Expert: - 7/23/2009

Question
I'm left-handed and looking to buy a new ball over the Internet.  When requesting top weight and pin placement, are they different for lefties and righties or are they universal measurements for all bowlers?

Answer
Rich,
Why buy on the net? It sounds like you don't know much about the product? Why buy blind?

Top weight and pin placements vary with almost every ball, but a CG (center of gravity) swung one way or the other (from the line between pin and mass bias) could cause a problem (more difficulty) depending on the a player being left handed or right handed, when drilling it.

Web stores aren't invested in you as a player, or interested in your being better equipped. Just selling you something, anything.

Hopefully, whoever you will have drill the ball, knows a little about them. The fitter/driller could influence the effect you enjoy (or hate) DRAMATICALLY. Why not benefit from the person drilling the ball, and hold them to provide what you need from the new ball. If you don't buy it from them, in my experience, some shop operators use the excuse "you didn't get it from me" (the idea being, you get punished for buying the cheap alternative to what a shop sells).

Buy from a store, they are invested in your success.

Bowling equipment is purchased by websites from distributors, just like pro shops and bowling centers buy the stuff. Websites are commodity brokers, so some incorporate various quality levels to keep their costs down/profits up. You might end up with a first quality ball, or a blemish/color defect/second. A second barely qualifies under product standards, but is sold to internet buyers because you don't see it until you've paid for it, and it shows up days later. Many sites depend on people not wanting to deal with the hassle of returning a ball to sell seconds. So buyer beware. If only 10% of products sold are seconds, but the profits from each is 10x a first quality ball, selling seconds helps sites be competitive.

The less you know about bowling balls and what they do, the more you need to pay a shop to help put you into the right ball and right ball reaction. Just FYI.

Thanks for the questions. Good luck.