Thanks all! He is a complete beginner.
Decently strong and athletic. No bowling instruction prior to tryouts (which were 6 practices with warmups and 3 games).
I’m willing to get decent shoes, but realistically he is still growing and will only get one season out of them.
I just hate to drop the money in a ball to find that it’s not the right one. (I thought equipment baseball was expensive! I had serious bowling ball sticker shock.)
So here are (admittedly very old) bowling balls that were fully tricked out back in my day.
Both of these are Ebonite balls - like just about every other sport, one tends to gravitate toward a specific equipment vendor or two.
The ball on the left is a urethane based ball and on most oil patterns, this ball would not hook as much as the ball on the right.
The ball on the right is a resin based ball and it would hook more than the urethane based ball.
The setup (the drilling pattern - where the finger and thumb holes are located on the ball) is both similar and different on both balls.
The finger holes have grip inserts in them to allow for a bit more lift on the ball (the idea being that a slightly more grippable surface provides a bit more lift - which is good).
The thumb holes also have inserts but they are slicker than the finger holes to allow for easier release off the thumb.
See the green dot on the resin ball? That is an indicator of where the weight block is located in this ball. Weight blocks in bowling balls are different shapes and locations. Where one drills the finger and thumb holes is going to remove weight from the ball so different rolling effects (hook more, hook less, hook early, hook late) can be achieved by the placement of the finger holes.
I should add the two balls shown above are a fingertip grip setup for my hand. Most (but likely not all) house balls (found on the rack at your local bowling center) are likely set up for a conventional grip.
Conventional grip - fingers inserted to the 2nd knuckle.
Fingertip grip - fingers inserted to the 1st knuckle.
Throwing fingertip is harder at first for newer bowlers but you get much more lift on the ball (lift is good - have I mentioned that?). You want to get to a fingertip set up ASAP. IT WILL BE A STRUGGLE AT FIRST - SO PRACTICE IS NEEDED! Bowlers do NOT have to throw fingertip BTW.
That is a LOT to take in isn't it - and it only gets more involved from there as considerations such as axis weighting can be considered.
For your son, that is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down the road.
Remember earlier I said the best thing for a beginning bowler is to get a lot of reps with the same equipment? That is still my advice because developing good mechanics is so fundamentally important in bowling. It sounds like such a simple thing, but having the same approach - time after time - is the foundation a game is built on. That is the basis on which I suggest your son get shoes (first), go practice a few games, then get ONE ball fitted to his hand by someone who knows what they are doing (and they will be found in a bowling center - likely but not always the proprietor). If you suspect your son may do this for a year or two, and then it might fade from his interest a lower cost pair of shoes and one ball that fits him can last a very long time.
Best of luck with this!
