Build up your arsenal—smoothly: with today's developing technology in balls and on the lanes, smart bowlers focus on filling gaps with new equipment in their bowling bags - A PRO's Approach

Bowling Digest, Oct, 2003 by Parker Bohn, III

MOST BOWLERS HAVE AT least one ball in their arsenal that's on the older side. And by "older," I don't mean 10 or 20 years old. Anything more than four years old is practically ancient by bowling ball standards. In fact, for most bowlers, an "old" ball is one they've been using for only one or two years.

It's easy to imagine why a 20-year-old ball is close to unusable on today's lanes, if only for the wear and tear the ball has suffered over two decades. But a one- or two-year-old ball becoming obsolete is harder to understand. Let me explain.

Most of you who have bowled for at least 10 years stretch back into the regular urethane era. In the 1980s, urethane was the ball of choice, the ball of power. Most bowlers would go to urethane to string strikes and increase hook power down the lane, in turn raising their averages. Urethane technology allowed bowlers to throw a bigger hook than ever before, to the point where it really looked as if everyone--even the straightest player--eventually would be able to create a hook. Technology had reached a level where it appeared that if bowlers couldn't create hooks, they could just go out and buy them.

Technology kept improving. As a result, so did the bowlers. There seemed to be endless ways to produce ever-higher scores.

In the early 1990s, reactive resin came into play. This new technology enabled bowlers to get even more hook. As dazzling as regular urethane balls were, reactive resin gave bowlers new insight into what "hook" really meant. Reactive resin balls enabled bowlers to hook the ball back from almost any part of the lane at almost any time.

Much like urethane technology progressed through the 1980s, reactive resin technology continued to develop through the '90s, with startling results. Within a given year, a new reactive resin ball would come out on the market that would outhook every other ball out there. If bowlers thought technology was flying ahead in the 1980s, they marveled at how it increased to supersonic speeds by the '90s.

With reactive resin, not only could bowlers create more hook, but more importantly, they were generating more power from all parts of the lane. Scores started escalating at a rapid pace, and needless to say, a lot of scoring records were broken.

Which leads us to the 2000s. The last few years have brought a new type of ball to the market, a proactive ball. This ball gives you as much overall hook as reactive resin, but a different kind hook. It's a little complicated to explain. Proactive hooks are not as dramatic reactive resin hooks, but they offer more managed, efficient hook. They tend to grab the lane a little bit sooner, therefore stabilizing the back end and avoiding the giant snap that reactive resin gives you on some conditions.

Some bowlers wonder why you'd buy a proactive ball and accept a less dramatic hook down the lane. It has a lot to do with the surface itself. Over time, new balls and different surfaces and cores are developed by bowling ball manufacturers--while at the same time, new surfaces have been developed, along with new lane oils, to combat the new bowling balls. (Yes, lane oil might enhance your score, but oil is laid down first and foremost to protect the lanes.) Twenty years ago, bowling ball technology was such that you could bowl all day without carving a path in the lane oil. Now I bowl three games with my proactive ball, and I have a path Proactives really take the oil off the lane.

Because of this, lane maintenance crews in every center are looking for ways to make the lanes hold up longer, using the newest oil and surfaces on the market. But stepping up the surface oil to combat today's technology also renders an older ball ineffective by really straightening it out. The ball you purchased in the early 1990s that hooked a ton has lost its way. Today's oil and lane surfaces have erased most of its hook, and it's traveling straighter than ever before.

So what happens if your "A" ball--your top choice of strike ball--is 10 years old and obsolete? What about a five-year-old ball that's a little nicked, or a two-year-old ball that's gotten really tracked up?

When you buy a new ball and have it fitted, you go out and roll. On your first rolls, it appears that the new ball hooks an immense amount. And that may be true, especially depending on what of ball it is. But you can't overlook the fact that you' re rolling a virgin ball, a surface that has not been on a lane with any oil before those first few shots.

Your first rolls with a new ball give you the greatest breaks you'll ever have. But after just a few shots, the hook will taper down, giving you a more accurate measure of you true hook.

Many bowlers fall into a trap: When their new balls look and feel so good they think they'll never need another one. But even as they're thinking that the "miracle" ball is soaking up oil from the lane--oil is filling the pores of the ball--which always straightens out ball to some extent.

Here's an odd situation that pops sometimes: You think you've got plenty of hook and are feeling great about your ball. But you don't realize that because you haven't cleaned the surface and extracted the oil in a while, your ball actually underperforming. It's capable of much more action off your hand, but it is so oil-soaked it can't live up to its potential. This happens to an extreme degree with a ball that's been in your arsenal for a long period of time without having surface freshened up.