Ball Type

Question

Bonanza   QUESTION: I am a two-handed bowler, but have not really bought a ball to accommodate this. I am interested in buying a new ball when I get the money for it, and am wondering what kind of ball I should buy.

I currently am using three different balls:

-A Cool Noize that i picked up used for $50 bucks, all i did to it was change the lifts. I wanted a ball that did not move too much and thats what they suggested.

-A Storm Fast that was one of my dad's old balls and I used one-handed for a while.

-And a ball that my dad says is a mismarked ball because it was not up to the standards to be sold as the actual ball. It says Bonanza 300 on it and I believe its a Columbia ball.

The Bonanza seems to be the ball i go to a lot because I have much more control with it. The Fast and Cool Noise tend to shoot out left when lanes begin to break down, and adjusting becomes tedious.

I tend to start off with one of those two because they hit hard and come in with a great angle, but then I turn to the Bonanza when I get tired of adjusting so far left and want to bring my feet back to the right again.

I hit third arrow, but i don't mind hitting in between third and fourth, or even second and third sometimes. I project my ball out to about the first arrow before it snaps in.

I also roll the ball over the thumb frequently, and although I have ways of adjusting my hand position to eliminate this, a different drilling is probably in order. It kills my shot and bugs me like crazy.

So I was wondering what type of ball (and drilling) you could recommend me.

ANSWER: Taylor,
A bowling ball should allow you to match your ball speed/rev rate with the lane condition you wish to control. The nice thing about using a second hand allows additional adjustments of axis tilt and axis rotation.

You don't mention anything about your speed and rev rate, the lane conditions you bowl on or what you need a ball to do. Without more information any suggestion would be a blind guess. You are not flipping a coin so I won't either.

Can you provide more information (ball speed, rev rate, Positive Axis Point, pictures of the layouts of the other balls, are the other balls used at out of box finish, what does the lane force you to do that your current equipment can't handle)?

Do you have holes in the Bonanza II? I'm not sure which of the Columbia 300 balls it is, it's an older blem bowling ball and I'll check it out.

Rolling over the thumb is caused by your delivery. Chances are the layouts (that were devised for the previous users) may not be the best for you. How's your spare game? What do you average?

Thanks for the questions. Please provide more details and I can help you.  

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I throw around 16 mph, when I release it correctly. When I don't it rolls over the thumb and the ball is pretty dead anyway.

As for revs, I'm unsure what I put on it, but I definitely put a quite a bit on it. I know I do because I had a lot of revs BEFORE i started bowling two-handed.

Positive Axis Point I am unsure.


The layouts are all extreme aggressive drillings (and you are correct, the layouts are probably not good for me, they were drilled the same way, but one was for me, and one was for my dad), except for the Cool Noize, I just picked that one up right off a used rack, it was already drilled up.

Also, I really have not much clue who made the Bonanza ball, I just remembered seeing "300" on it so i assumed Columbia. But yes there are holes in it, I found that picture from google. It was one of my dad's old balls.

Spares I am very inconsistent with. Ex: if i leave 2+ pins up, i will chop one of them off very often. Also, single pins on the right, I will often miss. My spare game really kills my scores, and I know that I need to switch to a spare ball to fix this. It would be much easier if i could take away the extreme turn that I can't handle when picking up spares, hence, the spare ball. It has only a matter of money that keeps me from doing this, although my dad has recently given up his spare ball to me. The lifts just need to be changed out.

Due to the problems I have with spares, I average around 160. With a ball layed out better for my shot, I can more consistently strike, and that's what I'm currently shooting for. My spare game should fix itself now that I'm going to be using my dad's spare ball.

I hope the information I have given you this time has helped you to better understand everything. If you need to know my revs more clearly, I'm sure I can figure that out, too, if you tell me the units it's measured with.

ANSWER: Taylor,
The Bonanza II is a Track Xception.

Your strong rev rate can be tamed down by putting your thumb in the ball for spares, in addition to the spare ball idea.

Where are the oil lines when you throw the ball (first shot)? Describe the location of your track (the oil rings) on each ball. Identify the finger and thumb holes in releationship to the rings and the label and pin location also.  

You will be a rev dominant player until you get your ball speed up. As a rev dominant guy, you'll need weaker equipment to accommodate the violent reaction that occurs downlane. What do you need the ball to do? Hook less? Can you just put your thumb in the ball? Or do a Tommy Smallwood thumb tip?

I need to identify how your ball rolls, without that info, I don't know enough.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------


xception   QUESTION: Throwing a spare ball with two hands seems to get rid of the hook and i just throw the same line as my strike line.

The oil lines are pretty close to the Thumb/Finger tips, that's why I roll over the thumb pretty often. It only takes a little bit to release it wrong and do so.

I am including a picture of the Xception so you can see how its drilled.

Yes, I do want it to hook less so I can keep myself to the right with my feet more. When lanes break down, it gets uncomfortable moving too far left. I want to stay around the farthest left dot on the lane, and i measure with my left foot (some people find this odd, so I thought you should know).

Answer
Taylor,
Positioning your top hand can help control the axis tilt and axis rotation of your shots. You need to practice your delivery, with the idea of controlling how the ball is rolled out of your hands.  When you track across the holes, you're not delivering the ball the same (obviously).

If the Track Xception is an example of how your stuff is drilled, the layouts are very strong. Your rev rate should not necessitate such strong layouts (that's why your equipment is so violent down lane). You may also have a late delivery (with finger grips and finger pitch angles).

Your slower ball speed creates a player that's very rev dominant. Layouts need to be weaker, some surface adjustments might also help (prep some stuff a little rougher under some polish to get the ball to burn up a little). You might want to alter your existing layouts or look at some mild bowling balls (maybe even urethane) to compliment what you roll now. But first....

Your desire to roll a spare ball with two hands exposes your desire to still hook the ball while rolling something very mild and weak. You sound very excited to be using this new approach to the game, but a ball is not going to be the answer. You need to practice and work on how you throw what you have (without consistency, the lack of control will punish you in the end, something I think you are experiencing). Two premiere two handers (Belmonte - Australia, Palermaa - Finland) have used a one hand delivery when necessary to hook it less.

Thanks for the questions. Good luck.