Well I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I was stuffed just like that turkey for a couple days. If you were one of the brave ones that ventured out shopping on the infamous Black Friday then more power to you.  I hope you stopped in your local pro shop.  I spent a productive day at the shop helping bowlers. This week I would like to talk about bowling ball reaction and how you can use what you see with your bowling ball on the lanes to adjust your game and improve your scores.

Bowlers ask me often: What is the magic ball that will give me a certain reaction?  Well I hate to tell you folks, but it’s not just the bowling ball.  You can have a great bowling ball in your hand, and if you do not fully understand how that bowling ball is suppose to react, then how can you line up and be consistent? Well you can’t. That is unless you understand bowling ball reaction. Now if you want a bowling ball drilled so it will go down the lane and flip, that’s great, any reputable Pro Shop can do that. But is that what you need for the lane conditions you are bowling on? Or do you need a bowling ball for heavy oil, and you want it drilled to hook in the oil? That’s great too. You can get that, but do you know what to do and where to stand with that bowling ball?

Let’s first start with the long and flip drilling on a bowling ball.  If you are the type of bowler that wants that kind of reaction, do you understand that it might not work the way you want it to.  Remember, you can have the right bowling ball, but if you are using it on the wrong oil pattern, then it just won’t be affective.  If you are bowling on a medium to heavy oil pattern, and you are trying to use the long and flip drilled bowling ball, more often than not, you will see that the bowling ball will not recover in the back end enough, and when you try and square up to the lane that it takes off to much in the back.  You need to notice the oil pattern you are bowling on and use the proper equipment for that particular pattern.  If you like to swing and bring the ball, and the lanes tell you that you can’t then why keep trying to do it?  Watching your bowling ball will tell you how to attack the lanes.

Now if you are trying to swing and bring the heavy oil layout ball then you will see that the bowling ball will not make it to the pocket strong, or that you leave a lot of corners.  You need to watch what you bowling ball is telling you. Most of the time, if you are using a heavy oil drilled bowling ball, the bowling ball will want to rev up to soon, and will actually be weaker in the back part of the lane. This means that you need to square up to the lane more and play a straighter line. When you see that the bowling ball is hooking too much in the front part of the lane, then that’s when you start to move more to the middle of the lane, and use a bowling ball that will finish stronger, kind of like your flip drilled ball.

Let’s recap: When you are attacking the lane conditions, watch what your bowling ball is doing. Where is it hooking, or not hooking.  If you get to much hook in the front part of the lane, then go to your bowling ball that goes longer, and has more backend reaction.  If your bowling ball is going to long, or giving you an inconsistent shot when you swing the bowling ball, square up to the lanes a little more with your heavy oil drilled ball. You can always tweak this by, once again, seeing what your bowling ball is telling you.

Until next week, bowl well, make your spares, and check us out for all your holiday needs and tips.

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