Benefits of Bowling Accessories to Help Your Game
There are many bowling accessories out there to assist you in your bowling game. A lot of these accessories can be use together or on an as needed basis. I will explain few of these accessories in hopes that it may benefit you:
1. Bowling Glove - A bowling glove is like any other type of glove except the thumb, index and ring finger are open and it is a thin glove kind of like a racket ball glove. Bowling gloves are made of number of manufacturers like Ebonite. A bowling glove is one of many bowling accessories that bowlers use to help achieve better consistency in their game. There are many benefits of using a bowling glove when bowling. A bowling glove can help you with a better grip on the bowling ball. Many gloves have a sought of stickiness in the palm area along with the fingers. This allows you to maintain a very relaxed but firm thumb and wrist and makes it easier to keep the ball resting on the palm of your have and keeps the fingers in position. This allows you to release the ball more consistently. For those who have a thin skinned hand, a bowling glove can also act as more padding thus giving you a better feel for the bowling ball. A bowling glove also acts as a mediatory between your hand and the ball. It can help to prevent calluses from forming as a result of the friction between the bowling ball and hand. It helps to stabilize the ball better from slipping as a result of sweat or oil that forms on the ball and eventually on the hand.
2. Bowling Towel/Cleaner - This is one of the most important accessories that you can have as a bowler. As you are throwing the ball down the lane, the ball constantly is picking up lane oil from the lane. This lane oil gets into the pores of the bowling ball and can cause a number of issues. The first issue is that the ball may start reacting differently because of the oil that got soaked up on it. Secondly, the oil that is absorbed by the ball can also get on your hand causing you to have an inconsistent grip. This can cause inconsistency problems by the bowler. It is always good to have a good bowling towel and some bowling cleaner on hand when bowling. This helps to maintain the best reaction from the bowling ball keeps your hand grip consistent and keeps things clean.
3. Rosin Bag – As you are bowling throughout the night, your hand may start to get sweaty. This is from the natural rubbing from the ball onto the thumb. When you start to sweat, you will have a greater tendency to slip in the bowling ball. You can use the rosin bag and tap the thumb hole with it to help achieve a better grip (less slippery). It’s like sanding a road after an ice storm. It give you a better control without the thought of dropping the ball thus causing you to squeeze it with your hand causing a bad shot.
4. NuSkin – If you haven’t bowled in a while or you bowled and all of a sudden you find yourself with a blister from bowling. Well NuSkin is a product that will allow you to put a covering over that blister to help relieve the pain of continuing to bowl with a blister. Initially it is painful to put it over a blister but once applied, it can greatly help you get through the night in bowling. You can also use NuSkin as preventative maintenance so you don’t get a blister in the first place especially if you haven’t bowled in a while or you are just getting back into it. This is until your thumb becomes “numb” or accustomed to the friction caused from the thumb hole and your thumb. This is even after you have properly fitted ball. Even the pro’s use this product because of all the bowling that they use and the blisters that they get from all the games on a daily basis.
5. Bevel Knife – When you get a new ball drilled by a professional, it should fit your have nicely and comfortably. Now when you go to bowl, especially if you are getting back into the game, what may tend to happen during the course of the night is that your thumb may swell from the natural use of your hand when bowling. When you thumb swells, it no longer feels good in the bowling ball; it almost feels like it does not fit anymore. Here is where a bevel knife comes in. A bevel knife with a little practice can allow you to open up the thumb hole a bit to adjust for the selling of your hand. This is good especially if you do not have access to a Bowling Pro Shop during this league time. It is good to keep one on hand to help in these situations. You thumb and hand can also swell as a result of hot temperatures.
6. Bowler’s Tape – The final accessory I want to discuss is bowler’s tape. Now we previously discussed that when you hand swells, you may need to make the thumb hole bigger to adjust for this common anomaly. Well, what happens when that swelling goes down and now your thumb-hole feel bigger than it should. Bowling with a bigger thumb hole can cause you to squeeze the ball in your release and this can cause issues like inconstant shots and also can cause blisters. It is important to keep you thumb in straight but controlled position with very little tension and to achieve a nice clean release. When the thumb hole is bigger than your thumb a good way to compensate for this is to use thumb tape. There are different types of tape, white tape is coarser than black. I suggest experimenting with a few different types until you find the tape that best suits you. What you want to do is add several pieces of tape until your thumb is comfortably snug. If you find yourself adding 5-8 pieces of tape then you may need to get the thumb re-adjusted unless your hand does fluctuate in swelling greatly. Generally 1-4 pieces of tape are good depending on the swelling level. It is important to realize when this is happening and add one piece or 1/2 piece of tape at a time. Having bowler’s tape on hand is a very important accessory!
Here is another article for Tips on Perfecting a Good Bowling Release which goes into more detail about bowlers tape and the release itself. It is important to achieve a very consistent and effective bowling game and these accessories can greatly aid in accomplishing that. Good Luck!
