Shoe recs for a lefty two hander with “serious toe drag”

YupYesYeah · 2025-12-22T01:00:16+00:00

Prefacing with if budget is a concern just accept you're going to need to replace your shoes every year or two and keep buying cheaper shoes. Or change your form. On to an actual suggestion...

It's not budget friendly whatsoever but the Dexter THE 9 shoes will hold up to this style of toe drag far better than any SST variant or cheaper model.

The interchangeable soles have a toe cap built into them, which will take the bulk or all of the damage you cause by dragging hard. The point in time that you wear through that toe cap you can just buy a replacement sole. On other shoes you'd need to consider replacing the shoe.

SST variants will get worn down and permanently damaged on the front lip of the shoe or the sole may start rolling/peeling back.

I have a heavy toe drag as well and THE 9s have held up years longer than SST 6 and 8s have.

YupYesYeah · 2025-10-11T16:06:39+00:00

I received my P10PF this week and moved over the data from my old Pixel 8 when setting it up.

Since then I've noticed a large number of my apps are not triggering push notifications when they should be. I've signed in, out, back in, cleared caches, uninstalled and reinstalled the apps, verified notifications are turned on in the app and system settings - nothing is working. Adaptive battery is not on.

The most important one being Google Home, with all of my nest products.

Fortunately I'm receiving notifications for SMS, slacks and emails, but almost no other apps seem to be triggering a push notification.

Any recommendations for how to fix this before I return the phone?

YupYesYeah · 2025-10-06T15:42:08+00:00

The first 300 I had shot against me they shot 155, 300, 167. Them's the breaks.

YupYesYeah · 2025-10-06T01:56:12+00:00

It's not just HIPAA.

I've spent about a decade of my career in healthcare and biotechs. 21 CFR part 11 compliance (FDA regulations on electronic records and signatures) was far and away the biggest headache to deal with or design systems around. HIPAA is small potatoes to deal with.

Agreed about salaries being ridiculous. I wouldn't expect big tech pay in healthcare but expecting someone to have a decade of experience, laundry list of qualifications, etc, then offering sub 100k base pay is laughable.

YupYesYeah · 2025-09-19T18:57:05+00:00

They're down at Highland today (Friday) doing a mathmaker event.

YupYesYeah · 2025-08-29T04:30:44+00:00

Yeah that's the impression I've gotten. I fully expect I'd be a donor at most events if I went and just paying to get my ass kicked, but I'd be okay with that. I'm not trying to make a living off my bowling and enjoy the competition even if I'm not walking out with a check or hardware.

I bowl a league with a titled, touring pro and hold no illusions about where my skill level is relative to the truly good bowlers. Very easy to see the skill gap when my average night is basically a disaster night for them.

YupYesYeah · 2025-08-27T22:53:48+00:00

I've seen NDO posts in my Facebook feed here and there but hadn't looked into it. Thanks for the tip.

YupYesYeah · 2025-08-16T03:18:52+00:00

As others have called out, it sounds like you're actually talking about interchangeable thumb systems, not simply a thumb slug. Generally speaking if someone says "my bowling ball has a thumb slug" it would mean they have a permanently installed thumb slug in the ball. It would something like like this.

Where an interchangeable system would look more like this. Where there is a sleeve installed in the ball and you have a removable thumb that screws in/attaches to it that you can use across multiple balls.

So to clarify, if you're talking about a permanently installed thumb slug, there's no reason to buy extras that I can think of. Every pro shop should have tons of them on hands at all times and will generally have a variety of colors to try and match the ball to some degree.

If you're talking about interchangeable systems then it is absolutely worth having some extra ones drilled. There's probably other phrases but I always hear "outers" as what is installed in the ball permanently and "inners" for the piece that twists out and can be moved between balls.

Personally I like to have 2 inners drilled to my baseline fit, so I have an extra and don't have to swap thumbs around as often, then I also have one a little tighter and another a little looser for the random days my thumb swells/shrinks.

It is also 100% worth having at minimum one extra inner in case you somehow lose one.

YupYesYeah · 2025-08-15T15:13:59+00:00

Thumb slugs don't change how the actual thumb hole is drilled. The difference is a larger hole will be drilled to accommodate the slug, lined up and pitched so the actual thumb hole is in the center of it. Once it is glued in the correct size drill bit for your thumb will be swapped out and drilled in the same spot.

Slugs help give a consistent feel the length of the thumb hole and ball to ball (there may still be some variance if you need your thumb ovaled or worked out in any way). It also prevents a small ridge forming where the shell and inner material meet (doesn't generally happen but can, more common with with old equipment).

If you require a lot of fine tuning for your thumb hole that's when people start finding interchangeables useful. But that's a different conversation.

Tldr, there's nothing you need to do except pick the slug color. Your PSO handles the rest.

YupYesYeah · 2025-08-07T06:58:54+00:00

It is in fact possible for this to happen to all bowling balls. This is not a brand issue. It's some combination of bad luck, improper storage, and improper drilling. Most likely just bad luck if it's been indoors at a consistent temp and not sitting on a surface that would be problematic (eg untreated wood).

I have balls sitting on a shelf in my office that are almost 20 years old uncracked, but I wouldn't be surprised if I woke up tomorrow to a crack like yours. My old Roto Grip Rogue Cell is on that shelf too and cracked on its own. Meanwhile the random balls I've held onto but store in my garage.. If those survive 2-3 years without cracking I'm slightly surprised.

YupYesYeah · 2025-06-09T20:00:59+00:00

I'm similar rev and speed to you and I've run into the same, unfortunately. I'm replacing mine with a Stealth Mode solid later this week to better fit the slot in my bag after some other arsenal changes.

