Building a Better Bowling Bag

A little while ago, I published a pair of articles that compared bowling balls to tools, with advice on how to build your toolshed (your entire collection) and your toolbox (equipment chosen for specific events).

With so much equipment to choose from and a constant cycle of bowling balls being discontinued and new ones released, it can feel a little daunting to buy a bowling ball. With that in mind, I’ll also share a few practical tips to help bowlers narrow things down and make their choices with confidence.

There are also a few pitfalls that many bowlers fall into, so I’ll start by going through some of the common mistakes that I see bowlers make when buying bowling balls.

Paying too much attention to the numbers

One common mistake is focusing too much on the numbers. By no means am I suggesting that the specifics of core design are unimportant—there is indeed a quantifiable difference in ball reaction between a low RG and a high RG bowling ball, or between a high differential and a low differential ball.

That being said, some bowlers spend way too much time overthinking about the numbers on a potential ball that they are going to choose. For one, the numbers given ...