How important are shoes in bowling?

[karamkarmi]

Talk about anything here.

[striker12]

well there all kinds of bowling shoes and having a bowling shoe eather with 1 slider or 2 dose help out alot cause then you dont have to worry about slipping and then that will make you have full controll of your bowling ball making you throw it better.

i jsut got bowling shoes and i have improved alot no more worrys about slipping near line foul line or going over it cause i stop right befor it

[chrono00]

I think it's a "general" rule that having your OWN shoes will help add 5-10 pins to your average. it's a small yet understandable amount. using house shoes, they're worn all the time and get worn out. and if people wear them outside to smoke/into a wet bathroom and such, it can ruin them.

and those small things can make a difference. I can recall at least one time i went to the bathroom and another someobody spilled water by our lane... my slide foot was soaked and totally ****ed up my game.
me being roughly a 150 average now, those small things can completley **** me. and it took me about 2-3 frames to figure that out and dry my shoe off.... I'm not good enough to throw 200 with those problems lol. I need to find my line and be consistant with my approach. you can't expect me to make multiple adjustments at once right now lol...

[JaMau24]

I think it's a "general" rule that having your OWN shoes will help add 5-10 pins to your average. it's a small yet understandable amount. using house shoes, they're worn all the time and get worn out. and if people wear them outside to smoke/into a wet bathroom and such, it can ruin them.

and those small things can make a difference. I can recall at least one time i went to the bathroom and another someobody spilled water by our lane... my slide foot was soaked and totally ****ed up my game.
me being roughly a 150 average now, those small things can completley **** me. and it took me about 2-3 frames to figure that out and dry my shoe off.... I'm not good enough to throw 200 with those problems lol. I need to find my line and be consistant with my approach. you can't expect me to make multiple adjustments at once right now lol...

May I suggest buying shoe covers... Anytime you walk up where everyone walks, or to the bathroom, or outside, just slip them on and you'll be fine. Only cost about 12 bucks. Getting water on your slide foot is HUGE deal, you have to avoid that.

In regards to the original topic -- No, there isn't a specific pair of shoes you have to have to "bowl perfectly". Obviously they have to be bowling shoes, but as long as you are comfortable in whatever pair you are wearing, then you're fine. I, myself, believe that it makes more sense to have the foot you do NOT slide on to have a rubber sole. It allows you push off correctly and not slip. You don't need (or want) any slide on the foot you aren't sliding on. That's just how I feel.. If you're comfortable having both shoes have slide on them and you bowl fine with it, great for you.

[greycat]

I knew a guy that put a sock on his slide shoe cut the heel area off and went at it. He only used the sneakers for bowling. Now if you walk onto the lanes with street shoes to bowl I would go nuts but if you have a pair ment for bowling and you tell me I understand. Doesn't Fagan use a regular shoe and a slide bowling shoe. I am thankful a teammate makes shoe covers and got me some nice custom covers.

[JerseyJim]

A friend of mine told me that some specific sort of bowling shoes need to be worn if one has to bowl perfectly. What do you think about that.

i myself believe that any shoes in which you don't slip would be fine but still i want to know if there are any specific shoes out there.

Shoes make a huge difference. Chrono is right, you never know how the house shoes have been treated. I'm a bit old-fashioned, I like Dexter SST1 with the non-changeable dedicated sliding sole. Some people prefer the shoes with the interchangeable soles since they bowl in multiple houses.

[JaMau24]

I knew a guy that put a sock on his slide shoe cut the heel area off and went at it. He only used the sneakers for bowling. Now if you walk onto the lanes with street shoes to bowl I would go nuts but if you have a pair ment for bowling and you tell me I understand. Doesn't Fagan use a regular shoe and a slide bowling shoe. I am thankful a teammate makes shoe covers and got me some nice custom covers.

Ya, I've definitely seen Fagan use a tennis shoe and bowling shoe. I'm not sure if he does it all of the time though.

[striker12]

umm i think fagan only useing the tennis shoe when the oil pattern is short and burned up soo he can get that extra little power in his throw to loft the ball abit.
thats the only time i have ever seen fagan where his tennis shoes mainly jsut to get abit faster approach

[chrono00]

May I suggest buying shoe covers... Anytime you walk up where everyone walks, or to the bathroom, or outside, just slip them on and you'll be fine. Only cost about 12 bucks. Getting water on your slide foot is HUGE deal, you have to avoid that.

.

I don't go outside or to the bathroom with them on normally. i'll just change back into my sneakers if i do. that was just one time I forgot to switch em off

[striker12]

chrono its much ebtter getting shoe covers cause they are really easy to take off and put on rather then having to tak off your bowling shoes put your normal shoes on and then come back and have to put your bowling shoes back on that takes abit longer and plus with shoe covers u can slip on in a second and have more time to do stuff i got shoe covers my self but i rarly wear them cause in my league me are a single perosn team and it takes me a hr with tking time to bowl my 3 games soo i just go to the bathroom right befor i bowl and im good for the rest of the night i cant go out side for a smoke cause are league dose not want any of us going out side for a smoke cause it makesother people hold up.

