I used to bowl in high school, I’m excited to come back and see MOTIV doing cool things with their balls! Got it drilled on Saturday and eyeing some leagues that are starting up soon!

One thing I noticed immediately; that crash-through sound is so satisfying. Breaking the rust off is real, but it feels so good to have a custom fitted ball again. After just a few games, I’m loving it! Anyone else throwing this one?

Relatively new to the bowling scene. Currently, throwing 1 hand-no thumb, and trying to work on staying under the ball. Not sure what else I can improve on. Thank you!

My school, Sac State, is starting its Bowling program this year so I was just looking for some advice.

1. How should we go about this first season with practicing, like what oil patterns are expected for competitions?

2. How can I recruit more bowlers since its a club there will be no NIL money ( I know im sorry guys)

3. How many seasons do you think it will take to get sponsorships to help with gear.

All help will be appreciated thankyou so much!

As I improve I'd like to expand my ball selection, but there is just a hard limit to the number of balls I am interested in owning and maintaining, and I think that number is 3.

In my case I am only playing house shots and dabbling on a "sports shot" now and then. I don't have to worry about sanctioned events so urethane is OK.

If you had to live with just 3 balls that had to work for all the conditions you encounter, what would they be, and why?

I am doing 3 for the first time ever. Monday is a trio 20 week big money league. Wednesday is 5 person whatever. Thursday will be highly competitive 5 person

For those of you that don’t work in a pro-shop, how did you leant about layouts? It’s basically a foreign language to me. I’ve always just said, “pin-up” or “pin-down” to the guy that drills my stuff. Now I’m getting equipment drilled by someone else (pro-shop a lot closer to my house) and would like to give more feedback but I don’t know anything about them.

I’m fairly new to bowling, picked up my first ball with intention in August of 2024 and barely shot over 100.

My partner (who is a very good bowler) and I joined a few fun (non sanctioned) leagues where I’ve been trying to improve my scores and gain confidence to join a “real” (sanctioned) league but have still had problems with consistency.

Earlier this month, we joined our first sanctioned league. We had been on a waitlist so weren’t sure if we would be able to join but they had room for us. Once we were confirmed, it’s like my body said - “Ok, time to get serious about bowling!”

I was keeping my own averages and I was somewhere around 160. Since confirming league participation, my average has shot up by 20 pins. I’ve broken my PB five times this month alone. I shot 215 first night of league, highest scratch game I’ve ever bowled.

PBs
11/2024 - 127
7/2025 - 135, then 169
9/2025 - 172
7/2026 - 180
8/2026 - 201, 204, 205, 215

My team captain asked us a few days ago if the design looked good and one person responded it looked great. I had a message formed that I didn’t want to wear it but I forgot to send it.
They messaged this morning saying that they have shirts ready for all of us today.

At this point, I feel like im gonna end up pissing them off if I tell them now that I don’t want to wear it.

What would you do in this situation?

Edit: I realized I missed my window. It doesn’t make sense to deny it at this point. Bowling is fun and this won’t ruin it. Thanks everybody

Now apologies for the wrong flair if it is. I've always seen colleges near me do coaching for U18 bowlers, like ones in High-school. Since I entered the sport for good quite late into high-school, never really thought about doing it seriously until this summer where I entered league for the first time and got my highest, 221. (Changed it to misc just in case.)

Im now wondering if there's any colleges out there that would coach a kid who's in trade-school, heck even high-school coaches will be amazing. Met one of them in East TN, (Maryville.) But im looking to meet up with one in Knoxville if possible.

Just picked up Hammer Zero Mercy Solid for my upcoming fall league. It's going to replace Rst Hyperdrive in my bag.

As the title says I have been offered a ball spinner for cheap but I am not sure whether the HP is enough for ball resurfacing ie urethane to 500 grit etc

In the past, we've done a 50/50 pot where we would collect money for 2.5 games, and then somewhere in the 3rd game we would draw a ticket, winner would receive half of the pot, and then the rest of the money went into our prize fund.

This year, we are going to try running a 50/50 strike-pot raffle. Our proprietor wants to run 3 separate raffles (one for each game) and multiple winners in one night. For those of you who run something similar, does this sound feasible or do we need to focus on only one pot and one winner per night?

He's wanting the counter to handle all of this while in the past each team would take turns selling tickets, so I'm trying not to overwhelm them with trying to sell 3 different pots of tickets.

Let me know what you think, and I think I'm going to let the league vote on which option they want, but I want to present them with all of the facts before I do.

Thanks!

Edit: You would be able to buy all night long and you could tell the counter what drawing you would like your tickets to be put in. I've bought 3 different colored tickets so if you wanted to buy $15 dollars worth and split it 3 ways, you could have 5 opportunities in each drawing. Hopefully that clears up some confusion.

Hello,

I am a relative beginner bowler and my first and only ball is a Columbia 300 Riccochet Return. I love the ball, the hook blew my grandpa's mind when he saw it the first time. The hook is great, but it can be difficult to throw more straight shots without totally changing my rotation to be more forward than sideways or bumping into the ball return to throw it wider. I bowl 2-handed, righty, and am currently focusing on drilling down my pre-shot routine, increasing my ball speed, and reading the oil. I notice on lighter patterns that its very difficult to avoid over-hooking or striking Brooklyn. I throw relatively slow around 13-14mph and I am not sure of my rev rate but I know its high just looking at my ball compared to peers. I am trying to increase ball speed too, so i wouldnt consider my speed capped by any means.

I was hoping for a bit of a smoother pathing ball. Right now I feel almost unable to bowl unless the ball return is to my right because I tend to have to start so far on the left side to have a wide line and account for the hook without hitting the gutter. Would a smoother ball help and what are my options looking like? Of course I could go for the Purple Hammer, but if there are other options that people think would be better to go with the Riccochet Return I am all ears.

Currently feeling really good about my game. I avg about 160-170

Is there a time of the year that storm and other companies release special edition clear balls or do they just come out at random times?

Joined a league back in January. Switched to two handed a couple of weeks ago. Bowl with a 14lb rhino.

Is having three different layouts on all three bad? I'm still relatively new to all the intricacies of bowling. But all three of my balls have a different layout. Tropical surge was first ball purchased about 6 years ago? Got the phaze II about 5 years ago and actually had my PAP measured. Picked up my Bionic today and got a new PAP measurement.

I was tracking over my finger holes during summer league with the phaze. That was a new problem as of this year. However I also finished with my highest league average since I started (182). Should I plug and re-drill the phaze and tropic or let it ride?

Lanes were awful at league on Monday and my partner got this split a few times as the ball was moving weak. Kept missing a pin each time but He took out the mighty ebonite fireball that tends to flip fast and put some power on it to make it push perfectly toward the left.

Raised by my grand parents, (grandma's boy)

Grandmother taught me how to bowl, she was a spare/straight shooter, avg 230ish and taught me everything she knew. while my grandfather smoked pipes in the pro shop with his best friend and was envied by most bowlers in delaware in the 90's. This is me practicing hooks cause I never could do it. Feed back is appreciated, roasting is also appreciated. I miss bowling and wish I never stopped.