My league partner for the past several years went from 16 to 14 pounds after coming back from an elbow tendonitis condition, and he definitely picked up speed going to 14. He had to work on his timing to keep from blowing past his desired breakpoint.
On a side note, he''s been frustrated since his return at 14. He was a 230 THS at 16, but he''s struggled in the 210-215 range at 14. In practice on fresh THS shots, the 14 carry has been great. The problem is in second shift league, where the shot gets chopped up and morphs into a serious wet/dry. The 14''s have a more pronounced bounce off the dry and don''t carry as well in the wet. He leaves some ugly stuff that you just don''t see as often with 15/16 pound equipment.
He''s finally feeling healthy enough to experiment with his old 16 pound stuff, so this last weekend we went out and practiced after the lanes had been bowled on for a few hours after oiling. The 16 pound equipment had a tendency to smooth the condition out more than the 14, and it reflected in his consistency and scores.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Edited on 11/30/2009 12:49 PM
