IS EQUIPMENT ABOUT TO CHANGE?

[boybrowny]

Authors at the site - http://www.bowlingball.com think so...

Below is an opening extract from their latest newsletter...

It appears that the bowling industry watch-dogs in the USA are not happy about the ever growing numbers of high-average and high-score bowling, so in an effort to bring scores back down to reality, they are considering putting restrictions on rg and flare ratings for all equipment manufacturers..

EXTRACT STARTS:
"The new United States Bowling Congress is going to attempt to bring astronomical scores back down to earth with a new ball rule.

If the change works the way the USBC anticipates, then it will be tougher to string strikes and shoot big scores with new bowling balls.

So, I suggest that all high average bowlers in Volusia County rush out and buy all of the bowling balls currently being sold in pro shops. Also, it wouldn't hurt to dust off a high-performance ball that you may have stopped using. The reason for haste - all bowling balls produced before Feb. 1 will be grandfathered in..."


Anyone who would like me to fwd the entire article to them, pls email and ask. Otherwise I am sure you could find the article on their site somewhere.

 

[Dark Assailant]

i think it would be silly to do that it isn't the ball that makes the scores it the bowler, i'm not saying the way the ball makes doesn't have a effect it does help alot but it takes alot of skill to make the ball to what you want it to do so i hope they don't pass this law but if they do it won't realy effect anyone but thats my opinion.

 

[johnny rotten]

?

i am just wandering is this just something they started like a rumor to get people to go out and spend alot of money on new balls then not go through with it :?:
alot of people would rush out and buy as much stock as they could if they thought this was true.
this would not efect myself as i like mid range and urathane balls but im sure there would be some pretty upset bowlers out there :evil: :evil:
also is this just in the states or all round the world :?: :?: :?:

 

[RobbieB]

The proposed change is to limit Rg differential to 0.060", down from the max current of (from memory) 0.90".

Of the 120 balls listed on the 2005 BJI ball guide, this affects ony 9. The max diff of any ball on the guide is only 0.065", as far as I can see, without allowing for the fact that it varies with ball weight too. Bottom line is that this particular rule change will have little to no change on the scores.

To big Adam - If you this it really is the Indian and not the arrow, go throw ten games with a white dot and see if your scores change. :wink: While a good bowler can score with just about anything on todays typical house shot, modern balls will give anyone with the ability to hit 5 boards with a bit of hand a 200 average.

 

[androooo]

USBC APPROVES LOWER RG DIFFERENTIAL

The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) has stepped-up on this date (February 1, 2005) with a rule change that will make (in their opinion) a huge impact on the Sport of Bowling. As of this date, the maximum Radius of Gyration (RG) Differential of bowling balls will be changed from the current 0.080 to 0.060.

USBC Equipment Specification and Certification Committee initially reviewed this change last November, and have now approved it. "This new spec will hopefully help to control the Sport for many years to come", said one spokesman.

All bowling ball manufacturers were notified of this change. Previously released balls that have been approved will remain approved (grandfathered in). Any re-release of a previously approved ball will have to be submitted for testing and meet the new specifications.

When asked for a comment, one expert in the ball industry said, "That change definitely is going to cut down bowling ball flare, and the ball is going to be more stable as it rolls down the lane. Anytime you stabilize the ball, you put more of the skill factor back in the hands of the bowler."

"We have been looking at making this change for quite some time," said USBC Director of Research Neil Stremmel. "This is a big step for our merged organization under the new USBC, and we plan for this to be part of some big-picture changes in the future."

From THE FOUNDATION website

 

[Brenton_Davy]

Reality is this is not much more than smoke and mirrors. with a very few exceptions, (many Lane#1 and a couple of Ebonite releases) there are no balls with Rg differentials of 0.060 anyway.

The ball manufactureres are not going to allow the USBC to make any changes that they don't want made anyway. The manufacturers own the sport and they decide what equipment specs are made legislation and what aren't.

This new ruling will have such an insignificant effect on the scoring environment, it is really not worth the paper it is written on. Now if they legislated to reduce the aggression of particle coverstocks or to remove the voids in the bellies of pins, then we might see some REAL effect on teh scoring environment. TBA has made more strides in this area with its Lane Conditioning Policy than this poor effort by the USBC.

