On the Shelf.....

When I pulled this ball out of the bag, the first thing someone said was, "I like the look of that ball, what is that?" Now in my eyes that’s a good sign. The color scheme reminds me of Superman ice cream. Here comes the Heat of the summer.

On the lanes.....

Just like the Hy-brid version of this ball, the Tropical Heat looks to be a really strong addition to the ‘entry level’ reactive price point. Recreational or New Bowlers will have a really good ball to start their bowling careers. Your average bowlers will have a great ball for most house conditions, and the Tournament player or weekend warrior, will have a ball for most challenge/sport patterns that are shorter in length or volume. Crankers will have a ball if they want to play the bumper on the Typical House shot. Tweeners will be able to have a go to ball when the lanes are starting to dry up a bit but really don’t feel like moving inside to much. Strokers will need this ball when they’re looking at their third game, wondering how to stay where they’re comfortable with a piece that has length and some "pop" at the backend.

Color: Red/Blue
Stock: Reactor Pearl Reactive
Weight Block: Turbine
RG: 2.55
Differential: .038

Review Ball 15 lbs.
Layout: Pin 4.5" X 40 degrees pin above ring finger

GLC's "Out of 5 Stars" Ratings......

Length: 4.25  Back End 4.75  Shelf Appeal 4.75

Bowling has been around for hundred’s, some even say thousand’s of years. There were articles of Egyptian carvings found with a sport very similar to bowling. Times have changed and there is so much new technology in the great sport of bowling. Think back to the days were there were pin boys. These were people who would sit behind the bowling lanes and set pins up. My uncle was one. From there we can consider the evolution of automatic machines. From the days of actually keeping score by hand, to now with all the computers that do it for you, heck they even have some computers that have coaching assistants to show you how you should stand and move to make the spare. The sport of bowling has evolved so much. Bowling balls have evolved too.  Have they evolved so much that the bowler can’t tell the difference? In this week’s article I will talk about some of the bowling equipment in the game and help you identify some of the differences in the cores of a bowling ball.  More...

GLC’s “Out of 5 Stars” Rating…

Appeal: 4.25 Length: 4.0 Back End: 4.0

All balls were equipped with Turbo Insert products including the #1 selling interchangeable thumb insert, Switch Grip. For details on their premium line of insert products and accessories, visit http://www.turbogrips.com/

GLC’s “Out of 5 Stars” Rating…

Appeal: 2.50 Length: 3.00 Back End: 3.75

All balls were equipped with Turbo Insert products including the #1 selling interchangeable thumb insert, Switch Grip. For details on their premium line of insert products and accessories, visit www.turbogrips.com

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Welcome to 2010 and most of you are about half way through your league season. Some of you might be bowling well this season, and some may not be. Most of you might be getting ready to start your Local City or State tournaments. So are you prepared for the tournament season? Do you think you have the right bowling balls to compete at the higher level for the tournaments? This week I would like to talk about some drilling layouts and bowling ball surfaces that you may want to have in your bag this tournament season. I will explain the different drilling techniques and surface preparations so you can better understand your equipment and have the right tools to excel on the conditions you might face.

Bowling tournaments can be a very fun time. It could also be a time where you struggle to bowl well. Having the right drilling layouts and ball surfaces will help you achieve greater success on the lanes. I am not saying that you will bowl better with the advice I give you here, remember equipment is a big factor to scoring, but it ultimately comes down to the bowler themselves. I can give you the advice, but you, the bowler, have to be able to execute your shot.

The first step I want to talk about is your bowling ball surface. You can not go into any tournament setting and have the same surfaces on every bowling ball you own and expect to have the right tools. It’s kind of like going to the golf course with a bag full of 9 irons. It’s much more difficult to make par 5’s with just 9 irons. So the first thing you should do is actually look at your equipment and have at least one bowling ball sanded to 500 grit or 1000 grit finish. These are for when you encounter a heavier oil condition. The duller the surface, the more friction you will have on those heavier oil patterns. Then next bowling ball should have anywhere from a 2000 to 4000 grit finish. These will be a little less aggressive then your lower grits, helping your bowling ball travel further on the lane surface before it begins to hook. These surfaces will be most effective on the medium oil conditions. Last, you should have at least one polished bowling ball in your bag. Having a bowling ball that is polished will have even less friction in the oil and front part of the lane surface.

