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Author Topic: Help a youth bowler with his arsenal, for Junior Gold?  (Read 2318 times)

keegan.mier

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Help a youth bowler with his arsenal, for Junior Gold?
« on: December 21, 2017, 09:05:01 PM »
I have been bowling for only three years at this point, and I have fallen in love with the sport, and I am trying to go for the next level. I made it last year, but have since made some major changes to my game, and my equipment doesn't quite match up with my game anymore, so I was wondering if you lovely people might want to help me in making some choices. I don't have my exact specs, but, ball parking it, I have around a 45 degree axis rotation, 15 degree axis tilt, and maybe lower 400s revs, my average speed is 17mph.
Current Arsenal:
Storm Hyroad(staying)
Storm Ride(staying)
Storm Alpha Crux(needs replacing)
Storm Virtual Gravity Nano(needs replacing)
Storm Triple XXXtreme X-Factor(after all the plugging, I don't know how legal it is, I love it, but for precaution should replace)
Roto Grip DareDevil(may replace not sure)

Now replace really isn't the right word, but holes are forming in my arsenal, so maybe not something that does the exact same thing, maybe just something similar, really don't know how to word it. If it helps any I used to play right up the back, letting the core do everything as I was throwing the Alpha Crux down the first arrow, on a house shot, on wood. I know Luke R.'s opinion on urethane, but I was wondering where you all see it fit into your arsenal?

 

SVstar34

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Re: Help a youth bowler with his arsenal, for Junior Gold?
« Reply #1 on: December 21, 2017, 09:37:09 PM »
If you're keeping the Ride and HyRoad, since you're limited on amount of balls for junior gold I'd go with these:

Phase 2 or Dare Devil Trick (strong symmetrical option)

No Rules Pearl or Intense (strong asymmetrical, most people seem to lean towards the No Rules as the more versatile option)

Depending on your HyRoad reaction, I'd add a Match Up Hybrid as a flipper motion or Torrent as a smoother motion but less than the Phase 2/DDT

psycaz

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Re: Help a youth bowler with his arsenal, for Junior Gold?
« Reply #2 on: December 21, 2017, 10:46:37 PM »
Try contacting the local pro shops in your area to see who might have demo days coming up. The best way to see what you'd like and where it fits.

Be sure to take your old stuff so you can compare apples to apples as it were. Always get there early so the pattern is fresher.

New is always going to react more than your older stuff. Try to give allowance in your mind when looking.

As to what to replace, be honest with yourself as to what gives you most bang for the buck right now. What patterns you're bowling most on and would get most use out of.

Are you currently seeing enough oil to need a high end piece or would you get more use out of a urethane piece and learn to make spares with it as well to use it situationally.

The five ball limit for Junior Gold is tricky. There are videos on YouTube of past events. A ton of folks end up throwing urethane at some point. I would suggest working on surface adjustments with the stuff you're looking at removing and get real comfortable with that. It'll be huge for JG.
« Last Edit: December 22, 2017, 10:32:44 AM by psycaz »

MichStBwlr2009

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Re: Help a youth bowler with his arsenal, for Junior Gold?
« Reply #3 on: December 22, 2017, 09:56:11 AM »
I'll assume you are just keeping your Ride and Hyroad. If you have a 5 ball limit, are you carrying a plastic ball? Spares are the most important thing at Junior Gold, and no matter how good you are, you will shoot a lot of them. I remember my first Jr. Gold back in Lakeland in 2002 or 2003, I had a Predator, Erase-It, and Track Magic (polished), and spare ball. I almost made the cut without knowing anything about patterns and just making spares. If you can kill your Ride as a spare ball, then more power to you (and you don't have to waste a ball on plastic).

As I recall, you bowl on a long, medium, and short pattern. Part of "creating" your arsenal is learning how to play the patterns and thinking about what pieces could be useful on each. Therefore, I will break it down by pattern:

Short: At least when I bowled, the short pattern was not "throw it to the gutter and watch it hook back", it forced you to be exact with your angles through the front part of the lane. The Ride may come in handy here if the gutter (1-2-3 board) is being touchy. Don't try and force the gutter shot if it's not there or if you see hang on the gutter, because you are asking for trouble if you do. If the 1-2-3 boards are hooking back, by all means play it. I would put some surface on either your Hyroad or Ride for the short pattern to even out the motion down lane, then polish them back up (or 4000 grit) for the medium and long patterns. If the gutter is not in play, use a weak piece (Ride/Hyroad), take hand out of it, and play between 5-10 until something develops. I guarantee if the gutter isn't hooking scores will plummet and an even block will be near the top.