The manufacturers have too much money and time invested in bowling ball and pin technology to allow the USBC or any other governing body to legislate realistic limits.

 

[willey]

This will have an effect on the way the manufacturers make thier balls, at the moment there are a lot of balls in the .05+ range, so the manufacturers will have to keep out of that range, otherwise they will have a lot of balls they will have to discard, because they got too cute.

This is much like the 3:1 rule brought in for Grand Prix lanes, what you actually got was closer to 2:1 so they could be on the safe side.

willey.

 

[MinusZero]

I think realistically, great bowlers (200+ average) are a minority. Changing the balls may impede future bowlers what want to be better from becoming better.

Eg: My centre, we have not had a 300 game, and we only have about 5-10 who are over 175 averages and none over 200.

I think the change that should be made (if needed) should be to the lane oil. They need to stop dumping a pool of oil in the middle of the lanes, which in my opinion is what helps and iffy shot hold its line and stay in the pocket. My centre never seems to have the same oil from day to day. sometimes oily, sometimes a little dryer.

I am only guessing and have no proof, but i feel that city lanes swim in oil to make bowling easier and to entice bowlers from other centres in the city to come and score higher elsewhere.

Before people jump down my throat about this. Its just an opinion and just what i think from my experiences from bowling in the city.

 

[boybrowny]

I think realistically, great bowlers (200+ average) are a minority

Minus Zero.

That may be true in your world - but trust me, out in the bowling world there are countless bowlers who average over 200. You may not encounter them where you are, but throw in a prestegous tournament or tournament series together and PRESTO - out of the woodwork they come!

I have been to many a tournament - both domestic and international - where I have seen literally hundreds of 200 average bowlers turn up.

This is the market they are targeting - people who purchase a lot of bowling balls to get the competetive edge.

So I can see how this may not effect you at the moment, if you aspire to become a 200+ average bowler yourself - you may get to see it from the other side as well - when you compete against an entire tournament - 3 or more squads cutting to the top 12 or 16 for matchplay.
It's then that you need current equipment to keep up.

I can't help but wonder about another comment above - regarding how oiling has gone conservative - closer to a 2 -1 ratio than 3 - 1.

Do bowling manufacturers have to be CONSERVATIVE ? I thought (and I may be wrong - why I am asking) - ball manufacture was pretty much an exact science. I would expect that if they wanted to manufacture a ball that went right to the 'nth' degree manufacturing a ball with a certain rg dif. then they could do it... Is that right or wrong ???


Cheers !

 

[willey]

Boybrownie, consider this, when they started to make the 2 part balls (Hammer) the pins were close to the C.G. After a few years people were looking for balls with the pins further away,( these were actually mistakes on the manufacturers part), because they thought they had an extra something in them. The manufacturers got on to this because this is what sold and started to make pin-out balls on purpose. Nobody knew early on what the advantage was with a pin-out ball, till they discovered they got more track flare with them.

Now if these mistakes were made than than obviously they can't be 100% sure others are'nt made. I have just recently read in a recent edition of the Bowlers Journal that the price of Bowling Balls is about to increase dramatically because of the high price of Oil, so I would say that the Ball Company's don't need to make too many mistakes as thier profit margin would be greatly reduced, you have to consider that there is a lot of competition in the ball markets and there is no surety that your brand has a guaranteed sale, overall there are not a lot of Balls sold. So I would say they would stay on the safe side, time will tell.

willey.

 

[RobbieB]

Willey,
All the mfs will do is hand pick the batch they send to USBC or whatever current string of letters in in charge to make sure they pass.
Considering that the people in charge don't even check the hardness of balls for honor scores now, do you seriously thing ANYone is going to measure Rg diff on an ongoing basis?

 

[willey]

Robbie, they will probably send the Do-Do's out here, we used to get a lot of seconds in this country.

If I remember rightly, they talked about high topweighted balls for years in the USA, we never got anything more than 2-3 oz of top weight, that was until Chris Batson brought in the Brunswick Lane Grabber with 4 oz of top weight. This was so it would hook more.

