Anyone here use a urethane ball?

[morgothaod]

I have trouble controlling my bowling ball at my bowling alley. So, I was thinking I could just buy a urethane ball and throw a straighter line instead of having to stand far left and throw across the lane. What has your experience been with a urethane ball? Do you get good carry or leave a lot of 5 and/or 10 pins?

[JasonNJ]

I have trouble controlling my bowling ball at my bowling alley. So, I was thinking I could just buy a urethane ball and throw a straighter line instead of having to stand far left and throw across the lane. What has your experience been with a urethane ball? Do you get good carry or leave a lot of 5 and/or 10 pins?

It's really about matching up lane conditions, ball and bowler. Urethane reads the lane very early in my opinion so it's more of an arcing motion to the pocket. So if you like a skid flip motion, you probably wouldn't be a big fan of urethane.

[J Anderson]

I have trouble controlling my bowling ball at my bowling alley. So, I was thinking I could just buy a urethane ball and throw a straighter line instead of having to stand far left and throw across the lane. What has your experience been with a urethane ball? Do you get good carry or leave a lot of 5 and/or 10 pins?

My only urethane ball is a Storm Mix. As an experiment last season I used it for almost all my games in an afternoon league and as the first ball out of the bag in a 9pm league. In the afternoon I finished with a 194 average. In the late league, it depended on who or how many bowled on the pair as to whether I could get decent carry out of the Mix. If the lanes were burnt, I would switch to a Storm HyRoad and move inside.

[Amyers]

If this is your issue than urethane is unlikely to correct this issue. urethane tends to work where the speeds our high and you can keep the line in front of you. Urethane tends to hook early so thinking it'll let you move left isn't going to work most of the time. What are you throwing now?

[bowl1820]

I have trouble controlling my bowling ball at my bowling alley. So, I was thinking I could just buy a urethane ball and throw a straighter line instead of having to stand far left and throw across the lane. What has your experience been with a urethane ball? Do you get good carry or leave a lot of 5 and/or 10 pins?

I have a Urethane, yes it will let you control the backend more and stay closer to the track area much longer than a resin would. Plus you can move back right more and square up to the line and play straighter angles.

The things to remember are Urethane is for controlling the back end, it's going hook early and get into a roll and smooth out the backend. You'll need to be more consistent, You can't get away with leaking it out and expecting it to come back.

If the lanes are dry you'll need more speed, If the lanes are oily you'll need more surface. Plus you have to keep it wiped off!

[fordman1]

First why not throw the ball you have straighter?
When are you bowling in a league or open bowling ?
Are you a man, woman, boy oy girl?
Are you physically fit, or have any kind of handicap?
Are you big and strong, average or smallish?
Have you tried a different bowling alley?

Never mind, yes buy a new ball.

[morgothaod]

To answer some of the questions. I have a Track Kinetic Ruby and an Ebonite Cyclone. I also bowl on a league but even when I go to the bowling alley early and bowl by myself, I often get a dry lane. Here is an image of the line that I like to throw (Red) and the line I have to throw to hit the pocket (Green). I dislike having to throw the ball as fast as I can, so I move left. The up arrows indicate the direction that I walk towards the foul line. I'm a man but I use a 13 lb ball because a heavier ball hurts my wrist (I'm not weak but I somehow injured myself- maybe from work). I also use a Moro Pro Release Wrist support. I believe my bowling ball speed is 14-15 mph and the height of my upswing is about at my waist. I don't rev the ball that much and just make a slight "reverse C motion" (Imagine trying to make a football spiral off of your hand). Both balls are drilled with the dot above and directly between the finger inserts (Pin up?).

[chip82901]

In my home center, we use a lower volume of oil that tends to break down fairly quickly, as well as our back ends tend to get jumpy. I use urethane almost exclusively in my home center just to combat these issues. With my rev rate, throwing almost anything resin after game 1 tends to give me a pretty bad over/under reaction. It does tend to read the lanes sooner. I use a combo of 2 different urethane balls with the same layout on both, a Roto Grip Hot Cell and a Storm Pitch Black. I had a Pitch Blue for awhile, but that just didn't give me the look I was wanting. I was wanting the ball to read earlier and control on the back end. However, there is very little miss area when using urethane. Misses to the right (getting it in the dry earlier), tend to result in the ball reading early and either rolling out or going high. Miss inside, and the ball skids more through the oil and burns itself up. Little misses do tend to leave corner pins. I started counting the amount of 7 pins I left this year in my home center (right handed, center uses Twister pins). I ended the season with 48 7-pins in a 30 week season. When using urethane, it's mostly dealing with angles. Urethane won't necessarily give you the control you are looking for, unless you know how to use it to your advantage.

[ALazySavage]

I have a Black Widow Urethane that I really like, but as being stated above there are a fair amount of considerations you have to keep in mind. First, urethane will read the lane earlier so if you are bowling on really dry lanes it may be too much ball on the front end to get what you would like - especially if you have a slower ball speed you could encounter significant roll out (also as stated, the earlier roll can make controlling the backend easier). Second, most urethane balls will typically make your room for error much smaller than a typical resin ball - especially when missing outside.

My general advice in this situation is that we all have comfort areas and parts of the lane that we prefer to play, but when it truly comes down to it bowling is a game in which you are in multiple competitions with one of those being against the lanes. The lanes are going to present a challenge (typically different day to day and even game to game) based on the composition and breakdown of the oil. As a bowler this challenge is to figure out this invisible challenge and discover an approach that best combats this and sometimes that will require us to attack them in a way that we don't prefer to do so. While purchasing a new ball will give you a new option (so in this situation 3 options vs. 2 options) if you are able to learn ways to alter your ball roll (lets say three different ways of throwing the ball) you will be given more options (increasing to 6 with a 2 ball arsenal). I just hate to have you purchase a new ball so you can play the lanes a specific way under one circumstance.