Medium: Often this will play very flat and similar to the old US Open pattern. I would say start somewhere around the track with a stable symmetrical piece (IQ Tour, Hyroad Nano, Edge, Magnitude 035). Keep the ball "in-play", meaning don't create big angles through the front of the lane and keep your angles in front of you. Eventually, after about game 2 or 3, you will be able to move left and some area may develop (you may have hold or a hook spot, depending how the pattern breaks down). You may be able to switch to your Hyroad here, then eventually to your Ride if it gets dry enough.

Long: Again, keep your angles direct on the fresh, this is most important on the long pattern since you won't have much free hook to the right. Take your ball speed down. I, like you, didn't have a really high rev rate in my younger years and started bowling better on long patterns when I simply took my ball speed down to help the ball read the lane better. You will most likely start targeting between 12-15 board, then just parallel moving left throughout the block. You should start with a strong cover/core combination (Phaze II, Sure Lock, Kingpin), then transition left keeping your angles tight with less surface to create more hold and angle down lane (Marvel Pearl, SoniQ). In my experience, on longer patterns I tend to look for hold area, where the ball is basically fading back to the pocket (going left to right) until about 15 feet in front of the pins where it picks up just enough to carry effectively. It's often mistaken that you need a lot of revs to bowl well on long patterns, I often think tweeners like yourself may have an advantage over power players because you don't have to worry about your ball reacting violently down lane. You don't have to cover as much of the lane and therefore don't open yourself up to unexpected ball reaction.

So, to summarize ball choices, I would go with the following:

Ride (adjust surface for short pattern, to maybe 4000)
Hyroad (adjust surface for short pattern, to maybe 2000)   
Benchmark sym/solid (IQ Tour, Hyroad Nano, Edge, Magnitude 035)
Strong Cover/Core Solid (Phaze II, Sure Lock, No Rules Exist)
Stronger core/Pearl cover (Intense, Marvel Pearl, SoniQ, Edge Pearl?)

Buddies Pro Shop has Edges on sale for $69.99 right now, so that might be a deal to look into. You may even be able to fit an Edge Pearl into the last spot (Stronger core/Pearl cover) depending if you can get it to be stronger than your Hyroad. You need a ball for that first breakdown that the Hyroad may not be strong enough for.

Impending Doom

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Re: Help a youth bowler with his arsenal, for Junior Gold?
« Reply #4 on: December 22, 2017, 10:52:10 AM »
Now, I'm a 900 Global guy, but let me share a little bit of what I would do.

For me, my bag would look like this.

Short: on the fresh : X (low rg, low diff, lots of surface), then once the transition hits, move a little right and bump up the speed.

Medium: it's going to break down fast if it's really flat, so nothing too jerky when it leaves the end of the pattern, but not a lot of surface so you don't wreck the pattern. Here, I'd probably start with a Night Hawk SE at 4000 and then when I have to jump left, switch to a Honey Badger. NHSE is a step up from the X and not as angular as the HB.

Long: again, I don't know ratios or length, but this is where you DON'T want a lot.of surface. You want the ball to transition fast, so a strong assym that you can get shape out of would work. Here, I'd go with a Dream On at 4000 (Strong assym with a flippy drilling) then once everyone has beaten the crap out of the pattern because "long patterns are scary", switch back to the X, play fallback and jam it into the pocket.

keegan.mier

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Re: Help a youth bowler with his arsenal, for Junior Gold?
« Reply #5 on: December 22, 2017, 11:13:02 AM »
On the topic of a spare/plastic ball, I am lucky in that I can flatten out my hand and make any ball I am using go straight, and I recently learned that Storm is having a demo day, not extremely close, but at a bowling alley I enjoy going to, and I will keep all of your suggestions in mind, when trying everything out. Thank you all for your help.

avabob

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Re: Help a youth bowler with his arsenal, for Junior Gold?
« Reply #6 on: January 01, 2018, 11:13:16 AM »
Michstbwlr might have posted the best advice I have seen on attacking patterns of multiple length.  Not sure there is a totally right answer on equipment.  I would add a urethane, but get familiar with what it does and doesn't do well before taking it to a tourney.  Even the pros can box themselves in with urethane sometimes.