Just 2years ago one of the Newcastle juniors had one of his balls checked for legality in the President Shield, they found one of his balls too big, so he could'nt use it. The thing is they don't even check for size on the Pro Tour. So if they send out the seconds here than they will probably be checked when they run President Shield, so I could see bad things happening.

Some of the seconds that stood out were the one's with the Kangaroo engraved that were Columbia 300's, Impacts that were Ebonite seconds, these things were usually a little smaller than standard and came in odd weights like just under 14lb or just under 13lb etc.

willey.

 

[01kay]

Actually your right, Australia can get some duds, like a Vortex with a .3 inch pin at Woodville...

Post Script - Correction: "Like that melted Vortex with a .3 inch pin"

 

[androooo]

Just 2years ago one of the Newcastle juniors had one of his balls checked for legality in the President Shield, they found one of his balls too big, so he could'nt use it. The thing is they don't even check for size on the Pro Tour. So if they send out the seconds here than they will probably be checked when they run President Shield, so I could see bad things happening.

Funny you should mention that.

A couple of balls I drilled for a junior who bowled that year were deemed too big. I know one of them was a Storm Shock Trauma.

EVERY single Storm ball that has been measured in this state, which you can imagine is a lot, will not fit through the rings. I had an Erase-It that had been resurfaced so much that I had to re-engrave the serial no. back on and it was still too big.

Maybe this is why Storm balls are so popular.... You can cheat using bigger balls. :wink:

 

[granat]

Hmmm...

At De Veer a couple of years ago I had an Eraser Blaze that wouldn't fit through the rings.
The guy in the ProShop had to sand it back until the serial number was almost gone before it would fit through

Graeme

 

[Rig]

It could also be that the ring they are using is a touch too small??

 

[androooo]

Surely not if you tried several sets of rings.

 

[granat]

Yeah, I don't imagine the rings used at Werribee would have been the same ones that Androooo used

 

[jason_doust]

Reality is this is not much more than smoke and mirrors. with a very few exceptions, (many Lane#1 and a couple of Ebonite releases) there are no balls with Rg differentials of 0.060 anyway.
The ball manufactureres are not going to allow the USBC to make any changes that they don't want made anyway. The manufacturers own the sport and they decide what equipment specs are made legislation and what aren't.
This new ruling will have such an insignificant effect on the scoring environment, it is really not worth the paper it is written on. Now if they legislated to reduce the aggression of particle coverstocks or to remove the voids in the bellies of pins, then we might see some REAL effect on teh scoring environment. TBA has made more strides in this area with its Lane Conditioning Policy than this poor effort by the USBC.
The manufacturers have too much money and time invested in bowling ball and pin technology to allow the USBC or any other governing body to legislate realistic limits.

Here, here Brenton!
If anyone feels that the balls don't make a big difference, then wake up and smell the burning lane surfaces. Todays balls have so much friction that new oils and oiling machines had to be invented to stop/slow them destroying the lanes! Changing diffRG is a start, but surface is the key. PBA legend Brian Voss recently looked straight into the camera on a telecast and said "BAN SANDED BOWLING BALLS." Have a walk down your technicians path (with permission, of course) and have a look at how the oil is stripped in a couple of games from a fresh pattern today. Within minutes, the lane is changing! Owners have had to go to synthetics, as urethane surfaces just got toasted, so they are in no position but to put a big puddle of oil - I'll say it - BLOCK THE LANES, which results in inflated averages. The big puddle is lane defence against the equipment. Bowling lanes are very, very expensive. If I owned 32 of them, I'd protect them too!

The real solution to the ball problem is surface. Too much friction makes too much carry. Big diffRG numbers just mean more angle/snap and more designer leaves. It's a furphy.
Jason Doust

 

[tonx]

wow, way to bring back a topic thats over 12mths old!

LOL

Id be happy to ban sanded bowling balls no problems whatsoever, however it would give someone another excuse to whine about the sport. It would also give a clear advantage to those that are able to impart enough revolutions onto a ball to create enough friction on fresher/heavier oil.

FWIW, the USBC has newly incorporated a ruling that uses a new surface hardness testing method. The ruling controls the hardness of the particles lodged in many coverstocks nowadays.

Interesting to see where this old topic leads to now.