My boy is 12 years old and has been bowling for as long as he's been able to. Lately, he seems to be a little stuck, so I thought I'd try fingertip as an experiment. I just plugged his older sister's old ball, which is same weight he has now (12 lbs). I asked his coach to watch him to see if he thought this transition would work.
His coach almost took away his conventional ball and told me not to look back. He said "highly recommend", but I could see him trying to hide his old ball. My boy took to this way better than I thought. He stayed behind the ball better, which gave him better roll and increased ball speed. It was like he just took 3 steps forward in his progression. Obviously, we are moving forward with this with great excitement.
I'm old school and am slow to make changes as I'm in this for the long term. However, I'm now looking at moving him up to 14 lbs in a few months if he doesn't regress a long ways. He's not a small 12 year old and has been at 12 lbs for a year and a half. I'm trying to make sure he learns proper technique, but I also want him to be excited and want to learn.
Moving to fingertip has him wanting to bowl every day to get better. I'm trying to take advantage of this enthusiasm by not waiting too long to increase weight. I'd like any opinions on how soon to move up in weight considering recent change to fingertip grip. I'd much rather go to 14 than 13 lbs.