Now how do you know which one of these to use? I will give you a very simple tip. Watch what your ball is doing. If your bowling ball is traveling to far down the lane then guess what, the bowling ball is telling you that for this pattern you don’t have the right ball . Go to my brother the duller surface ball. Sometimes I hear voices in my head haha. So if your bowling ball tells you to use another then now at least having these couple tips about surface will help you make the better decision.

Now on to the next part, about drilling layouts, you will need to have a couple different layouts in your bowling bag as well. The first one I would like to talk about is a drilling that will help you when you encounter heavier patterns. You should have a bowling ball in you bag that has a drilling layout where your locator pin (that’s the colored dot on the bowling ball) is placed even with or below your finger gripping holes. Having locator pins lower will help the bowling ball start to rev up faster on the lane thereby creating less length and a smoother back end reaction. If you have trouble understanding that part, let’s think of the lane conditions. If you have a heavier or longer oil pattern, the lane oil will make the bowling ball travel further down the lane. So just keeping it simple, if you use a bowling ball that is drilled to go long and you are bowling on heavier oil, which will make the ball go longer, what are your chances of having that bowling ball hit the pocket on a consistent basis? Not a good chance. You may be able to hit it a couple times, but if you miss a little bit from your target then you will not be happy. So my suggestion is to use pin down bowling ball when encountering heavier patterns.

When you encounter less oil then you would want to use drilling layouts that have the pins higher above your finger gripping holes. Having locator pins higher will create longer bowling ball motion down the lane. These will work best when you start to see your bowling ball hook to soon. Now I could get into a deeper conversation about Mass Bias or PSA placements, along with locator pin distances from you positive axis point, but that will be a very lengthy article. I will save that for another time.

So let’s recap this weeks article, You need bowling balls in your bag with different sanded or polished surfaces, and locator pins below or above your finger gripping holes to be able to attack different lane patterns. Having these tools in your bag and properly drilled will help you achieve greater success on the lane conditions of today’s sport. Remember, you have to observe and define what your bowling ball is doing on the lanes and be able to take that knowledge and turn it into something great. Until next week, have fun, bowl well, execute shots and let’s say it again: Have fun.

T.J. Yeip is the Manager of GLC Bowling and the Lead Technical Advisor. He is an IBPSIA Advanced Certified Member and former PBA member. You can email your questions to him personally at thomas.yeip@glcbowling.com

 By Tom Smallwood....Columbia 300 Staff Player, PBA Titlist

GLC’s “Out of 5 Stars” Rating…

Appeal: 4.00 Length:4.25 Back End: 4.75

All balls were equipped with Turbo Insert products including the #1 selling interchangeable thumb insert, Switch Grip. For details on their premium line of insert products and accessories, visit www.turbogrips.com

How many of you remember that famous A.I. saying about practice. Well we all need to practice. Sure, some of you are content with your bowling game just the way it is. I am not one of those people. Everyone has room for improvement. Maybe it is a release or timing issue. Maybe you got a new ball for the holidays and you need to learn what it does, or heck dare I say it, practicing your spare shooting. But what and how do you practice? This week I would like to cover a couple things to work on, and also let you know why I go out and practice. 

