Color: Amethyst/Violet Cover: R2S Solid Reactive Weight Block: Turbine RG: 2.55 Differential: 0.038

Fragrance: Grape Reviewed Ball 15 Lbs
Layout: 45 degree drilling angle 4 inch pin 50 degree angle to VAL (pin and CG 4.0 inches from PAP pin above fingers) Surface: 2000 grit Abralon® Weight Hole: N/A

All balls were equipped with Turbo Insert products including the #1 selling interchangeable thumb insert, Switch Grip. For details on their premium line of insert products and accessories, visit http://www.turbogrips.com/

On your shelf or counter….. Yet another great looking bowling ball from Storm. This is one that will definitely get some notice. It compliments the Fast with its softer violet & amethyst combination. You’ll want to have this ball on your shelf side by side with the Fast!

On the lanes….. I tested this ball on your average house condition at a center with an anvil lane surface. I tested this ball immediately following my ball review of the Fast. Once again I was wowed! Storm has done it again with the value and performance of this ball. The Furious is definitely stronger in the mid lane than the Fast with a stronger continuation. I made just a simple 2 and 1 move to the Fast and the results are the same. Great pin carry with ball predictability. When I got it in the oil, it simply stayed on line and absolutely crushed the pocket. Not much else I can say on the lanes with this one other then look out!

In conclusion….. The new Storm Furious is what it is expected to be, stronger than the Fast, with a greater mid lane move and unbelievable continuation through the pocket. Bowlers of all styles cannot go wrong with this ball in their bag. Although it may not stand up to the heavy volumes of oil, it can be your “go to” ball when they break down.

Last week I wrote about a proper fit for you and your bowling ball. I outlined the different types of spans and what you should look for to see if your bowling ball is fit properly. Do you remember that tip? If not, you may want to go back and read last weeks tip then come back to this one. If you have read it, then I thank you for taking a few more minutes to visit us again. Last week I mentioned how to determine if your span is too long or to short. I also touched on how to see if you have the proper pitches.  I also closed with the statement about squeezing your bowling ball. Let me make this clear, “Don’t Squeeze!!!”

First we will start with a simple question:  “Do you have to squeeze your bowling ball to hold on to it?”  If the answer is yes, then you have a fitting issue.  Back in the old days, bowlers had their holes drilled a little larger than necessary in case they experienced some finger or thumb swelling.  I would like to touch on why your fingers or thumb might swell and why you have to have a death grip on your bowling ball.

Swelling can be caused by a few things. Let’s first start with your diet. The most common cause of swelling is the retaining of fluids. If you’re the bowler that likes to have a couple adult beverages while you bowl, then it’s only a matter of time before your hand is going to swell. It is not just a matter of what or how much you drink. What you eat can also cause swelling. Food that contains high levels of salt can have a double hit. Eating high salt foods will not only leave you thirsty, resulting in drinking more, it will also cause you to retain more of what you do drink. Possibly the most common cause of swelling is repetitive use. When you are working out lifting heavy weights in repetition your muscles will swell with blood in the short term and grow in the long term. The same thing is going to happen when you bowl frame after frame with a 15 pound ball that you are squeezing with your finger muscles to hold on to.

So how can you avoid squeezing your bowling ball?

First look at your hand and the way it fits in your bowling ball. If you have to use a lot of grip pressure to hold onto the bowling ball, then your gripping holes are too big. That’s the easiest way to tell. What if you feel that they fit fine, but you still find you are squeezing the bowling ball because you think it will fly backwards in your swing? Well, the holes might be right, but your pitches might not be correct! What do I mean by pitches? Every hole in the bowling ball has either forward or reverse pitch in it. For example, if you take your hand, palm facing down and you bend your finger and thumb inward toward the center of your palm (like making a fist), then you are creating forward pitch.  Fingers going to the palm are considered forward pitch. Thumb going towards your palm is considered forward pitch. Fingers and thumb going away from the center of your palm is considered reverse pitch. If your bowling ball has excessive reverse pitch then your hand will be more open. Having a hand that is more open will result in the need to apply more grip pressure to hold onto an object. If you feel that the size of your gripping holes is correct, but you are still having issues squeezing the ball, then take it to your local pro shop and have them check your pitches. You may find out that you have incorrect pitches for your hand.

