Last week we talked about the importance of cleaning your bowling ball. This week is part 2 of bowling ball maintenance; Resurfacing and Rejuvenating your bowling ball.

In last week’s tip I discussed how the pores of the cover stock absorb oil.  I also covered how oil build up will affect your balls performance. Simply cleaning and maintaining your bowling ball will help prolong the life of your bowling ball. But what if you have a bowling ball that you have had for a few years and no matter how much you clean it, it just doesn’t seem to react like it did in it’s hey day.  You may need to have the ball resurfaced or rejuvenated, or even both!

Here are some things to look for to decide if your bowling ball needs this extra care. First, look the condition of your ball track. The ball track is the area that has the most contact with the lane surface. If you bowl on wood lane surfaces, this track appears faster then if bowling on synthetic lane surfaces. One main reason is simply, would is grainier then the synthetic surface, which causes more friction to the ball and the lanes. So do you see all those scratches on that ball? That would be your track.

Resurfacing a bowling ball is a time consuming process. Your local pro shop operator goes through many stages of sanding a bowling ball to bring the original surface back to life. In the resurfacing process the pro shop operator will start with the lowest grit wet sandpaper and proceed to the highest. (Usually from 180 grit up to 4000 grit) Today they have machines that will do this which provides a much more efficient way of getting the job done. Resurfacing will get most of those scratches and nicks out of the bowling ball. Not all of them will come out, and mainly your only concern is the ball track. If you have a gouge or deep scratch on the opposite side of your track, don’t worry. It doesn’t affect your bowling ball performance. Remember your bowling ball only has contact to the lanes where your track is.

Now I hear this quite a bit, “Doesn’t resurfacing make your bowling ball smaller?” Well, if you want to get extremely technical, it does. The minimum USBC requirement for bowling ball diameter is 8.5” or 26.704” in circumference. The myth is that you can’t resurface more than once and meet these tolerances.  The truth is that very little material is removed when resurfacing. Under most circumstances you would have sand off all the logos on the bowling ball before you would have an issue.

Rejuvenating or extracting oil out of the cover stock is another very important key to regaining the life of your bowling ball. Today your pro shop will have machines for this that use heat to extract the oil.  Now before you say, oh I have an oven I can just put it in there.  Let me give you one bit of advice on that, DON’T!! When you reach a certain temperature, you can actually damage the plasticizers in the cover stock, causing it to become brittle, or even crack.  Heed my warning; don’t put your bowling ball in your oven. The safest way to extract oil out of your bowling ball is to take it to your local pro shop that has the tools necessary to do this job.  That said, I will give you one tip that you can do at home if your pro shop doesn’t have the equipment. You can simply submerge your bowling ball in a five gallon bucket of hot tap water with a couple drops of a dishwashing detergent. You will see the oil rise to the top of the water. Repeat this step a couple times until you don’t see any oil at the surface of the water.

Let’s recap today’s tip. When looking for your performance from your used bowling ball, take in to your local pro shop and have them resurface and rejuvenate your bowling ball. If you want to get oil out of your bowling ball’s cover stock, and your pro shop does not have the machines to do this, then follow my tip on the bucket of hot water.

Until next week, keep cleaning those bowling balls. Remember your adding longevity to your investment.

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

This week I have a few tips that will help prolong the life of your bowling ball and increase your consistency with your bowling ball reaction.

Bowling balls on the market today are made of a very porous cover stock.  I often hear people say “my bowling ball is dead”. It’s not dead; it simply needs some maintenance. The tip of the week will cover maintenance and how to prolong the life of your bowling ball.

Today’s bowling environment has more oil on the lanes then in the past. What happens to the oil that gets on your bowling ball?  It gets soaked up into the cover stock of your bowling ball which can create advantages or disadvantages for your game.  

The advantage is that your bowling ball will be more aggressive and it will have less hook potential. The disadvantage is it will not react the same way it did when the ball was new.  Assuming that you purchased your ball for the specific characteristics it offered when it was new oil build up is probably an issue for you.  If it has improved your game you most likely purchased the wrong ball.  You will not be able to count on the oil build up factor for consistency.

