Does Wiping Off Your Bowling Ball Matter For Performance?

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13 Comments on “Does Wiping Off Your Bowling Ball Matter For Performance?”

  1. Wiping the ball off works if if you are throwing shot after shot but in leagues you roll your ball and if you strike you go and sit and wait till your up again and by the time your up again the oil has absorbed in to the ball

    1. This. I usually only wipe now in 10th frames. Noticed nearly no difference. Bowled 264 last week and didn’t even wipe off the entire game.

  2. There’s another respectable you tuber that mentioned while it’s good practice to always wipe the ball off, he was concerned that always wiping the ball off that the oil was being wiped and smeared into the pores of the ball affecting his game that way. So I’m little confused as to what to believe. Both thoughts seem to make sense to me.

    1. What about the dirt? It’s obvious that there’s a fair amount of dirt left on the ball. Is that good for the ball as well?

  3. I find wiping the dirt off works good for keeping my surface from changing too fast before needing a touch up. But if there is a small bit of oil, I leave it, if there is alot I wipe it off.

  4. Note: Wiping off a dull sanded ball with a leather shammy, works great. Using it on a shiny 4k grit or polished 4k-5k ball . . . the leather grips too good and makes it a pita. IMHO! I use a microfiber cloth to wipe my shiny balls, leather shammy on dull/sanded balls!

  5. Ronald I have to respectfully agree to disagree. I have changed in the last 2 years to not wiping my ball off each time, or even each game, and my scores have gone up and I am rolling more consistently. I dont have the money or resources to prove it, but it is my belief that having that oil on the ball allows it to transition better as the lanes transition. Great example, last week I bowled a tournament, took 8 or 10 balls with me and threw nothing but my proton physix and my spare ball all 4 games averaging about 227. I did not wipe off my ball once. I cannot always make that work for that ball but I noticed this working in league play on a modified house shot time and time again with whatever ball i choose to throw. Can you explain this? Oh, I almost forgot, my avg has increased 25+ pins since using this method. Help me understand why?

  6. It seams like you may need 2 towels. One for giving it a clean after the ball has been sitting a while and all the oil has been soaked into the cover, and the other for wiping the oil off for when the ball is fresh from the return. It’s also important to keep your towels clean too, no need to wipe previously wiped oil onto a fresh ball!

    1. @Ronald Hickland Jr I’m going to try that next league night! Your TruCut pad will work well for that! (Clean on one side, remove oil on the other)

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