I'm new - Bowling Tournaments

[LLWesMan]

Longtime lurker, just joined.

My team is in first place in our handicapped mixed league, first year for all of us. I've got a 165 average right now - up from 150 at the start. I went from a 16 LB to 15 LB ball about a month ago and made a big mechanical adjustment - been averaging about 195 since with a high game of 276 and a high series of 650.

Anyways on to my question:

I'm located in the SF Bay Area and haven't had much success finding tournaments. Is there any site that has a complete listing or you have found useful?

Also, a few newbie questions. How do I determine if I'm a stroker, tweener etc? Also, how do you guys seem to know about all these sanding, polishing, cooking etc tricks for keeping your ball in tip top shape? I've never cooked or sanded my ball, the guy at the shop sanded it when I had it drilled initially but that's about it. I keep seeing posts saying to re-sand and rejuvenate every 50 games - is the shop oven okay? I don't want this ball cracking on me.

[mrbill]

Welcome to the boards LLwes.
The way I find Touraments is by google, or by going to diffrent lanes in my area and picking up flyers..
The way I try to find out if anyone fits into the 3 categorys of Stroker Tweener and Cranker are,
If you mostly start off standing to the right of the lane and your eye target is from the 1 board to the 10 board (Thats a Stroker)
Then moving left with your feet, and eyes go to around the 11 to 15 boards to start (your a tweener)
And then if your always starting way left and rolling over the mid arrow or standing infront of the ball return and launching the ball over the left gutter, (you might be a Cranker...)
Also you can look at the oil track on your ball and if the lines are up close to the finger holes most times that would be a (Stroker) The further down the ball the ring tracks go the closer you get to (being a cranker)....
Most of us here and any proshops I know of don't advocate cooking the ball persia. We like most bowlers like to do the wash system, Bucket,Dawn dish soap, hot water. (Theres many diffrent vareations on the site just do a search and find them..)
Sanding the ball with abrlon pads will make the ball do diffrent things for you on the lanes. We have many articles here about that aswell. It's fun to do it your self or for around $3.00 let your proshop do it to start off. I like Messing around with 4000, thats the finest grit, then I like 2000 and 1000 is the lowist I go. That makes the ball not spin as much going down lane and start the rolling process earlier.Skid = Spin, Roll = Flip.
I have only been back bowling since 08 after a 20 year layoff.
I hope this helps some. There are many more knowledgeable bowlers here then me and they all love to help so you are in safe hands here hehe....

[LLWesMan]

Welcome to the boards LLwes.
The way I find Touraments is by google, or by going to diffrent lanes in my area and picking up flyers..
The way I try to find out if anyone fits into the 3 categorys of Stroker Tweener and Cranker are,
If you mostly start off standing to the right of the lane and your eye target is from the 1 board to the 10 board (Thats a Stroker)
Then moving left with your feet, and eyes go to around the 11 to 15 boards to start (your a tweener)
And then if your always starting way left and rolling over the mid arrow or standing infront of the ball return and launching the ball over the left gutter, (you might be a Cranker...)
Also you can look at the oil track on your ball and if the lines are up close to the finger holes most times that would be a (Stroker) The further down the ball the ring tracks go the closer you get to (being a cranker)....
Most of us here and any proshops I know of don't advocate cooking the ball persia. We like most bowlers like to do the wash system, Bucket,Dawn dish soap, hot water. (Theres many diffrent vareations on the site just do a search and find them..)
Sanding the ball with abrlon pads will make the ball do diffrent things for you on the lanes. We have many articles here about that aswell. It's fun to do it your self or for around $3.00 let your proshop do it to start off. I like Messing around with 4000, thats the finest grit, then I like 2000 and 1000 is the lowist I go. That makes the ball not spin as much going down lane and start the rolling process earlier.Skid = Spin, Roll = Flip.
I have only been back bowling since 08 after a 20 year layoff.
I hope this helps some. There are many more knowledgeable bowlers here then me and they all love to help so you are in safe hands here hehe....

So the higher number grit will make it hook earlier?

Is leaving the ball out in the sun for say 15 minutes then wiping/rotating okay? Seems like that would be safer than a rejuvinator oven at the pro shop and easier than the bath.

[J Anderson]

So the higher number grit will make it hook earlier?

Is leaving the ball out in the sun for say 15 minutes then wiping/rotating okay? Seems like that would be safer than a rejuvinator oven at the pro shop and easier than the bath.

The higher number grit leaves a smoother surface on the ball, reducing the amount of friction, and delaying the hook.

[owlish]

Stroker - If you mostly start off standing to the right of the lane and your eye target is from the 1 board to the 10 board
Tweener - Then moving left with your feet, and eyes go to around the 11 to 15 boards to start
Cranker - And then if your always starting way left and rolling over the mid arrow or standing infront of the ball return and launching the ball over the left gutter



I just found out I'm a Tweener! Thx mrbill! hehe

Thought I would make a cool list out of your post, mind? :)

[mrbill]

Looks good =)

[WAC4504]

So the higher number grit will make it hook earlier?

Is leaving the ball out in the sun for say 15 minutes then wiping/rotating okay? Seems like that would be safer than a rejuvinator oven at the pro shop and easier than the bath.

I would stick with the rejuvenator at your pro shop. that rejuvenator is uniformly heated to sweat the oil out, the sun heats one area at a time, which is not a good idea. Also, if Brunswick recommends using a rejuvenator on there balls, and they don't even make one then it must be ok.

[DanielMareina]

The rejuvenator is good, but it costs money. The hot water process takes about 45 minutes worth of time and less than 10 minutes of effort. It really isn't hard.

[threeripmin]

i have a reign of fire, should i be doing something to it after bowling like cleaning it? ive never cleaned a ball before and never even used a towel back when i bowled.

[DanielMareina]

I recommend using a towel after every shot. Aggresive coverstocks, like the one on the Reign of Fire, will collect oil. Definately have the surface touched up by a pro shop professional every 50 games or so and a full resurface every 80 to 100 games. The reign of fire starts out a little jumpy, and after some oil gets in the coverstock it smooths out nicely, but you don't want to let it get soaked and never take it off. I would recommend using Storm Reacta clean atleast once a week. I like to use it after every bowling session. This cleaner not only takes the oil off and all the junk it picks up from the lane, but it restores a little tackiness back to the coverstock. Good choice on the ball though. I just shot 278,279,260 games 5,6,and 7 during practice yesterday with that ball.