A question that has been on my mind for the past few years... How do I choose the right ball for specific conditions? I'm not talking about very broad options, I'm talking about very advanced and complicated decisions. Like how do I know what kind of coverstock I want to use? The surface prep? The layout? The RG? The Diff? Because whenever I hear pros like Chris Barnes talk about ball choices, it sounds like he thought deeply about it for days. Like he once was talking about about a pattern (can't remember, it was somewhat long though) he said something on the lines of: I generally go the opposite of what people think, I don't use a lot of surface, I like to use medium surface to even shiny, I use Balls with a low RG to control the midlane rather than having surface do so where the ball wouldn't make any move down lane.

How can I make more educated decisions when choosing my Arsenal for certain events? All advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

I have been bowling for almost 30 years and I can say that I still second guess myself on which ball I use and if I should have used a different ball. As SV stated, there is no substitute for personal experience, but even with that, you will still wonder if you do not  bowl as well as you think you should have.

Keep practicing. When practicing, after throwing a couple good shots with one ball, pick up a different ball, stand in the spot and try to hit the same thing downlane. This will help you understand how that ball reacts differently than the ball you had in your hands previously. You can then make adjustments based upon what the ball did. You can then transfer that information to league or other competition, so if you know one ball rolls sooner than another and you have a ball in your hands that is not recovering quick enough, you know to switch to the ball that rolls sooner.

Good luck!

And just forget about personal skill, adjusting your delivery, your speed, etc.  Just change balls.   A good skilled bowler can be effective with a "medium of the road ball".

And just forget about personal skill, adjusting your delivery, your speed, etc.  Just change balls.   A good skilled bowler can be effective with a "medium of the road ball".

The THS and Resin balls doesn't promote personal skills.

Lets say your ball exits the THS (10 to 10) on the 9 board, and hooks to the nose. 

Thats 3 board more hook than you wanted, so you think, if it's going to hook 3 board too much, why don't I have it exit the pattern 3 board further right.

You try to exit the pattern on 6 board by making a parallel move right 3 & 3

When your ball exits the side of the oil (9 board), it begins to hook, and ends up back on the 9 board (against the oil), but at least it burned up more of the axis rotation, so this time it only hooks to the 19 board.

You move right again, and finally you burn enough axis rotation to get the ball to exit at 9, and make it to 17 at the pins.

Problem is, now your angle of entry is too weak to carry unless you hit dead flush.

What you really need is some way to delay when the ball changes direction.

That way you can get from the 9 board down at 50 feet, to the 17 at the pins, to not only arrive in the proper location, but also with plenty of angle of entry.

To do that, you either need to polish the ball, or get one with a larger RG value.

Both of those options require having brought another ball.

If that 2nd ball isn't quite right, you would have needed to bring a 3rd, 4th etc.

Adjusting speed rather than change ball could improve your likelihood of hitting the pocket, but increasing speed also decreases angle of entry.

Personally I solve this dilemma by using polished urethane, which allows me to choose what board I exit the pattern on.  But if I make a mistake out, I'm likely to leave a weak 10 pin, or a 2 pin, while a mistake in is at least a 4 pin.

I can achieve the same level of scores I had back in the 80's (before the wall) which means I'm executing just as well as back then, but averaging 210 now isn't competitive against 230's shot by people who bring a half dozen balls, and always play up against the oil line.

There are so many options these days that it can be difficult if not impossible to make the best selection for the condition at hand. A lot of the decision-making process indeed involves a degree of trial and error, which can get to be pretty expensive. On the other hand, it is wise to get a basic knowledge of the "physics" of ball motion, including the
effect that such quantities as "RG" and "differential", as well as surface composition impact ball motion. You can find most of the basics on this website as well as others .
Publications such as "Bowling This Month" (BTM) and the "Bowlers Journal" are also excellent resources. They also include detailed staff reviews of the latest balls hitting the shelves. BTM provides the most detailed reviews, breaking them down to how
each ball performs for a stroker, tweener, and power player.

Best of luck!

Sneaky,
Start paying more attention to what balls match each type of surface you bowl on.  A 45 foot lane pattern on a new Brunswick lane will play a lot different than the same 45 feet on 10 year old AMF synthetics at a high linage center.  You will probably find this as or more beneficial than trying to match balls to patterns.

It's not just what and where you are throwing. The other bowlers playing on your pair are a big factor into how you should play the pattern too.