One last thing that I teach my students is this simple saying:  Hold the bowling ball like it was a bird. You’re not trying to hurt it, just hold it. That’s about the amount of grip pressure you would like to have on your bowling ball.

Until next week, don’t kill the bird, I mean the bowling ball.

Bowling is a sport of hand eye coordination. It is also one of feel. You need to have the proper feel of the bowling ball in your hands to execute a proper release. Having an improper fit can cause you to be inconsistent with your release and as a result not perform at your best. There is so much you need to think about when you try to execute a great shot. The last thing you need on your mind is “Don’t drop the ball in my back swing”.   This week’s tip of the week will be how to see if your ball fits properly.

There are two basic grips in the sport of bowling. The conventional grip and the fingertip grip.

The conventional grip is where your thumb inserts into the thumb hole all the way while your middle and ring finger fit to the second joint on your hand. This style of grip is most commonly used by the novice or beginner bowler. It gives the beginning bowler more control of the ball in the swing. The drawback of this grip is that it doesn’t allow for optimal revolutions on the bowling ball.

The second grip is called the fingertip grip. The finger tip grip allows you to create more revolutions on a bowling ball.  It is the most commonly used grip among intermediate to the advanced bowler.  This grip is used by placing the middle and ring finger to the first joint of your hand as well as inserting your thumb all the way into the thumb hole.  Did you catch that?  A finger grip tip does not mean you put your tip of your thumb in.

Now how can you tell if you have a proper fit?  Here are a couple things to look for in both grips.  First with a conventional grip, the easiest way to see if your grip span is correct is by placing your thumb in the bowling ball, and laying your fingers over the finger holes. If your second joint is approximately 3/8 of an inch above the bottom of the finger hole, then the span is correct.  If your finger joint is less then 3/8 of an inch then the span may be too long.  If it’s more then 3/8 of an inch then your span is too short. Having a span too short or too long will result in having to much grip pressure causing you to squeeze the bowling ball. In bowling, squeezing is not a good thing.

For a finger tip grip, do the same process.  What you are looking for is that the bottom edge of your finger gripping hole is about half way between your first and second finger joint.  If your first finger joint is close to the edge then the span will be too long. If your second finger joint is closer to the gripping hole, then your span is too short.

One more tip to see if your finger tip span is correct is to take and put your hand in the bowling ball, and if you see the tops of your finger nails, then your span is too long.  Another sign is excessive discoloration in your finger joints when you put your hand in the ball, this can also show that your span is too long.  This might also mean that your finger pitches in your bowling ball may not be correct.  Do these couple simple tests at home, and if you see any of these issues, then take the ball into your local pro shop, and get the necessary adjustments.  Last thing I want to touch on is my comment on squeezing the ball.  Ask yourself this question; do I have to hold on to the bowling ball, or does the bowling ball hold on to me? I will cover squeezing in more detail in next week’s tip.  Until next week have a great time bowling.

T.J. Yeip is the Manager of GLC Bowling and the Lead Technical Advisor. He is an IBPSIA Advanced Certified Member and former PBA member. You can email your questions to him personally at thomas.yeip@glcbowling.com

The sun is out, birds are chirping, the grass is green and I’m in the bowling center! Yes that’s right, the bowling center. Some of you may call me sick. With the beautiful weather outside, why would I be inside? The answer? To work on my game. Specifically, I am working on my timing, which is this week’s tip.

You hear people talk about timing in almost every sport.  In baseball you have to have great timing to hit the 90 mph fastball. In golf, you need great timing to hit the stationary golf ball while you are creating momentum with you body. Timing will keep your golf ball in the fairway and on target. That would be the complete opposite of me. You will be waiting in the fairway, while I will be fighting off the bugs in the woods trying to find my golf ball. 

So, why is timing so important in bowling?

