Ok folks.  For the last few weeks we have been developing muscle memory with our arm swing and making great progress in our hand/eye coordination and hitting the same spot on the alley a high percentage of the time.  And our scores have been inching upwards.

But they also aren’t very consistent.  One week we are getting 120’s 130’s and maybe even some 150’s on our scoresheets.  The very next week (or maybe even the very next game) we throw a 90.  What in the Wide Wide World of Sports is going on?  We are hitting our spots, we are swinging our arm and following through, what is next?

I was bowling in my Sunday Night League last week and one of my team mates was opining about the same situation.  Wildly inconsistent scores, one week in the 150’s and the next in the 100’s.  Doesn’t help the team handicap much and he knows it.

So I watched his shots more carefully and he was hitting the pocket (or Brooklyn) fairly consistently but he was getting no pin action.  The pins are fairly new so they weren’t dead wood.  I watched some more and what I believe was his bowling ball (a hard rubber house ball) was just not getting any action on the deck.  It would rip through the pocket (he throws 18 mph) but all that explosive power wasn’t translating into pin action.

The ball was simply banging through the pins and generating no reaction.  A dead ball.  Each week he chooses a ball that simply fits his grip rather than what surface the ball has so there is no consistency right from the start.  There are house urethane balls, balls with plastic coverstock, and rubber, a wide choice.

But, I recommended he might think about getting a ball of his own.  For his straight shot style a ball costing less that $60.00 would be a great place to start.  And since he does bowl every week with the league the benefits of a more consistent game would outweigh the few dollars spent on a new ball.

And this leads to our tip, your scores are directly influenced by the equipment you use, and not just the bowling ball and shoes (ill fitting shoes can ruin your entire evening), but also the lane composition (synthetic or wood), the equipment in the back of the alley (is it in good condition or does it regularly take chunks out of balls during the ball return), and even the oiling machine (is the lane surface oiled consistently from week to week).  All these things have an effect on your game.

But the two things you can most diretly control on your own is your bowling ball and your shoes.  A well fitting ball with a modern coverstock (even for a straight shooter) can greatly increase your scores, maybe even 10 to 30% and will certainly help in getting consistent scores from week to week.  A good fitting pair of bowling shoes is a must.

So stop by your pro shop.  The pro shop manager will be happy to talk to you about your game and what equipment is right for you, even if you don’t buy anything that day.