Moving from 15 to 16 pounds

[JCasey1992]

Hi all!

I have been bowling with a fifteen pound arsenal and am going to move to sixteen pounds. When I bought my balls in the past, I was pretty new to the game and didn't really think hard as to which balls were right for my style and which ones would cover the gaps in my arsenal. Now that I am starting fresh and have a little more experience, I wanted to ask for any recommendations for building an arsenal. I will be joining a tour that plays in a variety of houses, so I will be needing an arsenal for many different conditions, lane surfaces, etc. Any help regarding balls, drilling patterns, surface, and whatever else you can think of would be greatly appreciated. Additionally, I prefer Storm balls but am open to other recommendations. In case you need to know, I am a stroker with low revolutions and low speed. Let me know if you need any more info.

Thanks for the help,
Casey

[75lockwood]

This really depends on how many balls you would want to buy, if your only looking at getting 3 your arsenal would look different than if your going to go out and buy 10.

The first one is a no brainer, get a plastic ball for shooting spares, its a very valuable tool to have and they are the cheapest ball you will buy.

when looking at reactive balls, your goal is to be prepared for most every lane condition you meet; first off, you will want to find a "benchmark ball", this will always be the first ball out of your bag, it's not overly strong, the Original Storm Hy-road was known as an excellent benchmark ball.

you can then expand out from there, looking at balls for heavy oil conditions and dry conditions then splitting that down further to handle different pattern characteristics i.e short patterns, look into a pearl to give you more length, and for long patterns look at solids so you can get the ball rolling before it hits the pocket.


Hope that helps.

Ben

[JCasey1992]

Thank you for the help. I do have a couple questions though. What exactly makes a good benchmark ball? What should I look for when searching for one? Also, in regards to drilling layouts, should they all be the same or should I have a variety of layouts.

Thank You,
Casey

[classygranny]

I recently built a 3-ball arsenal on the recommendation of my coach, so someone who knows about your bowling; ie, coach or ball driller may have some input into this as well.

I too am a stroker with low revs and about 14mph speed.

In the 3-ball arsenal to play on THS we went with a RotoGrip Defiant Soul (my benchmark-go to ball), and my secondary ball for drier conditions is a Brunswick Meanstreak Brawler (compliments of bowlingboards.com) which originally was going to be a Storm Lights Out. Then the good 'ol plastic spare ball.

75Lockwood has some excellent input, as well, I think you will get many more responses on this.

[billf]

Not really enough info to make a good suggestion beyond a spare ball (plastic) and a benchmark ball. The original Hy-Road is an excellent bench mark ball.
And I despise Storm but that is an awesome ball.

[Hampe]

It depends also on what kind of leagues/tournaments you will be playing.....whether you will be mostly on THS or playing a lot of sport patterns. If I were just going to build a general arsenal, I would start with one heavy oil matte or sanded ball, one medium oil pearl or hybrid ball, and one light oil ball (and of course a plastic spare ball). With those 3 balls and a few hand position adjustments, you should be able to play on just about any condition.