Our last column dealt with selecting your equipment for league play, this week I will cover learning to customize your ball surface for the lane conditions you bowl on.
Every serious league bowler should have an accessory kit which includes, scissors, bowlers tape, easy slide, a towel, sand paper or scotch brite pads of different grits and some kind of skin protector patch for callouses. Keeping an accessory kit with these items will prepare you for most situations.
In bowling the biggest influence in determining whether your ball is going to hook or not is the surface of your bowling ball. Learning to match your ball surface to the conditions is very important in controlling your hook or lack of hook.
When you buy bowling equipment some balls have a shiny surface and some balls have a dull or semi dull finish. Balls that have a shiny appearance have been polished or waxed and will skid longer. Wax or polish fills the pores in the shell of the ball and coats the ball surface reducing the lane friction, thus producing more skid. Whereas a dull ball finish is achieved by sanding the surface with sand paper or scotch brite pads. The dull surface is rougher and will produce more friction thus gripping the lane surface more and producing more hook. If you bowl in a center that uses a heavy oil pattern, you should use a ball with more surface.
Most pro shops use different grits of sand paper to achieve more or less hook. A sand paper that is a 320 or 400 grit are used for oily lanes and a 500 to 600 grit are more for medium oiled lanes. When the lanes are very dry your local pro shop can use very fine grits of sandpaper like 1000 and 1200 grit along with different polishes to shine your equipment or you can put your equipment in a lustre king (if you can find one that works). When you need to scuff your ball on your own I suggest using scotch brite sanding pads that you can get from your local hardware store and keep in your accessory bag. Scotch brite pads can be found in a green pad(400 grit),burgundy pad ( 500 grit),grey pad (600 grit), and a white pad (1000 grit).
During your warm up before competition begins you can alter your surface by using the different pads. Remember ABC and WIBC rules require that you sand the entire ball surface. Sometimes just a little more surface can make a big difference in getting your ball to break at the right point. ABC and WIBC rules will not allow you to alter your surface once competition begins.
If you have any bowling-related questions or have a problem with your game and could use some advice from a professional bowler, Mrs. Daniels can be contacted one or two ways. Snail mail: Cheryl Daniels, P. O. Box 250014, West Bloomfield, MI 48325. Email address: Cheryl_Daniels@msn.com. Also, please visit Mrs. Daniels' website: www.my.freeway.net/`Shebe.
