Does it really make any difference what spare ball you have?  I'm probably going to order a plastic ball from whoever sells cheapest, but after talking with a very good senior bowler Sunday I'm considering a urethane.

Does anyone use urethane for spares?  Is there any reason to go with one plastic ball rather than another, other than price?

 

figjam - I'm currently leading the Washington State Seniors tournament in singles.  whoo hoo!

Compared to some of the "resin bombs" out there today, a urethane does go straighter, but don't let that fool you.

 

 There is a reason the professionals on television use plastic instead of urethane, and that is because polished plastic is about as low friction a surface as you can find in bowling these days, which means it goes where you throw it with less directional change than any other surface out there.

 

 That being said, I used my RotoGrip urethane Grenade for spares a lot. I have trouble throwing directly straight at spares, and tend to throw it a touch wide. The Grenade has just enough bite to hold it on line without having so much movement that it makes me miss the spare shot.

 

 I know my reply sounds like a paradox, but its not. I'm not nearly as accurate at throwing straight at spares as lots of people can do, and I NEED a bit of help sometimes, so I use a ball that helps just a bit.

Rags,

    First off, congratulations, hope it holds up.

 

As far as spare balls, I think most have gotten in correct, but I wanted to add my experiences to this. I think the newer urethane equipment, and even some of the older ones are made to be more aggressive and may not be a good choice for a spare ball. But it does give you the kind of double benefit you were thinking as they do make excellent dry lane balls. And there is a lot of differences in Plastic balls. Mainly in the core, some have a "non-bowling ball core" as I call it, such as the Team Storm balls, the Golden Globe, etc. Some have simple cores, like White Dots, etc. Then some have aggressive cores, like the Lane#1 XXXL, etc. I think one in this last category might be what you are looking for. It goes straight enough for spares, but does offer some movement at the backend of the lane to help with double wood or other tougher multiple pin spares. They also can serve as a dry lane ball as the core give the ball some movement and helps with increasing carry over the other two categories of plastic. I have an old Ebonite Clear Wolf, that has the plastic cover and the old Wolf weight block inside. I even found one on Ebay about 5 years ago and bought to keep in my closet for when my original decides to finally break apart, lol. I have shot a handful of 279 games with that ball on drier conditions (one of my goals in bowling is to shoot 300 with plastic, lol) and I use it for every spare for the most part. It drive just enough to make the harder spares (like a 3-6-9-10) but still goes straight enough to make corner pins easily.

 

Just MHO. Good Luck Rags.

I'm a pretty firm believer in using a plastic ball or a urethane ball at the spares for most people.  I sometimes tend to get lazy and just use my regular ball in leagues and use the proper spare shooting principles.   I do like a plastic ball or urethane ball that moves just a tad bit, so the regular plastic balls over the super hard clear plastic ones work for me.   I throw it straight with a slight back up at the 6 and 10 pins, but I can not get the hang of that for the 4 and 7.  What I do for the 4 and 7 is use more of a flatter wrist release and try to fan the ball more with my hand, and use the slight movement of the ball into the 4 and 7 pins.

 

I've tried the straight ball at the 4 and 7 over and over again and I miss them way too much.   I prefer having the ball "cut" into the pins going from corner to corner.   

 

 

If you notice on the PBA tour, there is a wide variety of spare shooting angles and techniques.   Some guys throw straight or back up balls at everything, other guys use a strike ball release with speed and rotation  on their plastic ball and then some guys use their regular strike ball to shoot spares.   

 

Duke uses his strike ball with a back up type cut

Weber uses a plastic ball and fans it with his hand in a hook release type of hand action

Barnes uses his plastic ball and throws it straight from smaller non traditional corner to corner angles.

Monacelli has always used his strike ball and hooked it at the 4 and 7, and a plastic ball at the 6 and 10

Shafer uses a weaker reactive/urethane (at one time it was a Barbed Wire) at the 4 and 7, and a plastic ball at the 6 and 10 

Walter Ray Williams uses a plastic ball with more traditional corner to corner angles

Mika K uses his plastic ball with alot of speed and some loft but has rotation on it. 

 

The most important thing is to get comfortable with your spare shooting game.

 

 

 

Edited by Xx 12 X 300 xX on 10/5/2011 at 10:49 AM

 

Edited by Xx 12 X 300 xX on 10/5/2011 at 10:50 AM