New to site, seeking bowling help...

[BabyboyMuscles]

Hello hello hello, I'm Michael...I'm new to site and working my way into being a better bowler. Few details on me and my style...I'm 26, 165lbs, throw a new 14lb Ebonite Maxim ball and I'm a straight line bowler, and I wanna change that! I throw 14-16lb balls between 19-21mph with ease and average around a 180 with a high of a 229 (don't think that is likely to happen again). I really wanna learn to hook but my ball I have seems to have no hook at all. Few general questions I'd love help on in becoming a hook style bowler...

1) Whats a good ball to buy when learning to hook that would work with my speed/power problem? People say to take a bit off, others say get a ball to work with my speed...I'd like to get a ball to work with my natural throwing ability I've heard the Ebonite Tornado or Hammer Venom are good bets???


2) When I become more of a hook style bowler till my straight rolling ability on spares go down the drain?

3) How do you properly make a ball hook? Is it really just the handshake motion?

4) My thumb gets mad blisters on the inside between the two knuckles...whats a good thing to prevent that? Thumb saver, liquid skin, drilling style?

[WAC4504]

First thing I would tell you is to get to know your pro shop personnel, explain to them what you want to do. Second - if you want to throw the ball that fast you don't want a Tornado, it's a light oil entry level ball and at that speed it will go as strait as tour Maxim. As for the blisters on the thumb I would say you were probably gripping/squeezing the ball. When you get your new ball custom drilled you should not have that problem as it is drilled to come off your hand in the right position only. The best advise I would give you would be to take some lessons and learn from scratch rather than developing bad habits that you have to correct later. Good luck and have fun.

[JaxBowlingGuy]

Also you should pick a weight and stick with it... Go with the heaviest you can that is still comfortable..

[Stormed1]

At you height and weight i would recomend either a 15 or 16 lb ball. You want to throw the heaviest ball you can comfortably throw as it will help keep you armswing more in control. I agree that the Tornado/power groove type ball would only offer a very slight improvement over your maxum. You could go with a Furious, a Noize, onyx vibe w/surface, mars w/surface just to name a few.

[Strike Domination]

Welcome to the site. I would just like to say that you should discuss these things with the pro shop as well. Ideally, I think it would be better to slow the ball down a little, because even the strongest balls won't hook much if you run into enough oil. The balls suggested by Stormed1 are good but on a considerate amount of oil only the Furious might hook a decent amount because of the speed you have. I would have the pro shop teach you how to slow down without you having to slow down your arm or making it too uncomfortable.

[BabyboyMuscles]

Thanks for the replies guys I did talk to my Pro Shop guy a lil bit. He was slightly blown away to see me rolling 20+ mph and still look comfy/smooth doing it. We talked a little bit and I told him my 20+year martial arts history turned me into a "muscle compact" individual. He watched a bit on my natural throwing motion and said as a "starter" for me learning to hook I should try out a Hammer Razyr 15/16 pounds.