OK...I bowled VERY occasionally my whole life - maybe once or twice a year until this past year when my friends got into it. I have always just "gripped it and ripped it" I would just get the heaviest ball I could find and throw it about 30 mph down the lane. As you can expect my results were all over the place from under 100 to over 200. I started controlling the speed more and averaged about 140 I guess. Then a friend finally convinced me to try a hook. I had tried before - using house balls - with no luck at all. It was then explained to me that house balls aren't really designed to hook and that was why I had no luck trying to do so. So I started using a friends ball and almost immediately my game jumped. After going once a week for about a month my average (from when I started throwing a hook) jumped to about 175-180. So, count me among the converted to throwing hooks...the question now is what ball do i purchase? My friend's ball is a Columbia Action Max. I like it but I wonder if there is something I would like even more. I am completely ignorant as to all the bowling terminology that I read on these forums, but let me try to explain my style. Typically I stand on the right side of the arrows and basically throw the ball straight at the corresponding arrows on the lanes and hook it from right to left. How far to the right I stand and how far to the right I aim are dependent upon if my ball is hooking or not. The less it hooks the more I stand to the middle, or I start far right and throw it across the lane towards the middle. Ideally, when I am bowling well, I stand on the first or second arrow to the right of center, throw towards the outside arrows nearest the right side gutter and hook it all the way over into the pocket. I know this is poor information and I am being long-winded, but I would love some advice as to what to buy. For what it is worth I bowl at different meighborhood alleys, so I really could not say what the oil is like, though I know it is different from alley to alley. I am really starting to like this game and I want to make sure I have good equipment.