Well everyone has their own reasons as to why they practice. Some bowlers want to improve their consistency. Some bowlers want to practice spare shots, and some go out to practice because they need to work on one particular piece of there game. Heck here’s a novel idea; some people want to practice because they want to get better!! Anyway you slice it bowlers are not satisfied unless we are doing good. Let me tell you why I went to practice this week.  Last week I was bowling in my Tuesday All Star league. I had a relatively good look on the lanes. Let’s keep it that way. First game I came out and went strike, spares, next ten strikes and finally left a solid 8 pin for a 279. Second game got a little better started out with the first 7 seven strikes in a row, then something happened. I left 3 consecutive 7 pins and I missed them all!!! Yes, yes, all the talk about spare shooting here all these weeks and I miss the first 3 seven pins I face. Can we just say I started to become a little annoyed? Well the last game was not a good one.  I had an absolute great chance for attempting to roll an 800 series and I threw that away. I lost my focus and couldn’t get it back in the last game. I ended up missing another 7 pin attempt and finished the game with a 187. So what did I do this past week? You guessed it. I practiced for about 35 minutes at shooting nothing but 7 pins!!! This is just one of many scenarios that can happen to a bowler and what you do to correct it is up to you. So if you feel like something just isn’t right with your bowling game, you go and PRACTICE to figure it out.  

One tip when going to practice is to work on one thing that is causing an issue. As I did above, I had no issues with rolling strikes that week my issue was making 7 pins. That’s what I went out to practice. If you feel that you have some sort of timing issue, then you go out and practice on timing. One of the most important things to remember when you practice is do not look at your scores. Last time I checked, scores in practice do not count for anything. But what happens when you are having issues and you can’t seem to figure out how to correct them. That’s when you do what sports teams do, and that is go to the coach. You need to find a coach in your area that is a certified USBC coach to help you. If you are in the Detroit Metro Area then you may want to come into the new Bowling IQ training facility located inside DiLaura Brothers LLC. They have 8 brand new lanes, 4 AMF and 4 Brunswick lane surfaces. So if you bowl on either one, you can have a similar practice shot from your local bowling center.  

So let’s recap from this week, when you go out to work on your game, do not look at the score board, take time to actually think and analyze what you are there to practice on, and by all means, if you do not have a coach, then talk to your local bowling centers to find one. As always you can contact me and I can try to help you out the best that I can. I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday season.  I will be back next week to share some more about my bowling and help you out anyway possible.  

T.J. Yeip is the Manager of GLC Bowling and the Lead technical advisor. He is an IBPSIA Advanced Certified member. You can email your questions or comments to him at Thomas.yeip@glcbowling.com

This week I was reminiscing about the days back when I bowled on the PBA. Now I didn’t bowl full time like the guys you see every week, I bowled a 6 week tour swing, back when I was living on the west coast in sunny California. I was taken back to those days realizing just how cold it is here in the great state of Michigan. I think last night it was down to 10 degrees!!!  Again I ask myself, why did I move back?  But everything does happen for a reason and this is where I am supposed to be I guess.  Well I was thinking about writing this week about the first tour event where I made a paycheck.  I would like to take you on my personal journey when this all happened. Have fun, sit back, relax and read.  

It was January in the year 2003. At the time I was working for AMF as a pro shop Manger and West coast Technical advisor for the AMF owned pro shops. I was on PBA staff with Ebonite at the time. Sounds kind of funny that I worked for one company and bowled for another, but that is another story. So I packed up the Suburban and headed out to Washington. That week was not a productive week, so let’s move forward to the following week. We packed the Suburban back up and headed to Medford Oregon, the home of the great Marshall Holman. We made the 7 hour drive to Medford, a tiny little town but a huge welcoming city for the Professional Bowlers. For a few minutes I felt really good. I was thinking to myself, this is great, I feel like a star. Then reality set in and it’s time to get to business. I walked into Lava Lanes in Medford and this was a brand new state of the art bowling center. The concourse was huge, plenty of room to move around. The settee area was also a great size to move bowling balls around from lane to lane. I can not forget the restaurant in the bowling center. Yes I said restaurant and not a snack bar. They had every dish was named after a famous bowler. This place really knew how to make bowlers feel important. I got a seat in the restaurant and watched some horse racing. Yea they even had off track betting. I didn’t make any wagers because I wanted to really focus on the reason I was here. That was to bowl at my best.  