but one thing me and some of my buddys in the league hate is one person who always needs to leave and wants us to rush soo when ever we play here we throw the ball and go and talk for abit and if she says anything to us we jsut tell her to go sit down im not going to rush and mess up my game just for you i want to take my time lol its just soo funny cause she has been kicked out of the allie over 10 times for swearing with little kids near her

[chrono00]

chrono its much ebtter getting shoe covers cause they are really easy to take off and put on rather then having to tak off your bowling shoes put your normal shoes on and then come back and have to put your bowling shoes back on that takes abit longer and plus with shoe covers u can slip on in a second and have more time to do stuff i got shoe covers my self but i rarly wear them cause in my league me are a single perosn team and it takes me a hr with tking time to bowl my 3 games soo i just go to the bathroom right befor i bowl and im good for the rest of the night i cant go out side for a smoke cause are league dose not want any of us going out side for a smoke cause it makesother people hold up.

but one thing me and some of my buddys in the league hate is one person who always needs to leave and wants us to rush soo when ever we play here we throw the ball and go and talk for abit and if she says anything to us we jsut tell her to go sit down im not going to rush and mess up my game just for you i want to take my time lol its just soo funny cause she has been kicked out of the allie over 10 times for swearing with little kids near her

meh, I wear all my shoes laces tied by loose enough that I can slip them off and on so it's not a big deal

and that's funny about the girl in your league. I love ****ing with people like that. theres one guy that works at the allie I shoot at and he's like that. I always have to come right from work so I usually show up like right at 930 when we start or maybe 935. at least twice when he was working I showed up and practice time was either almost up or already over cause of him. although one of those nights was the night I shot my high series

[striker12]

alright thats good that you keep shoe laces not soo tight( srry forgot how to spell the one word drawing a blank lol).

but yeah im alwasy at the bowling allie like 30min-hr earlyer but only cause its sunday and i get really board on sundays jsut waiting to bowl soo i go earlyer and talk with everyone there and watch how the guy oils are lanes but one thing i hate about the one girl is her son he really starting to make everyone in the league made and manly me he has screwed up all of my games where im going streght strikes.

the thing he dose is say im beside you and you are him i get ready to go im in my stance just looking at my target clearing my mind and he grabs his ball stands there soo u think you can go right as soon as you take 1 step he just runs up right beside you and makes you mess you i have ahd it once wher he hurt my ancle cause i was going for my throw and in standing far left and my right lag kicked out and he swung his ball and hit me right in the angle and he never even sead srry soo i waiting for him int he parking lot after wards and i go into his face never hit him cause i did not want to get kicked out of the bowling allie or band from the property and i stopped him from getting in his moms car untill he sead srry and he never did she started yelling at me soo she called the cop and i told the cops i want this kid to say srry to me for hitting my ancle bowling i was pissed

[tigerbait6]

I have a pair of dexter bowling shoes and I had problems with sliding. Then I bought an Easy slide, that fits over your left shoe if your right handed. It works fantastic! $10.00 Brunswick. :cool: Ed

[travkoiboi]

SST-8 all you need period.

[kev3inp]

8's are nice. I've found what works in the house where we bowl, and almost never change the slide sole. But if you go anyplace else the approaches can be "interesting" so it's nice to have the option to change. I have a slide sock from Ebonite and it's way too slippery for anywhere I go, but I bring it anyway. And I put on a shoe cover when I go to the bar for beer. Remember, lubrication is our friend, and it's a wonderful knee lubricant. :)

[billf]

Three Sundays ago during league I was in the 8th frame of game 1, lining up for the 10 pin. As I looked down I said to myself, "when did I get white bowling shoes?" That's when it dawned on me. I still had my new sneakers on. Talk about feeling stupid.

I bought a new pair of Dexters in May from bowlingball.com. My non-slide toe is starting to separate from the shoe. I emailed Dexter. They had me send pictures and now are shipping me another pair. They were extremely helpful, professional and handled the situation in a timely manner.

[tigerbait6]

Shoes are very important, because you want to slide close to the line. New shoes can also be a problem as well. I bought an Easy Slide by Brunswick and it works well. It fits over your sliding shoe

[Grimthrow]

I think Fagan's been using the tennis shoe a lot more now...obviously on the right foot.

[resstealth]

Striker if that little prick did that to me, second time I would beat the brakes off his punk @$$.

[jaydee]

I went from regular $30 bowling shoes to 3G Tour Ultras. Helped me a little bit, but it wasn't the earth shattering improvement in my game that I was hoping for. Yes they do help, but temper your expectations.

And absolutely use shoe covers. After sticking and missing a key spare in a tourney last year, I've been checking my sliding sole for any foriegn objects before every shot (just a quick swipe with my hand). I only find something once a month or so, but I'm sure I've made shots that I would have missed if I didn't check my sliding sole before every shot.

[striker12]

Striker if that little prick did that to me, second time I would beat the brakes off his punk @$$.

yeah i was going too but i dont want to get kicked out of the bowling allie that6s thye only thign thats stopping me but the one thing i did do was i took his bowling ball and droped it in the garabage and he was flipping out cause he could not find it that they had the mechanics going in the bakc looking for it i told them its not back there i told them where it was and that day he got kicked out for smashing the front door glass.

i could not stop lauphing that i went out to them and sead i found your ball they asked where was it i sead "it was under the ball return lol" but he was already kicked out