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Reading A Bowling Ball Box Label And What Does It Mean For Your Bowling Ball Arsenal
BY KENDLE MILES
One of the most exciting times as a bowler has come. It’s time to drill a brand-new Storm bowling ball! There’s no better feeling than walking into your pro shop to drill a new piece of equipment. The importance of choosing the right drilling is key to get the full potential of that ball. Many resources can be used to help map out the correct layout. There’s one piece of information that many bowlers overlook when researching information on their new ball. That is, of course, the label on the bowling ball box. In this article, we’ll discuss each detail on the label and how this information can help decide the correct layout.
At the top of the label, you will find the name of the ball. For this example, we featured the Storm Incite. Just under the ball number, you will find the logo image engraved on the ball. Depending on the color scheme and the name of each color of the ball, you will find the color pallet as the backdrop of the logo image. This will then be followed by something that separates Storm from other ball manufacture brands, and that is going to be the fragrance name feature on that Storm ball. The Incite features a Cherry Vanilla as the scent.
Diving into the information and specs of the ball, we are first going to give attention to the gross weight. This displays the overall weight of the undrilled ball. Just under the gross weight, you’ll find an image of the ball’s core. Top weight is a term used to refer to the weight difference measured from the top half of a bowling ball compared to the bottom half of the ball. The pin distance refers to the distance between the colored pin and the CG (center of gravity) marking on the ball. In this case, the Incite has a top weight of 2.50oz and a pin distance of 2.5-3-inches. This is valuable information when deciding the layout of the ball.
Continuing down the label, we’ll find the coverstock and ball finish. For this example, the coverstock on the Storm Incite is R4S™ Hybrid Reactive finished at 3000-grit Abralon. This coverstock is wrapped around the new asymmetric Tensor™ Core. This information is followed by the RG (radius of gyration) and differential of the ball. The Incite’s RG and differential is 2.50 and 0.053 respectively in 15lbs. The next question is, what is does RG and differential mean, and how does it affect your ball reaction? Simply put, the higher the RG, the later the ball is going to hook, or transition and the lower the RG the earlier the ball is going to hook. The overall differential will affect how much the ball will hook. The higher the differential, the more the ball is going to hook.
Now we’re going to breakdown the meaning of the serial number on the ball. The first two digits represent the year the ball was manufactured followed by the three letters of the SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) of the ball. This is the individual SKU for this ball and we can track this ball in our inventory. The next character is the letter for the month. “A” represents January, “B” is February, “C” is March, and so on. The next two characters will identify the day of the month, followed by the letter representation of the engraver it was engraved on, and the final three numbers represent the ball number that came from that engraver for the day. Finally, the very bottom of the label features the barcode, website, and the ball’s full SKU as the last part of the label.
Getting a new ball will always exude confidence and excitement for every bowler. With all the excitement, the question still stands: “How should I drill this ball?” Always keep in mind there’s plenty of useful material about your new ball on the box label. Before you toss that box away, be sure to utilize all the valuable information you can about your new ball.
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