Timing in sports is defined as the regulation of occurrence, pace or coordination to achieve a desired effect. Let’s break this definition down a bit more as it relates to bowling. Your bowling “pace” would be the speed at which you walk to the line during your approach to deliver the ball. Your pace combined with your arm swing and release is the coordination necessary for good timing. Without a good and consistent timing, your results would be inconsistent. How many of you see bowlers falling off their shot after release? I know I see it often.  Why is that?  It is a result of their timing or pace being off and as are result they miss their target.  We all know what happens when you miss your target. Do you see Norm Duke fall to the right after he lets go of his bowling ball? Do you know why?  Duke has great timing.

Great timing is the full effect of how you are controlling your body motion. Getting too fast with your approach will result in your body getting to the foul line too soon which makes your arm swing late. As a result, you are off balance or you fall off your shot.

Here are a couple tips to correct that.

First, slow your feet down!   Is there someone chasing you?  No!  So why run?  Slow down.  You might try to take a smaller first step in your approach. Also, taking smaller steps will slow you down.

Another tip is to lower the starting position of your bowling ball. If you hold the ball too high in your stance, you then create a larger arc which in turn will create more arm speed. Therefore your swing will be finished by the time your feet get there. As a result you will pull the bowling ball inside of your intended target.

No let’s recap: Falling off your shot at the foul line is a result of poor timing. Slowing your pace down will help improve this. Lowering your starting position with your bowling ball will also decrease your swing arc, thereby slowing your momentum down and creating your body to be more in time.

But don’t just take my words for it. Get out and go to your local bowling center and practice. I know that’s where I’ll be!

T.J. Yeip is the Manager of GLC Bowling and the Lead Technical Advisor. He is an IBPSIA Advanced Certified Member and former PBA member. You can email your questions to him personally at thomas.yeip@glcbowling.com

Everyday I run into bowlers that want more hook in the backend. It’s always the same statement “I want a bowling ball that will go long and snap on the back end”.  I will got a lot of flack from saying this but I’m going to say it anyway; It’s not just the ball that will make that happen, it’s you!

No one ever wants to hear that the problems that they have in the sport of bowling are due to their technique. They want the equipment to do the work for them.  It’s never the bowler themselves, it’s the ball!!! Am I right so far?

Bowlers that create that snapping motion on a bowling ball, have greater axis rotation. I can hear some of you now saying, what’s axis rotation? This tip of the week is going to cover what axis rotation is and why you need it to improve your score.

Axis rotation, commonly known as side roll is the horizontal measure of the angle of the ball's revolutions.  Confused?   Let’s make it simple. Picture the Earth.  It rotates around the axis of the north and South Pole. So take the earth and lay it on its side. This is much like a bowling ball. Your axis is a parallel line to the lane. The rotation of your bowling ball is going from right to left (if you’re a right handed bowler) from this axis. This is your axis rotation. Now measuring your degree can not be done by the naked eye. But I will give you a few examples of bowlers that have lower axis rotation and higher axis rotation. Let’s go with Walter Ray Williams and Pete Weber. Both bowlers are great but they have different types of releases. Walter is more up the back of the bowling ball which results in a lower axis rotation degree. Pete Weber goes more around the bowling ball, thus creating a higher degree of axis rotation. Does that help?

Bowling balls will change direction more abruptly in the back part of the lane with higher degrees of axis rotation. Lower axis rotation numbers will not change direction as fast, or snap more.

Don’t get me wrong, there are bowling balls that are designed not to snap as much as some others. But the simple fact remains, the bowler will ultimately decide how that bowling ball will snap in the back end. If you stay behind the ball more when you release it then you have a lower degree of rotation and therefore not as much snap in the back end. If your release is more around the side of the bowling ball then you will create a higher degree of rotation thereby creating more snap. Got it now?

If you want to have more back end in the bowling ball increase the rotation of your hand around the side of the bowling ball. If you are looking for less back end reaction then you need to stay more behind the bowling ball.

Visit your local bowling coach for some tips and lessons on how to create axis rotation. Or you can come to one of our Michigan Summer clinics this year. I will have more on that to come in the upcoming weeks.

T.J. Yeip is the Manager of GLC Bowling and the Lead Technical Advisor. He is an IBPSIA Advanced Certified Member and former PBA member. You can email your questions to him personally at thomas.yeip@glcbowling.com