How to Choose a Bowling Ball

Video Transcript

"Hi, Glenn Soanes again for expertvillage.com and I want to talk to you about another important aspect of your bowling experience. That you’re choosing a ball that’s at the right weight and a right fit for your hand. You walk into a bowling center and on the rack they have several balls for your use. Everywhere from 6 lb. to 16 lb., what you’re looking in a sorts of color; pinks, yellows, blues, grays. What you’re looking for in a bowling ball is a bowling ball that fits your hand and a weight that you can throw. The recommendation for a starting weight would be about 10% of your body weight. So if you weigh 100, it would be a 10 lb. ball. The heaviest ball made is 16. So if you weigh 200 you may want to bowl with a 16 lb. ball. What you’re looking for is a ball that doesn’t stress your arm. To find a ball that fits, the first thing you want to do is find a thumb that’s slightly snug when you insert your thumb into the thumb hole. The next thing you’re looking to do in a conventional fit ball is have this knuckle line up with the edge of the hole, that’s the ball that fits you. From a stand point, once you find the ball that fits you, you want to hold the ball at your side. If the ball doesn’t feel too heavy it’s probably okay for you to bowl. You don’t want to bowl with a ball that’s too light because what you’ll end up doing is chucking the ball and what bowling is about is rolling the ball. So you want to find the right weight, the right fit that’ll allow you to roll the ball more consistently and it’ll allow your score and turns to go up. "