After checking out the bowling center and making my way to the locker room I decided to check into my hotel and get a good nights rest.  The next day was the official practice session, so I got my equipment ready, headed out to the lanes and practiced. In practice session, you try to see what type of ball reaction you will get and how to play the lanes, but I will tell you that the practice session and the actual event, plays differently. This is a result of the oil pattern and the lane condition being cleaned off the lanes and reapplied more then once. Usually the oil is a little bit wetter and the dry usually plays a little drier. So after about an hour and a half of practice, I decided to call it an afternoon. I found great ball reactions with a couple bowling balls and felt confident for the first day of qualifying. The two bowling balls I felt the most comfortable with were the Red Predator and the V2 Pearl. Both gave me some good ball reactions. Feeling confident going into qualifying is a great feeling. If you’re unsure of things you can start to over analyze lanes and bowling equipment. You always want to keep it simple. So it was off to grab a bite to eat and relax in the hotel and watch some ESPN or whatever caught my attention on the T.V. 

Today is the day. I go in to the bowling center and get ready for roll call. The first qualifying block is 8 games long and the top 64 return the next day for another 8 games of qualifying. I started out my set with a few solid games. Popped in a couple 240’s 250’s and had a couple games left to finish qualifying. I kept looking over at the big projector wall to see the number for the cut line. I kept seeing my name in the top 64. With two games left and a lot of nerves I kept trying to keep my head in the moment. It was kind of hard because I was bowling with a few big names. To the right of me was the great Marshall Holman, which drew a huge crowd. Now to the left of me was Pete Weber. Another crowd pleaser. Oh and who was on my pair to boot, non other then the great Chris Barnes. Can I tell you that was probably the biggest crowd of people that I have ever bowled in front of.  I started out the 7^th game with a three bagger. Then came number four five and six. The crowd started to gather seeing that there was someone with a string of strikes, and that person was me. I looked back once and could not believe the amount of people cheering me on. So I proceed to put my head down and not let that bother me. So I step up in the 7^th frame and throw another strike. I started to realize that my look on the lanes was getting better every shot I threw. The 8^th frame was a little bit of a fan favorite. I got up threw the ball and left a 7 pin. But wait here comes that great bowling help called the messenger, and it toke the 7 pin out for strike number 8. The crowd erupted and I had to take a minute and play to the crowd. The 9^th frame comes up and I strike yet again. Yes folks, I have the front nine in a PBA Tour event! The tenth frame is coming. I try to stay focused and not let my outside surroundings get into my head. The tenth shot I flush for another strike. Now I am really nervous. I have thrown 300 games in the past, but never had a chance on a stage like this. So I try to calm myself down, and wait for Pete Weber to go and throw his shot. He looks at me and passes it on to me. He said, “Go ahead, this is your spotlight kid.” So I get up and I keep telling myself to not get slow. We are bowling on the Cheetah Pattern and it definitely hooks. So I let it go and trust me, I didn’t get slow with it! I heaved that ball down the lane and alas my string was over. I left a seven pin. I ended up shooting 289 and I looked over at Pete and said “Man that was my first chance at a 300 game on tour” You know he gave me some of the best advice right at that moment. He turned to me and said “You did exactly what you were supposed to do. You made a good shot and hit the pocket. You can not control the pins. Great game and move on to the next one” He’s right. You can’t control what happens once the bowling ball leaves your hand. So I moved on to the next pair.  

One game left and I am still in the cut and still kind of shaking form the last game. I started off with a wash out and then another washout. I told myself to relax and get focused. I ran off the next 9 strikes to make the cut.  

I am going to wrap this up for the week, but I wanted to take you only a small trip with me on how it was to bowl on the PBA level. Maybe one day you might be sitting in front of your computer writing stories of your experiences. I hope you enjoyed this week and as always you can email me and ask me any questions that you may have.

Until next week, Happy Holidays and hope you get everything you wanted for Christmas. 

T.J. Yeip is the Manager of GLC Bowling and Lead Technical Advisor. You can email him directly at Thomas.Yeip@glcbowling.com

GLC’s “Out of 5 Stars” Rating…

Appeal: 4.25 Length: 3.75 Back End: 4.25

All balls were equipped with Turbo Insert products including the #1 selling interchangeable thumb insert, Switch Grip. For details on their premium line of insert products and accessories, visit www.turbogrips.com