Your bowling balls cover stock is very much the same as your tires on your car. Good tread adheres to the pavement for better traction. So more aggressive cover stocks adhere to the lane surface creating more traction in oil. So what happens to your tires after a time?  The treads wear out, don’t they?  Well I am not saying that your bowling ball tread is worn out, simply filled.

What do I mean by filled?   Your bowling ball has absorbed the oil that is on the lane surface. Without cleaning your bowling ball every time that you use it, the bowling ball will have less traction in the oil every time, thereby creating less hook or to seem dead. So how do you know when you need to clean your bowling ball? The answer is simply this, every time you’re done bowling!!!

I can hear some of you asking the question; well what do I clean it with? I know you will be tempted to use a household cleaning product.  Do I use rubbing alcohol?  What about Windex?  The answer is none of these or any other household cleaning product. These are great cleaning agents for other uses. They are not great cleaning agents for your bowling ball. Glass cleaner has a polishing agent in it. That’s what makes the glass so shiny. Use this on the bowling ball surface and you will add a waxy solvent to the cover stock.  Rubbing alcohol will clean the surface of the bowling ball, but it will not remove the oil.  There is a vast array of cleaning products made specifically for bowling balls.

Remember, when you think your bowling ball is dead, why not try and clean it first. You may find that the small investment you make on purchasing a cleaning agent for your bowling ball will save you money in the long term.

Next week I will go over the processes of Resurfacing and extracting oil out of your bowling ball by your local pro shop. Until next week, keep your balls clean!!

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

Watch our video

This is one great looking bowling ball! The red chrome really makes this ball a great eye catcher. Even better than the Street Rod Pearl look.

On the lanes....

This is my first ball review for the summer. I had a few weeks off from bowling so I thought it might be interesting getting back on the lanes. I bowled on a typical house shot on an anvil lane surface. After throwing about six warm up shots I was ready to see what the Fast could do. WOW!! This Fast is much stronger then I anticipated. It is definitely much more aggressive then the Street Rod Pearl. I had a tremendous amount of recovery with this bowling ball and even when I kept the ball inside the oil, I didn’t lose any power. Everything seemed to fall when the Fast hit the pocket. It gave me great recovery down the lane without any over/under reaction that I typically get from other skid-flip bowling balls. I think this ball will be great for me on my average league conditions and also on lighter oil patterns. Pins just seemed to get out of the way for the Fast.

In conclusion..... 

The new Storm Fast will be one great seller for the upcoming bowling season. It gives customers great value and great performance. Tweeners will find much use for the Fast on their typical league patterns, while crankers will love it for almost all types of conditions. If the lanes are a little on the heavier side, I would recommend the ball’s counterpart, the Furious. What a great one-two punch combination! Storm has done it again!

Last week I wrote about proper fit and grip pressure. You could consider this week’s article a more in depth look at those tips. This week I am going to discuss “feel”. So, what does “feel” mean?  Feel is a personal thing. Some bowlers like the feel of their fingers when they release the bowling ball while others prefer to use finger inserts. There is no wrong or right feel. Every one should use what they like the best. This week I am going to answer some questions on finger and thumb inserts.

Every bowler that goes into a bowling pro shop and gets fitted for a fingertip grip for their new reactive bowling ball should get asked this question: “Do you want finger inserts and a thumb insert?” The majority of pro shops charge an extra fee for these items. So, do you need them?  

Finger and thumb inserts have been around for a while now but most consumers don’t know the benefits to using them. The biggest advantage to using finger and thumb inserts is for a consistent “feel” from ball to ball. Another reason to use them is the fact that they help protect your hand.

There are many different bowling balls in the market place and with this, many types of materials used to make these balls; therefore, if you own more than one bowling ball and have holes drilled in them, the insides of both of the holes are going to have a different feel from one another. Using inserts will solve this problem. Remember also that with different materials used, working out thumb holes can become very difficult to duplicate a “feel” from ball to ball.

Recently introduced are interchangeable thumb inserts. These inserts allow you to use the same thumb insert from ball to ball. As a result you should have the same feel from ball to ball. This is one of the best inventions introduced to the sport of bowling.

So, let’s recap: if you want a consistent release from ball to ball, I strongly suggest using finger and thumb inserts.  If you do not want to use the finger inserts, I still highly recommend using a thumb insert. Yes it will be a little bit more for the end price of the bowling ball, but the small price you pay to have the right “feel” is priceless!

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