Using Your Old Bowling Ball Equipment
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Originally Posted: 8/6/2014; Updated: 9/27/2022Using your old bowling ball equipment can be helpful when you are forced to try and hook the ball more than your swing and release allow.
So many bowlers today are getting too strong of a ball reaction forcing them to play the lanes from uncomfortable angles of attack.
Using older equipment to tame the ball reaction and hit the pocket consistently becomes a ploy which you may have overlooked.
Some of the older equipment is regular urethane coverstocks or mild reactive coverstocks where both have stable core shapes and roll smoothly and evenly.
Once in a while, it can serve you well to practice using old bowling balls providing the surface is in good condition. Old equipment can be easy to control and typically react the same as weak layouts drilled into strong, new bowling balls react.
If you can avoid the temptation of smashing the pins and back off in your aggressive, big hook thinking related to gaining an effective ball reaction, you can use old equipment, line up straighter to the pocket from any angle the lane conditions indicate you should play, and get a smooth and dependable ball reaction.
In fact, if you grab your older equipment and head to the pro shop, you might want to ask the pro in the shop to weigh the older bowling balls and then consider drilling a balance hole to create a stable and controllable back end reaction.
Then you simply need to modify the surface texture to encourage the given skid distance which matches best with the lane conditions and enjoy reading the lanes accurately and getting a dependable ball reaction without having to attempt hooking the ball more than you are capable of doing consistently and be forced into playing angles your game is not built to play.
Straighter can be better in some cases. Using old bowling balls can help you accomplish getting back to your game and what you do best.
A by-product of hitting the pocket consistently is leaving easy spares to shoot, reducing open frames caused by awkward washout leaves or big splits, and increasing your strike percentage.
If you are getting more involved in your game and wish to get back to hitting the pocket consistently, check out your older equipment lying around your home or garage, and get the surfaces back into good shape, and use them to re-familiarize yourself with their reaction capabilities.
