Bowling Ball Selection for League and Tournament Play
Scott PohlDescription
Having the right bowling ball in your hand for the lane condition that you are bowling on combined with your style of play is the recipe for success in bowling today. Scott Pohl, owner of On Track Pro Shop, explains which bowling balls you need for league and tournament play to help you bowl your best.
League Bowling
Most bowling centers lay the same house shot for league night week in and week out. This doesn’t mean that they will play exactly the same every week, but in large part, you know what to expect.
When building a league arsenal (bowling balls in your bag), the most important bowling ball is the plastic spare ball.
Plastic bowling balls do not hook, so oil distance and volume do not affect how it rolls down the lane. You can shoot spares exactly the same every time on any oil pattern. Having a plastic spare ball and a consistent spare system will lead to more spare conversions and increase your average.
The next bowling ball you’ll need is a benchmark bowling ball. Typically, the surface of this bowling ball is smoother and provides a predictable ball motion downlane.
Lastly, you’ll need a bowling ball to bring out of your bag when the lanes transition (oil volume and shape depletes from the amount of play on it). A shinier coverstock bowling ball will skid longer and break or hook in the backend, providing more right-to-left motion down lane for a right-handed bowler when the lanes transition.
Tournament Bowling
Before deciding what bowling balls go into your tournament bowling bag, you’ll need to know the tournament’s format.
– Is it a one day event or multiple days?
– How many games are you going to bowl?
– How many bowlers are competing?
– What’s the oil pattern? (If they release it)
From here, depending on how many games and how often they are oiling the lanes, you’ll determine how many weaker and stronger bowling balls you’ll carry. Urethane is always good to have for short patterns and when you are moving the shot right.
Different layouts, pin up, pin down, and different grit sanding pads will help you fine-tune your line and keep you in the pocket.
Check out The Importance of Experimenting with Different Bowling Balls and Identifying Strong and Weak Bowling Balls for more expert instruction geared toward improving your bowling game.
Hi, Scott Paul here. Three time USBC Eagle champion. and we're discussing bowling ball selection for league and tournament play. a lot of different factors to consider between the two. league bowling much more simple patterns in general, a lot easier. We can keep our bowling ball selections, a little more of a minimum. First of all, the most important bowling ball that we're looking at is the spare ball. They're important. It's going to have our spares be a lot simpler. We can throw a lot straighter at it. Typically we use a plastic. Some people even use urethane makes it real simple. All right, we're going to go there. Have a very good benchmark type ball reaction its going to be very consistent. Typically a little bit on a smoother type surface ball. Match it up to the style of bowl that we see. And lastly, we have a ball here. That's a little more of a transition ball when the lanes dry up a little bit later in your league shift. Okay. Three different choices. Keep your league arsenal kind of simple. Now, if we discuss tournaments, lot of variables involved number one, how long is the tournament? Is it a long format? short format? We're going to have different ball reactions, as the lanes make those transitions very important for your pro shop operator to match the bowling ball to the bowler. You have a rev dominant style. You have a style of bowl, or that is very speed dominant, or you have someone where their revs and speed match each other. All right, let's talk about possibly a benchmark ball. One that you know the condition is going to be very specific for. Right in the middle controllable reaction, gives you an idea of what the lanes are doing that day. Okay. As the lanes dry up, usually as the day goes on, we're going to go with something that goes a little later down the lane, or who have extremely dry a long format with a lot of bowlers. We even can go to a weaker type bowling ball. All right. Another thing to consider, do we want to have Avalon pads in our bag? It helps adjust the surface of bowling balls as we throw in practice, be sure to see your local pro shop. They can get you set up for league and tournaments.
This video is a clinic on how to give information without giving any information, at all.