TZone as a spare?

[AC500]

I've decided to add a spare ball this season, I feel I missed way to many trying to make the Misfit do what its not intended to do, go straight. While Ive been considering the TZone I threw my friends last night, he has regular house style drilling, throws straight and is a steady 150 bowler. But I couldnt seem to keep the ball from hooking, while it didnt snap like the Misfit does but Im afraid I may hook the ball to deep and defeat the purpose of having a spare ball, your thoughts Please

[striker12]

the tzone wont hook at all unless the lane are bone dry then it will hook but best way to throw a spare ball is taking alot of hand out of the ball and just letting it come off your hand with out cocking you wrist at all i got a colimba 300 WD as my spare ball and i mostly use it to hit the 6pin 10pin and 7 pin and 4 pin thats it all the other pins i put abit of a hook into it.


say i was going for the 2pin and 9pin i would throw my columbia 300 freeze witch hooks but i would release it off my hand as if it was my spare ball it will make it go straighter but still have alittle hook on the backend to take both pins out and anything on the elft side of the lane i just hooka t those and barly miss mostly the 5pin i miss by over hooking.

[vdubtx]

Get yourself a polyester/plastic ball and you will no longer have to worry about the ball hooking when you dont want it to. You will see your average increase as you will make more spares.

Good luck.

[mike_thomas93]

No matter the brand the spare ball is, it'll still work for the same purpose. :)

[e-tank]

Id just keep polishing it and change you release so you come up behind the ball and not rotating at the hand(if that makes any sense)

house balls usually hook more than someone who owns their own plastic, the reason being polish

[Aslan]

My coach/house pro would say, "You don't need a spare ball. Spare balls were invented so people would buy more balls...but they are useless. Whatever ball you get strikes with, you can pick up any spare with."

[classygranny]

My coach/house pro would say, "You don't need a spare ball. Spare balls were invented so people would buy more balls...but they are useless. Whatever ball you get strikes with, you can pick up any spare with."

Since the pros don't usually buy their own balls, why would they use a spare ball unless it gives them more opportunity to make more spares. More spares = more pin count = more money.

Sorry, but I think your coach is way off base for today's game...but that's my opinion. I wouldn't be without a spare ball, at least for corner pins if not all spares.

[striker12]

My coach/house pro would say, "You don't need a spare ball. Spare balls were invented so people would buy more balls...but they are useless. Whatever ball you get strikes with, you can pick up any spare with."

yeah think of this so any bowler can hit a spare with there strike ball...even a 2 handed bowler or a bowler who only throw it with there fingers no thumb but what about the high rev bowlers its kinda hard for a bowler to not throw a ball with rev on it so with a spare ball you can rev it and it wont hook.

i'm just saying but your coach is a idiot

[Aslan]

Since the pros don't usually buy their own balls, why would they use a spare ball unless it gives them more opportunity to make more spares. More spares = more pin count = more money.
Pros carry 5-9 different balls to each tournament. They have different balls for different oil patterns. I was speaking more for the "house" player. A house player shouldn't need more than one ball.


Sorry, but I think your coach is way off base for today's game...but that's my opinion. I wouldn't be without a spare ball, at least for corner pins if not all spares. I'm not as good as you, but I can pick up corner spares with the same ball I throw for strikes. The ONLY time I go to my urethane ball is if I have a really tricky (if not impossible) split that I need to hit the pin on the left side (I'm right handed). In that case, I throw the conventional grip 14lb urethane to try and hit that pin on the left side, because I can't have any flare whatsoever. That being said, I "can" throw my strike ball straight by simply not rotating my hand. So "technically" I shouldn't even need the urethane ball for even those situations.

