New Pro Shop - New suggestions

[jhays]

I found a new pro shop in my local area, lol - even at a local bowling center, not many if not the only one around here.

Anyway - I stopped in last week, told them what types of balls I have now, and wanted to know which would be a good fit to build my arsenal. 2 of the guys there laughed and said we never seen you bowl, how are we supposed to know?

They explained theirselves, and next Tuesday, I'm going back with all my equipment to let them see what I like, don't like, measuring my circumference of the line, pitches, pins, etc - finding my idea release revs and video taping for review. Wow, I guess this is one way to provide customer service - which is new to me. So I am giving these guys a chance.

I asked them a few questions and got good responses and 1 stood out to me and makes me think.

My Question - If your ball starts to hook on the back-end, what adjustment would you make? In general of course.

His Answer - Light sand the ball.

My Response - Deer in the headlight look ...

Explanation - The ball is not getting through the heads right, making it's flip and roll to early. sanding the ball allowing it to read the lanes through the heads, make it's flip later and not roll out as soon will take care of the over hooking. And keep all the energy at the end, rolling out too soon is not over hooking - but bad location or not aggressive ball through the heads and mid lanes.

[BigDawg70]

Sounds like you found a shop that cares about helping their customers vs just making a buck. I wouldn't mind spending my $$ with that kind of shop instead of buying online.

I do have one question for you though. I'm not trying to be a wise guy or anything but why would you adjust if you ball hooks on the back end? I would guess that 95% of the guys walking into a proshop ask for a ball with huge backend.

[litefrozen]

There is something about the question and Explanation that just doesn't sound right.

By the question "If your ball starts to hook on the back-end" are you saying the ball is going too long and hooking late? if so a light sanding can help. It will let the ball read the lane earlier and even the reaction out some.

As for the Explanation some of it sounds almost contradictory. It sounds like its talking about a ball hooking early in the heads or midlane and rolling out.

The part that says "The ball is not getting through the heads right, making it's flip and roll to early." says to me the ball is reading the lanes too early.
burning up and then rolling out. Sanding the ball to make it read the heads even earlier is not going to make it flip later. So this part "sanding the ball allowing it to read the lanes through the heads, make it's flip later and not roll out as soon will take care of the over hooking." doesn't quite make sense.

A light sand could work sometimes, by evening the reaction out depending on the situation. But more likely it would be better to polish the ball, so it can make it through the heads. Storing more energy for a stronger reaction on the backend.

Also if you get rollout with different balls, it might mean you are getting the ball out to the right way too early into the dry & it hooks too early. So you might need to move your line inside a little more.

And for this part "And keep all the energy at the end, rolling out too soon is not over hooking - but bad location or not aggressive ball through the heads and mid lanes." this just don't read right to see where its going.

[jhays]

BD - I'm not asking for a ball to make the adjustment for my back-end, I'm a forward roller now - no less back end for me is better. I'm going straighter and harder - the balls I have now have back-end. Flipping and rolling out is where I think my adjustments are to made. House shots are not that big of deal - I guess I should have stated the PBA shots here.

AS for Lite - I still don't understand totally what they were telling me, I will find out tomorrow at 1:00. They called me this morning to make sure I would be there at 1:00 - told me it would take about 2 hours of bowling and finding the right arsenal.

I will post afterwards -

I just posted the below after a few hours of pondering - so the words may not have came out the exact same as they were stated. I am taking my video camera with me tomorrow to get as much as I can on tape.

