Andrew

Where do you hold the dice with the one finger grip? Up top like the 3 finger, part way down or all the way down?

Try all the way down , ie your thumb and middle finger holding the dice in the middle , with your nails almost at the bottom. And Practice, practice etc etc etc

Good luck

CC Roller

Andrew M

I think that your problem is probably in your thumb placement. Look at your throw and try to see what the dice are doing in the air. If one is wobbling more than the other try moving your thumb toward that die (usually it’s toward your ring finger). When you are using only 2 fingers it is critical that your middle finger and thumb are perfect since you don’t have the other fingers to stabilize the dice after your thumb releases. Many think that it should be easier only using 2 fingers but what they don’t know is that the other two fingers help to keep the dice from wobbling.

The "5" and I have looked at many shooters in our video analysis clinics and see this regularly. Perhaps it might benefit you to come see us in November or maybe even take a refresher class and have many people look at what you are doing. The reason that I am suggesting these options is since your injury you are having to learn all over again with a handicap that makes many of the things that you learned useless because you can not utilize the research that you have already done.

Keep practicing but don’t practice a bad toss over and over. Critique every shot and try to get the dice looking good in the air.

BTK

PS This problem will also make the dice rotate at different speeds so you really need to pay attention to every shot while you are learning the new toss.

AndrewM,

Hang in there buddy. I use the one finger front also. Had my best rolls both in practice and in the casino with the one finger front.
BTK, thanks for the PS although I should already know that because I get so many double pitches. Nice to hear someone say so though.
I try to limit the rotations with moderate success especially when I think about it. Guess that means I should think about it more often and make it part of my toss regularly in the future.

Andrew, if you get more double pitches try the 3V or 2V as there are less double pitch outs. Instead you get 1/2 or 6/5 from the 3V and 1/3 or 6/4 from the 2V. At least from the way I set them. Be sure you are well centered with both fingers, middle finger just short of halfway down and the same for the thumb. Usually I have the middle finger just a tiny bit higher. Lastly, many hours of practice will make them look great and get pretty good results. My SRR is around 8.7 with the one finger front. Good luck.

OneMoonCircles

"billythekid" wrote: …Keep practicing but don’t practice a bad toss over and over. Critique every shot and try to get the dice looking good in the air…
PS This problem will also make the dice rotate at different speeds so you really need to pay attention to every shot while you are learning the new toss.

Sorry to hear of your injury and resulting arthritis, AndrewM. Not fun…

As you’ve now learned, minor grip and swing imperfections usually lead to undesireable outcomes. Hopefully Billy’s spot-on suggestions will get you back on track.

Grooving in your new grip will take time, so be patient. Practice with purpose and a specific improvement goal in mind for your session.

And please keep us posted on your progress. Perhaps I’ll see you at a future class or video analysis.

😎 😎 😎

AndrewM:

Do not get discouraged. I had one student in my mentoring group that had been in many car accidents and broke every bone in his body more than once. He worked through the class with the best attitude and each and every instructor worked their magic to make his throw come together.

Schedule a tune up or video analysis class in the future to work with your grip issues.

I agree that you are going to have to experiment with different positions. My recommendation is a simple one. Don’t play in the casinos until you have fixed the problem.

You are in a tough situation. The one-finger grip is the starting point for many of us using the three-fingered grip. In reality, you are starting all over again as the force and spin necessary for the one finger is not necessarily the same as for the three-fingerd one.

So now you have to more or less start over. I would recommend starting backwards. Forget the dice in the air, the splits and just look to see what happens after the dice hit the back wall. Does the end result look good? If so, don’t go crazy trying to change things.

However, if the dice are really reacting in a random fashion then back up a step and check how they are landing on the felt. If you see they are hitting in weird ways, one here, one there, then go to what they look like in the air. Are they wobbling, splitting, one goes up, one goes down, the spin is too much or too little — or, horrors, parts of all of these.

Now you have to go right to the grip. The advice to lower your middle finger is good. Does that help the endresult? If yes, keep that finger arrangement. If no, move the middle finger a little higher. How does the end result look?

In dice control sometimes being backwards is the way to go!

I hope this helped a little.

Any one of these or a combination of these suggestions could help get you on the right track to having a good toss again. But the best thing for you to do would be to sign up for a refresher class or a tune-up. This would give you some one on one time with instructors and get your toss and grip fixed the best way.

Work backwards. That is a great tip Frank. I think it is easy to get lost in the mechanics and forget the goal.

When the dice look good after hitting the back wall and settling, then you are doing everything right. If you can make that happen consistently, you are done.

If I am shooting in a casino I try to always pay attention to how my dice are landing, hitting the wall and settling. I make adjustments based on what I see only if needed. But my main focus as a shooter is to get the dice to land softly, gently kiss the back wall and settle within a few inches of the back wall.

I agree that sometimes we overdo the technique even if the results have been good. Backwards is best!

I am now experimenting with your advice. I think I am seeing improvement. I’ll keep you all posted. I am sure others have the same situation one way or the other.

It will be interesting to follow your progress.

This backwards analysis seems to be working for me. My dice are landing better. I only adjusted my grip a little and I found the back wall bounce is starting to look good. I want to thank every for their input. Frank’s idea is really smart!