Quote Originally Posted by Aslan View Post
Yeah, I think he stayed with that 12lb ball too long.

It's pretty common with kids. They start out throwing 6lb balls because they claim bowling balls are "too heavy". Nobody ever "pushes them" and they end up throwing 10lb balls as adults and can't figure out why they hit a ceiling. You see it all the time with female bowlers that buy 10-12lb balls in the pro shop. Meanwhile, women on the pro tour are the size of 7th graders and are throwing 16lb balls.

And its a REALLY hard habit to break. I bought my daughter a 12lb Tropical Breeze and had it drilled fingertip for her. Got her some lessons from an actual PWBA pro. But, when we joined a league...it didn't take long before she started saying her fingers hurt and her wrist hurt and she was back to throwing a 9lb house ball. Kids these days have an extremely low tolerance for inconvenience and virtually no tolerance for irritation. The motto of "No Pain, No Gain" has given way to "Pain = It Ain't Worth It".

I mean, look at 2-handed bowling. Bowling one-handed was hard when we were little...balls were heavy. We all wanted to throw them 2-handed. What were we told? "Don't throw them like that. You gotta learn to throw them the right way. You gotta learn to roll them." Then, 30 years later...the USBC says, "Well...it is what it is."

The best advice would be to work on getting his wrists stronger through muscle exercises and gradually move up from 12 pounds. 6' 165 is pretty skinny. He might have very skinny wrists and have trouble with 15lbs. So, maybe work on wrist strength exercises and move up to 14lbs. I don't think colleges would have an issue with a player throwing 14lbs. 12lbs? Ughhhh...???? Thats a TON of deflection off the head-pin.
He’s thin but lots of muscle and little fat. He’s also a baseball (Pitcher and 3rd base) and basketball player, constantly in the weight room at school. He’s got pretty big wrists.

Since this post he’s ironed out a few things. Turns out he was trying to keep up with another bowler on his team who averages 23mph. Great bowler with a nice natural stroke too and he’s much smaller. How he gets that much speed and control is beyond me.

My son’s taken it down a notch and is letting the ball swing more naturally vs forcing it. His timing is a lot better, his axis tilt is improved and he’s able to post. He’s much more consistent on his strike ball and missing fewer spares. It was just a transition to the weight and ball type. It was a drastic change but he’s doing well. Since his hand got tore up he’s going to rest a couple weeks. He’s got all summer now to work out the rest of his kinks.