But, I do agree with you in that if someone has a high-end super hook ball...that works great on heavy oil...then yeah, trying to pick up a 10-pin spare on drier lanes...gonna be more difficult. But "theoretically"...you should still be able to straighten it out by not rotating your wrist..."in theory". If I ever win this contest for a new "decent" ball...I could test that out (hint hint website Gods). :rolleyes:

[Aslan]

yeah think of this so any bowler can hit a spare with there strike ball...even a 2 handed bowler or a bowler who only throw it with there fingers no thumb but what about the high rev bowlers its kinda hard for a bowler to not throw a ball with rev on it so with a spare ball you can rev it and it wont hook.

i'm just saying but your coach is a idiot

I guess in today's game, like you mentioned...you have a lot of high rev, big hook, 2-handed players...and I guess they'd have trouble without a "spare ball". I was talking about (and I guess the pro was as well) your typical, amateur, house player. Your strokers and your tweeners. Sometimes these players use "spare balls" just because they're too lazy to develop the skill to throw their "strike ball" differently to pick up spares.

But I do agree with you and granny that if we're talking crankers or players with big hook/high rev/high oil balls...I guess I could see where a "spare ball" is valuable.

[striker12]

I guess in today's game, like you mentioned...you have a lot of high rev, big hook, 2-handed players...and I guess they'd have trouble without a "spare ball". I was talking about (and I guess the pro was as well) your typical, amateur, house player. Your strokers and your tweeners. Sometimes these players use "spare balls" just because they're too lazy to develop the skill to throw their "strike ball" differently to pick up spares.

But I do agree with you and granny that if we're talking crankers or players with big hook/high rev/high oil balls...I guess I could see where a "spare ball" is valuable.

also tweeners use spare balls im a power tweener and cranker my rev rate is 450+ but i can drop it down to 340 but the main thing with people like me who create alot of revs its hard to throw a ball with very little rev like if i throw a ball like i throw my spare ball my rev rate is 340 but i throw it faster so the ball dose not grab the lane much.

[e-tank]

meh i mean its true if you adjust your hand you could pick up corner pins with any ball. Ive done it with my hell raiser revenge many times but a plastic takes lane conditions out of the equation really. Since theyre so cheap, why not get one?

[vdubtx]

Strikes win games, spares win championships.

[Aslan]

Strikes win games, spares win championships.

To me, thats the 2nd biggest difference between pros and amateurs. The 1st biggest difference is the ability to play and adapt to various oil patterns effectively and quickly. But #2 is their ability to pick up spares. Newer, high rev, big hook players only win when they string strikes together. When they can't knock em all own in one throw...suddenly they're looking for a "spare ball". Back in the 50s/60s...pro bowlers bowled more spares than strikes...and were even likely to pick up splits. You don't see that anymore.

[Stormed1]

The reason for a plastic ball is to take the oil pattern out of play when shooting spares. Your coach is right in that you should be able to pick up any sare with your strike ball. But that requires something that most people are not willing to do, which is developing different releases. People now days are more concerned with scores rather than developing skills

[Mike White]

Sounds like your coach is stuck in old school thinking. Back then, with a hooking ball, you could make fairly linear adjustments to pick up any pin, because the oil pattern was fairly flat.

Now the oil pattern tends to be heavy in the middle, and dry outside. The makes the adjustments with a hooking ball very non-linear.

For a right hander, the oil pattern is designed to make mistakes to the right hook more to get back to the pocket, and mistakes left skid more to hold the pocket.
The oil pattern however doesn't know you are trying to pick up a 10 pin, or a 4 pin, so those shots look like mistakes to the oil pattern.

Using a plastic ball, with sufficient speed, and without a large amount of revolutions, the oil pattern has little influence on the path of the ball. That makes adjustments linear again.

Additional benefit to a plastic ball. Anytime I throw a ball that has the potential to fall into the gutter, bad things can happen to that ball (scratches, gouges, etc)
I'd much rather that happen to a cheap $50 ball rather than a $180 ball.

[Aslan]

Well....in all fairness....even though I do think he (coach) is speaking the truth (technically)...once I get more proficient with my reactive/fingertip ball...I probably will use my 14lb urethane for spares. Right now I'm only using it for splits. But if I keep struggling picking up the 10-pin...and I've gotten fully used to the new ball...I'm gonna throw the urethane...rather than punish myself.

For ME...it's not AS MUCH of an issue...because I'm a stroker, low speed, low rev...and I don't have much of a hook even with my standard delivery. So for me...9-10 boards to the left...aim just left of my spot...if I hit it, good release...I can pick up the 10-pin without varying my hand position. But I have a much simpler/classical approach than most modern bowlers.