Newport, KY and Mo Pinel

Next, he refit my ball, so as to reduce grip pressure, which is essential to a free arm swing and strong release. I thought I had a good fit, but it turns out my fit was stretched by almost 3/8″ (around 9.5mm) in each finger. Mo also performance fit me so as to produce a different roll on the lanes to what my natural game produces. The fit he gave me, makes the middle finger the dominant finger in the release, making it easier to get my hand around the ball. He also determined that my thumb needed to have a 20°oval. So he set the pilot hole at 55/64″ (about 21.5mm), to a total width of 61/64″ (about 23.8mm).  Then my ball was sent away to be slugged and redrilled with a 60° x 3 1/4″ x 25° layout.

While my ball was being tended to, Mo started working with Jennifer. For some time now, Jennifer has had problems swinging the ball behind her back. The immediate result for her, was that she was spinning the ball like a top: the exact opposite problem to what I was having! So, Mo made her set the ball right in front of her in the stance, then push it straight out under her chin. This was something I had told her to do, but she said it always felt like she was pushing straight out. Mo just gave her a point of reference. That by itself was all it took to make her ball roll better. From the first shot she threw after Mo started helping her, I could see her ball was rolling different. As it turned out, she was still spinning it, but it was the WAY she was spinning that made all the difference.

Once my ball came back, it was my turn to take the lanes again. At first, I was a little concerned at how snug the thumb was. Now, I like a tight thumb anyway, but I was certain I was going to hang up in the ball and hurt my thumb. I needn’t have worried. The ball came off my thumb so easy. The fit was comfortable and relaxed. All I have to do now, is execute the shot. It doesn’t get any simpler than that. It really doesn’t.

I was now throwing a demo MoRichCraze and my Twisted Fury. The odd thing was, the Craze wasn’t thumbing at all, but the Twisted Fury was, so for about 15 minutes, I alternated between balls, until Mo realized that the ball was thumbing further down the lane. He quickly pulled the ball from the rack and checked the track area and discovered two flat spots on the ball right where the ball tracks. Upon seeing that he got Rick Hitt, the pro shop operator, to drill me up MoRich LevRG Response with the same layout as my Twisted Fury.

This is where things get REALLY fun for me! For some time, I’ve heard about a tool called the deTerminator. The deTerminator helps locate a point on the ball known as the Prefered Spin Axis, or PSA. The PSA is the point on the ball that has the highest RG value. Mo put the ball on the deTerminator, turned it on and after a couple seconds the ball was rotating steadily around a fixed point on the ball. We marked this point with a grease pencil and turned the machine off. From there we measured 6 3/4″ toward the Pin locator and marked the Low RG axis. Next, we found the neutral position, which is a point between the High, Low and Intermediate RG axes. The we put the ball back in the deTerminator to find the spin time: 7.4 seconds. From here, the ball was sent away to be drilled. After it was drilled, we spun it again and discovered the PSA had shifted (as expected) by about 1/4″ toward the thumb hole (again, expected). The “new” PSA was marked, the new Low RG found and the new neutral spot marked. We spun the ball again to find the spin time and found a reduction of .4 of a second for around 6 seconds. Then we sent the ball away again to have a P3 weight hole punched in it. After the weight hole was added, we spun it one last time and the PSA had shifted again (as expected) back toward to the weight hole but about 1/4″ again. The final PSA was marked, the final Low RG found and the final Neutral spot was found. We spun the ball one last time and got a spin time reduction of about .5 seconds, for 6 seconds total and net reduction of almost a second. This reduction in spin time translates to a stronger response to friction, which means a strong move on the backend.

All in all, I had a GREAT day. We got to spend a lot of time with some great guys in Newport. I made a few great contacts at the same time. Mo Pinel is the real deal! He knows what he talking about as a coach, ball tech and lane tech. He understands bowling inside and out. Whats more, he enjoys it. It doesn’t get any better than that.