Fortunately, I have not had to wear rental shoes in a long, long time. My dad had a set of bowling shoes he picked up when he was in the Air Force and they had an alley on base. Since he was the same shoe size as I am, I was able to use his shoes the few times I bowled as he had not worn them in many years and they were in great condition.

Of course, my brother in law bought a pair of rental shoes from an alley and wears them around as normal shoes just to be different.

Welcome to the site. Your own shoes and balls are a staples if you want to be "serious" bowler. Granted my dad threw a 628 last night with his Columbia Blue Dot on medium oil. Just thought I'd throw that in there to demonstrate that if you have good mechanics you don't necessarly need the reactive balls, although they do help out a tremendous bunch (combined with good fundamental you could be a demon at this game).

Me pesonally, I do better when I'm a recreational bowler when I'm not on the lanes aka somewhat of a fun-loving goofball. But as soon as it's my turn the serious bowler comes out and everything else kind of gets drowned out. Anyways welcome to the site. Don't be afraid to ask about anything each of use at least knows a little bit about a lot of things.

What is the difference between the Columbia Blue Dot and Columbia White Dot other than price and colors? They sound very similar in description and, so far, I have been unable to figure out the price difference or performance differences from what I have read.

Demoman, I think I will keep your personal self assessment. Never know when I could use it again. It may come in handy. Kind of self incriminating. JK LOL

I've been trying to figure out the same thing as well Open Frame. I think maybe the coverstock of one is a bit harder which means even less grip.

OK, another nube question. In my research, it was quite a shock to me to find out about lane oil and oil patterns. I never knew such things existed. Also, from what I have read, plasic balls are supposed to be next to impossible to hook, but when I was on the lanes this past week I was getting some hook action (nothing spectacular, but I did have to adjust for it) from the house ball. I know there was oil on the lane from the oil ring on the ball, but I was not expected any movement from a house ball. Would that reaction be caused by a relatively dry lane condition or is there something else at play there?

The "plastic can't hook" dogma is repeated over and over again but as you've seen with your own eyes, it's not really true. A more accurate statement would be "For a given set of conditions, plastic will tend to hook less." This is not necessarily a bad thing! I'm of the opinion that learning how to bowl with plastic will be more helpful to your development than buying a "hook in a box" at the get-go. Plastic demands greater accuracy and hand control, even on an "easy" house shot. If you get good with plastic, then you'll know you're really good.

Note that plastic balls can be sanded if you need a bit more grip on the lane.

The Blue Dot is supposed to be a bit harder than a White Dot. It's also a bit cooler-looking, in my opinion. But I think a White Dot would be a great "first ball" for just about anyone. It's inexpensive, durable and would continue to be useful to you as a "spare ball" or "dry lane ball" even after you branch out into more aggressive ball types such as urethane.

These are just the opinions of a guy who was in your situation only a few months ago...

I would say the lane was probably drying out. I went out last night and my black widow ball was hooking too much for me to be able to control, so about half way through my second game I switched to my plastic ball. My plastic ball was hooking just as much as what my black widow normally does. I have never seen the lanes that dry there.

Thank you for such quick responses.

I was kind of figuring the lane was drying out, but with little to no experience I had nothing to base it on.

Yeah, I think plastic is the way to go for a while. I was initially thinking about going with a lower end reactive like teh Power Groove Reactive, but I think plastic will do just fine until I figure out what my bowling style truly is and if I am going to play enough to consider additional investment.

I am reading through a couple of books and I think they refer to the bowler Walter Ray Williams as a straight bowler or if I can recall the term correctly, an overspin bowler? I have watched a few YouTube videos and his ball seems to hook a bit. Is it that he just hooks it less than other bowlers or is there something else that he is doing?

I agree that the terminology people use can be pretty confusing. I believe many refer to WRW as a "straight" bowler because he delivers the ball fairly straight up right-side boards. (The hook happens at the back part of the lane). Compare this to the "big hook" or parabolic ball path used by many these days.

Look at some 1960s-era matches on Youtube to see some real straight bowlers who make WRW look like a hook monster.