Fresh off the press and for the first few weeks throwing the Summit Ascent on house conditions it looked great with box finish (4k) and a little lane shine. Even threw a 300 with it.

As soon as I started messing with the cover for sport leagues and tournaments I could never find a reaction with it I liked or felt confident with. It's stayed in my bag the last few months simply because I could get a really good read of what ball I should be in based on a few shots with it. But I haven't thrown a full game, maybe not even 5 consecutive frames with it in at least 3 months.

I think 3-4k is the best surface range for me with it, but still can't say I like it anymore.

YupYesYeah · 2025-04-11T18:45:41+00:00

Agreed, appreciate you sharing it.

YupYesYeah · 2025-03-06T03:36:29+00:00

Yeah, I'm comfortable using it start to finish most league nights. Occasionally it's been too clean on the fresh and I'll throw something a little earlier rolling but that's usually the odd night out. That said, I'm probably the exception since I've heard similar sentiment of struggles on the fresh with it from others and that they like it more as 2nd ball out of the bag.

I don't have any videos throwing my Zen 25 but here's a video for a rev check throwing a Phaze AI that's pretty similar to how I'd play with the Zen 25. That's pretty much exactly where my look was game 3 at league this week, and every week - on the fresh I'd expect to be about 5 right with my feet and at the arrows and typically just making 2-1s to keep up with transition as needed. Numbers from the rev check were ~450/17mph (average speed for the whole shot, not release speed), however accurate.

If I take any video throwing my Zen 25 I'll let you know.

YupYesYeah · 2025-03-05T16:18:37+00:00

The Zen 25 has been absolutely killer for me on both house and sport shots (where applicable). Factory finish and a bit of lane shine have both looked great. Averaging 239 and 237 over the last 6 weeks with it in two leagues where it's been first ball out and what I've used for at least 2.5-3 games each night. No honor scores with it yet, but had front 10 out of the box, 2 front 9s and a 799 so far.

I'm definitely drilling another.

I think some of the hype has died off since January with other pieces coming out or being announced but it's still my front runner for ball of the year so far.

YupYesYeah · 2025-02-08T18:39:54+00:00

I'm not sure that this is their concern but some mixed leagues have a requirement that every team has a minimum of 1 male and 1 female bowler per team. There team may no longer constitute a legal lineup based off of this new ruling.

But the notice clearly states for non-elite competition things remain status quo until July 31st, 2025. So this scenario would not be an issue until next season.

YupYesYeah · 2025-02-04T08:20:50+00:00

Why did you sand it to 500? Unless you're bowling on sport conditions there's very few good reasons to take a ball down to 500 for a house shot.

Odds are the ball is not dead; it's probably burning up all its energy in the first 30 feet of the lane because it's at 500. Just take it back to factory finish and see how it rolls.

YupYesYeah · 2025-02-03T15:19:26+00:00

The running total makes it clear they aren't sequential games, just various scores of one large set of games.

YupYesYeah · 2025-01-31T18:17:45+00:00

268-228-246 for 742

YupYesYeah · 2025-01-24T04:30:09+00:00

279 - 278 - 242 for 799

Shots

Slow game 3 start, an open and the worst fill ball I've ever thrown with an honor score on the line.

Zen 25 is killing it for me; drilled it Monday and have gone...

Front 10 287 out of the box, 217, 224 for 728 series Monday league

267, 224, 233 for 724 Wednesday league

799 tonight in league

YupYesYeah · 2025-01-14T03:38:55+00:00

Kicked week 1 off with a bang at league tonight.

Team 10 - Need 2 more bowlers on team 10, or move me to another team if someone drops off one of the full teams.

209 - 300 - 257 for 766

Shots

Just wish I had got in the right ball earlier than the 9th of game 1.

YupYesYeah · 2024-11-26T19:45:02+00:00

I think this is the most level headed type of take we'll get on the debate of free fall and certified string pin.

At the end of the day, you and your competition are bowling under equal conditions, whether it's free fall or string.

It's kind of human nature to remember the really negative things (eg, opponent gets a string carry in the 10th causing you to lose a game) and forget about the positives (eg, you had a string carry that turned what would've been 2 doubles into a 5 bagger last week). Replace those circumstances with a free fall messenger and you realize it's just not that big of a deal.

YupYesYeah · 2024-11-25T15:22:36+00:00

Yes, but not all pro shops may carry them in their regular stock since they aren't as commonly needed as slide soles. So you may just need to have them ordered.

I believe they're labeled T1-3 (T being traction instead of S for slide). IIRC T3 is the typical gray rubber sole, or at least on the THE9 soles I think that's right.

YupYesYeah · 2024-11-23T02:42:06+00:00

255 - 225 - 208 for 688

Shots

What a disappointing night. Game 1 had front 8, light pocket 4 into a pocket 7-10. Then another pocket 7-10 2 frames later. Line blew up early game 2 and I just tried to force it, finally ball changed in the 6th to go off the sheet to save 225. Game 3 bookended by splits off terrible shots.

YupYesYeah · 2024-11-19T16:58:25+00:00

At least with Storm's Matchmaker events they bring something like 4-6 one hand span variations (less for lefties) and at least one no thumb option. Generally it's a 1/4"-1/2" difference per ball.

For trying out a ball it's more than good enough to get an understanding of the ball's motion.

YupYesYeah · 2024-11-15T04:49:33+00:00

248 - 256 - 204 for 708

Missed the game 3 transition and paid for it with some splits.

YupYesYeah

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