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Is there anyway to know when my son should move up in ball weight?
I don't want him to hurt himself by moving to a ball that is to heavy..

A basic guideline is: "For every ten pounds of body weight, one pound of ball."
Keeping that in mind, let's expand --
1) Bowling balls are manufactured in weights from 6 pounds to a maximum of 16 pounds.
2) Physical strength and health also play a part in the ball weight - smaller person might use a lighter ball, larger persons may be able to easily use a heavier ball. The basic guideline is a starting point only.

Here's a decent test:
1) Have your son stand straight up with the elbow of his throwing arm tucked tightly along the side of his body.
2) Keeping his elbow tucked to the side, bring his forearm up parallel to the ground with his palm facing up.
3) When you place the ball on his palm, he should be able to support the weight without straining.

I''l have him try that next time I see him..

Let me know how it goes. BTW, one last thing, the reason for the physical test is that in many cases, children really do not know their own strength in that if they feel "macho," they may say the ball feels light when in fact, it is too heavy.

I will post and let you know how we get on...

Hey Mikie:
Even though I am of Okinawan (Japanese) descent, I was born and raised in Hawaii; yet, named after (depending on my father's story or my mother's story), "The Falls of Clyde" which sits as a tourist display in Honolulu or Clyde Beatty, a famous lion/tiger tamer of the '40's, 50's, and '60's because he made so many visits to Hawaii with the Ringling Bros circus.

Okay back to a position I can post once again RL has been very busy with holidays and such.

Anyway he got his new ball and has had it drilled and fitted for fingertip grip, I had one done the same and now have to try and get some advice on how to bowl with it to make sure we are doing it properly. Feels very different to bowling with a spare ball that's for sure.

He has gotten a 13lb ball only a pound lighter than the ball I'm using I could and probably should move to a 15lb ball but I don't see the need if I feel comfortable with 14lb ball.

Any advice for bowling with the fingertip grip??

regards
Mikie.

Hi Mikie: Good to hear from you again!

As with anything else, it will take practice and getting used to the feel of the grip.
1) Your ball will hook more than a conventional grip.
2) Releasing the ball properly, you will feel the "burn" right on the insides of the
finger tips until some calluses develop.
3) Allow for more of the hook by adjusting your targets more to the right; or,
moving yourself left on the approach.
4) The pins will seem to have more action when you hit them since you will
have more back end power as the ball hits them.

When I used to bowl 20 and 30 games a day and got my first fingertip grip,
I developed "blood blisters" on the insides of my fingers and couldn't bowl
for several weeks until they dried up so be careful not to over do it at the
beginning.

That's it for starters.

Oh not going to much at the moment, and yes I understand what you mean by the burn I felt that the first time I used my fingertip ball. Certainly feels different when bowling, have made some adjustments to my bowling approach to suit, worst thing is that one of our local bowling centres has just shut down and we have started using the other one and they have no slide on the approach.

Wow, we have several centers that are like that. Even "Easy Slide" doesn't help much. We have to slow way down and walk flat-footed on the approach. Tough conditions. With them getting all the business now, perhaps the group of you can get together and try to get them to work pro-actively with you?

Good Luck,