a couple of pieces of tape to the thumb hole. After the tape was inserted, Olivia's shots started snapping with a much sharper hook. However, we were fatigued by then and there wasn't enough fuel left in our tanks to continue practicing.