Funny thing about this whole thing - I used to bowl 6 nights a week back in early 90's and I love the game more now then ever before. I think it's more of the fact of knowing I can learn different things and on some nights even make the right adjustments. I just need to make the right adjustments more often

[topdog46]

Ok I know about this

I know about this you can believe me or not - But sanding a bowling ball with abralon or scotch brite actually smooths out the reaction of a bowling ball.

lets see if I can explain this in a different term.
lets take a race car tire its a slick on a race track it has a bigger surface contact on a smooth road which in fact makes it grab more than lets same a snow tire.

lets say the same tire is on a slushy road and it is slushy for about a mile or so and the same tire is spinning the whole mile then at the end of the mile it hits a dry smooth road just like a dry race race track. whats goint to happen slide the a huge grab rite that's what happens with bowling ball on a oilly 40ft lane the dry 20ft backend slide spin dry grab and also - hard to control. this is with a shiner bowling ball.

so being that said

now take and smooth out the shiner surface
just like a snow tire on a snowy road the slipping stops or slows down and so does the violent grab on the dry race track.

so a smooth ball surface will in fact smooth out the reaction and make it more controllable. more control means more confidence and more confidence leads to better scores

also note: There are different grades of abralon and scotch brite I use 1000 and 2000 abralon or a gray pad with is about 800 abralon dependng on it's age.

Look I know that this is a hard thing for most average bowlers to understand they think if I scuff my bowling ball its going to hook more. but infact it slows down the process. with experimenting with different surfaces to match you home town lanes you will find a match.

[jhays]

Very well put TopDog, after my session with the new pro shop I found, I understood what he meant - he didn't use snow tires as his explanation, but you both got to the same point. Control friction - smoother breaks.

Now - the biggest thing besides sanding my ball to control the hook - lol, my last pro shop drilled me 6 balls. All 6 of them were different drills, thumb pitches, fingertip sizes, thumb sizes, spans and axis. Wow, what a difference that makes (yes -speaking sarcastically).

I left 3 of my balls there - Tropical Storm, No mercy and my ever so never used Red Zone (because I hated that ball) there to have him plug and redrill. I picked them up today, just happened to have time off (or just turned my cell off for an hour and shot a few games).

First thing I noticed right off the bat - didn't have to squeeze the ball during my back swing - The ball came off my hand so easily and it was like I did something wrong, there was no hit on the lane. The ball rolled right through the target, gentle break and carried the 10. I immediately picked up my No Mercy - threw that one, only moved 4 boards same target - same aspect - no hit sound on the lane. Ended a little high, left a 4. Picked up my Red Zone, split the difference of the 4 boards and added 2 left with my feet. The Zone (which prior I squeezed a lot, but still dropped at the line mostly) did the exact same thing - rolled off my hand no squeezing even though I tried. Carry was good - lazy 6 pin tap.

I stood there for a minute - all 3 balls were in the return - I closed my eyes, reached down for one and could not tell which ball I was grabbing. I started laughing - ran into the pro shop, and asked Dave, what the hell he did - he just shook is head and pressed rewind on the DVR and showed me what he was watching - my first few throws. He said when I threw the first ball - he noticed I was much smoother than the other day, the ball looked like it rolled off your hand like a glove. Him and the other guy - just smiled and said - nice to have a ball that fits eh?

All this time I was adjusting my release to my balls - thinking it was swelling/reducing of my fingers/thumbs but all in all, it just didn't fit right. I grabbed my other 3 balls out of my bag (mind you they were much older and I didn't like them) Walked in to the Pro shop, asked where's the trash can and hook me up with ball arsenals that I don't have. He laughed and said OK (of course, he jumped up and we started going through all the product lines - went with 3 different brands this time, Ebonite, Columbia, and Visionary. The Visionary is for light to med oil, They don't have much that works on heavy oil - so that will replace my Tropical Storm. I ended up also getting a Window type looking ball, but clear outside with the spider inside - spare shooting. What the hell - I was on a high - felt like I was treated very well and worked with - and damn he got my attention with the fitting. He didn't charge me for the first 3 replug/drills. But I gave him $50 for doing it before I left after we decided on my new equipment. He said I can pick them up in the morning - so let the games begin - June 2 is 2 weeks away and that 5 headed Monster is in my way.

Hope everyone elses PBA experiences are good if not great......