Featured Bowling Tips and Techniques Articles
Featured Bowling Ball Reviews
Radical Guru Mighty
The Radical Guru Mighty is the follow-up release to last year's popular Guru. It uses the same asymmetrical weight block that was found in the original. The Mighty Guru differs from the original in that it has a hybrid coverstock and a smoother 4000 SiaAir box finish, whereas the Guru had a solid cover and a 1500 SiaAir box finish. The Mighty Guru offers more length and back end reaction... [Read More]
Hammer Bad Intentions
The Hammer Bad Intentions is the second release in the “Bad” high performance line from Hammer. This ball uses the same core design that was used in the Bad Ass and wraps it with the new Juiced Xtreme solid reactive coverstock. This cover comes from the factory prepped with a final finishing step of 2000 Abralon, making it a valuable tool on heavy oil lane conditions. The Bad Intentions was... [Read More]
Storm Rocket
The Storm Rocket is the first 2015 addition to Storm's popular Thunder line. This ball pairs the highly successful R2S Hybrid coverstock with Storm's new Booster core shape. This is the first new core shape to enter this price point in a few years. The Rocket comes out of the box at the standard 1500 grit polished finish and it will give most bowlers lots of success on medium volume... [Read More]
AMF Pure
The new AMF Pure is the latest hook monster for bowlers with lower rev rates, higher speeds, or who just flat-out want to see a ball hook. The Pure uses the same super aggressive F90 Solid coverstock that we saw previously on the Incinerate and pairs it with the same core shape that was in the Decimate. The core has been modified a small amount, giving this version of the... [Read More]
Storm Crux Pearl
The Storm Crux Pearl is the first 2015 addition to Storm’s Premier line of high performance bowling balls. This ball pairs the Catalyst core shape from the first Crux with Storm's ERG Pearl Reactive coverstock. This cover comes out of the box with Storm's standard 1500 grit polished finish. This gives the Crux Pearl added length and a much stronger change of direction downlane than the first Crux. This ball's... [Read More]
900 Global Break Down
The 900 Global Break Down uses a familiar core shape to other balls in both the Break and Eagle lines, but the densities have been altered. The changes result in a much lower differential and a higher RG. This equals to more lope through the front of the lane, with a much more controlled motion at the back of the lane. This ball is finished with the NEAT T pad,... [Read More]
Hammer Black Widow Red Legend
The Hammer Black Widow Red Legend is the follow-up to the very popular Black Widow Legend from last year. Using the proven core shape from the Black Widow line and, given how good it was in the reincarnation with the Legend, the Black Widow Red Legend had to be pretty good to not disappoint. And, it certainly did not disappoint any of our testers. The Red Legend uses the NBT... [Read More]
Columbia 300 Delirium
The Delirium is the first mid-price release for Columbia 300 of the 2015 calendar year. This ball uses the Resurgence core from the Eruption line and it is surrounded by the Bend-It Pearl coverstock that was used previously on the upper-mid priced Vow. This ball is finished with 500 and then 2000 Abralon pads before Powerhouse Factory Finish Polish is applied to it. It is rougher than previous releases and... [Read More]
Track Hx16
The Track Hx16 is the third ball in the "H" series of balls designed for high rev rate bowlers. It uses Track's dual density I-Core weight block which has been used in several previous high performance releases. This strong asymmetrical core is wrapped by Track's DR-8 Hybrid reactive coverstock, prepped with a 1000 Abralon pad and Powerhouse Factory Finish Polish. Cranker liked this ball best on our medium pattern. He... [Read More]
Track Lx10
Track's third entry into the "L" class of balls designed for low rev bowlers is the Lx10. This release pairs the Face asymmetrical core with Track's sanded QR-6 Solid coverstock. This is Cranker’s favorite release out of the three "L" series balls. By leaps and bounds, the Face core has been his favorite in the trilogy, so he was excited to have this ball in his hands on our heavy... [Read More]
The BTM Archive – Featured Content
Starting From the Ground Up – Part 3
The term hand-eye coordination is defined as “the ability to coordinate vision with fine motor skills.” Since bowling is a precision sport, everything a bowler does is to promote successfully knocking down pins by coordinating movements to direct the ball toward a target, or more accurately, along a target path. With the big muscle groupings... [Read More]
Changes
Many bowlers take the summer off before they start getting ready for the new league season. It’s during that break that many things change with the bowling environment - newer bowling balls, lane oils, or lane machines, for example. There are also changes the body has gone through during that break, even though we may... [Read More]
Bandwidth Feedback
In my last article, I discussed a practical method for coaches to decrease the amount of information they provide during coaching sessions. This method is known as learner-generated feedback. To recap, I urged coaches to consider allowing their students to dictate when they wanted feedback rather than the coach providing constant feedback. The major benefit... [Read More]
Seven Misconceptions
One day a few weeks ago, I was watching a couple of league bowlers practicing before league. One of the bowlers bowled one game with a plastic Taboo Spare Ball. He bowled a 240 game. This indicated to me that the lanes were pretty dry, allowing enough friction for the plastic ball with its dynamic... [Read More]
Is it Time to Call it Quits?
Every now and then you will see a bowler slam his/her bag down and declare, “I’m through with this!” Toward the middle or end of bowling season, you see players threaten to quit and never come back. Fortunately, most of these declarations pass with the speed of a player’s frustrations and disappointments. Yet, sometimes the... [Read More]
The Bowling Diet – Part 1
If I asked most bowlers who their favorite athlete is, they probably would not name another bowler. Such is the stigma of our sport, that we even view ourselves as non-athletes. Bowling is a precision sport, so while it doesn’t require the same athletic abilities as football, basketball, or tennis, it does require fitness to... [Read More]
Where is Your Next Level?
I’m often approached by bowlers who tell me they want to get to the next level. What is the next level, anyway? It can be many things to many bowlers, but since BTM focuses on higher average bowlers, I’m going to direct this article to bowlers who average at least 180. While the advice will... [Read More]
Mythbusting – Part 1
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope 2012 brings you a bunch of wisdom, forgiveness, and messengers for the corner pins. I thought I would start off this year debunking some myths in bowling. On tilt Being “on tilt” is a bad thing in Texas Hold ’Em and a very good thing in bowling. You’ve probably... [Read More]
