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