Expert: Chip Aki - 12/7/2008

Question
QUESTION: Does the temperature of your bowling ball matter ?


ANSWER: In terms of reaction, warm will make the coverstock softer and grab the lane more.  Tournaments will check hardness of the ball so there is a minimum it can be for use.  Cold will make the coverstock harder and will grab the lane less.  Any advantage of the temperature of the ball would be shortlived as the ball returns to room temperature.

Extreme temps, hot or cold, can lead to ball damage.  That is especially true if the ball goes through those temps in a short period of time............as in keeping the ball in the trunk on a cold day and bringing it and using it right away.

Chip

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the quick reply. I guess your answer would lead me to another question or two.
One would be asking for a guess I would suppose I wouldnt think there could be an exact here. How long would you think it takes a ball to get from very cold to room temp. I would think without throwing it and getting friction to help it may take a while. Even throwing it may not help all that much. You may get the cover warm but what about inside. Which I would think if the inside were not warmed up as well one could be asking for a ball to crack on impact.
The second would be to ask if a ball cracking was the type of damage you were refering to or is there other types of damage that can occur from a ball being to cold.
Thanks again

Answer
Cracking is the worst case scenario.  Even when the ball starts to warm up, the different parts of the ball have different warm up times.  Plus, when the coverstock is cold, it is more brittle.

I have never tested to see how long it takes the ball to warm up, but I would bet it is slow.

One other thing that temp changes can do is cause discoloration.  That would not be a performance issue though.

Chip