Struggling - Looking For Equipment Recommendations

[95yj]

Sorry in advance for the long post. I started bowling in the late 70's and since the late 80's have had a 200+ average in many, many houses. I throw a medium speed with more revs than most. I have always used 16 pound balls with a less aggressive cover than the norm drilled with negative weight (old school) or with the new weight blocks, drilled for length with little flip and a smooth back end. My PAP is 4-5/8 and 5/16 up giving me a high track.

The only house on the island lays down a 41 foot pattern that is slightly blocked. They run the machine down the lane twice. The first time they buff the final 20 feet and the second time they lay oil and buff the back end again. This results in an extremely aggressive back end, more so than I've ever run across. When I asked the house why they scrub the back end every day, they replied that too many bowlers complain that their ball won't come up if they don't. There are two main lines that are thrown in this house. Those that throw spinners or handshake the ball throw down 10 or so with little or no swing. Those that put revs on the ball throw an inside shot swinging out to 10 max. These shots create a wall of oil by the third frame of the first game outside 7 or 8 that a non aggressive ball will hang on then snap and wash out.

I am using a Hammer Grape Vibe drilled long (pin about 5-1/2" from my PAP). My normal line in this house is placing my right foot on 30, swinging the ball through 15 out to around 10. This line is really tight because the farther out you go, the harder and sharper the ball comes back right up until you hit the wall around 8 at which point the ball hangs in the oil, comes in late and leaves a washout. This makes it difficult to give the ball more room when you're coming up high. Leaving the ball inside with the Vibe is OK because it will hang in the oil and run straight down 16 then snap into the pocket but this line gets tighter and tighter as the lanes dry out. The back end is so dry that the line swinging the ball gives me too sharp an angle of attack and I leave a lot of nine pins. Even when I put ten in the pit, a lot of times the ball doesn't touch the nine but goes straight through the five - eight. (I don't leave many ten pins unless I'm leaving the ball inside and throwing too hard so that it doesn't come up.) By the third game, I am five boards farther left with my target three boards farther left. (This presses me into the ball return on the right lane.)

My issue is this: My average is down around 180. I am throwing a lot of strikes, but I am also leaving a lot of washouts and splits and generally unmakeable spares. A not so unaverage game is six or seven strikes and three splits for a 180. Almost all of my opens are a result of slowing the first ball down just a touch where the ball then crashes and hits high or overthrowing it and getting it outside ten and leaving a washout. I am forced to throw the ball harder than is normal for me to keep it online so that it doesn't crash. I have straightened the axis of my wrist and have removed most of my wrist cupping in an effort to straighten out the angle of attack on the back end some. With having to throw the ball harder than is normal and messing with my release and also that I quit bowling for ten years and just started back a year and a half ago, my consistency isn't as clean as it used to be. Most of the bowlers in this house who throw a lot of revs also throw the ball faster than I do. I've tried taking a lot of the revs off the ball and am really successful with that but the consistency isn't there either since I have a tendency to take too much or not enough off from frame to frame. Another issue is that this isn't a shot I used to throw very often. In most houses back home, I would be just left of center throwing out through around nine and swinging out to two. This shot will not play in this house for me with my revs because the ball will be left of center or else I have to throw close to 20 mph to keep it right.

I also picked up a used Red Hammer 'R' from the back room and had it drilled. Even using a Urathane ball, I have to throw the same line as the Vibe. It just hooks earlier and doesn't come up as hard but the same starting point and trajectory gets me to the same finishing point although less angle. What's stupid is if I get that ball out to around 10, it snaps back harder than the Vibe. It also doesn't hang in the oil outside of ten.

I'm looking for suggestions here. Some of my possible thoughts are:

Go to a 15 pound ball which should keep the speed up?
Try a Tropical Storm which looks to be about the same as The Grape Vibe but with a less agressive cover stock?
Try the Blue Hammer Urethane although that has the same weight block as my Vibe.
Drill the ball for less length thereby reducing the amount of snap on the back end.
Lots and lots of practice paying for the house to oil the lanes before practice.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Stormed1]

The red Hammer you described is reactive hence the "R". One thing you could do is hit the Vibe with a 4k pad to take the shine off it. This will blend the reaction and slow the response time (less snappy). It will also give it a little help in the out of bounds. As far a new balls go i would look ar a solid such as a Roto Grip Shout or Shooting Star. Drilling a ball pin down will also slow the response time and smooth out the back end.

[Zothen]

You can try taking the polish off and change surface to 3000-4000 and see if that helps. You could also try playing a tighter(Down & in)line instead of throwing the ball so far out.

Zothen