Brunswick Bowling has been around since the beginning of the sport, and as a result this manufacturer’s offerings are some of the best and most varied around, regardless of your skill, ability and play level. Brunswick packs the best and most highly-tailored technology into each of its bowling ball makes and models. The result of this painstaking care and attention to detail is that you can dramatically and nearly instantly up your level of play if you are working with the right ball. While any Brunswick bowling ball will be a great addition to your bowling arsenal, knowing a little bit more about the levels of bowling ball, weights and models can really help you hone in on the best choices for your bowling game.
When you are buying a Brunswick bowling ball, you need to consider several things:
- Ball weight
- Ball core
- Ball style
- Your preferred bowling technique
- Your skill level
- Your budget
If you are clear on all of these things, then you will easily be able to select the perfect Brunswick bowling ball for you and your bowling game. You will likely place more emphasis on some of these factors than others, which is perfectly okay and should help you make a choice.
How Brunswick Classifies Its Bowling Balls
Brunswick classifies its bowling balls by performance and style. Generally, most bowling professionals recommend going by performance first and style second, since a ball that looks beautiful in the gutter will not do you much good. Brunswick balls run the gamut from the Groove Line, which is an entry-level high performance ball, to the Pro-Performance line, which is the top of the tier in professionally designed performance balls. In order to get a ball that responds to your personal style and bowling ability, you need to be sure that you are selecting from bowling balls in the right performance tier.
Brunswicks Entry Level Bowling Balls
Brunswick Groove is the manufacturer’s entry level “performance” ball. Performance simply means that the ball has been designed using research and design technology rather than simply throwing a weight inside a bowling ball and wrapping it in pretty plastic. It means that the core of the ball and the coverstock technology have been combined in such a way to make the ball more responsive to certain levels and arenas of play. In particular, the Brunswick Groove line is intended to adhere to your directions regardless of lane condition, enabling you to fine tune your aim and other playing skills without worrying about whether or not the ball will stick to the path you intended.
The Groove line is an entry level line, and it offers two different types of coverstock technology. You can purchase the Brunswick Power Groove Reactive, which is intended to be used on medium-dry to medium oily lane conditions, or the Brunswick Groove Urethane, which is designed for medium to drier lane conditions.
All Groove balls have the same basic core that is optimized for bowlers who are just learning to utilize their hook. The Power Groove Reactive comes in a wide array of colors and patterns, while the Groove Urethane comes in both dark and light blue. The two members of this line are intended to complement each other, but if you have to pick one you should pick the one that matches up best with your bowling environment the majority of the time.
Brunswick's Mid level Priced Bowling Balls A.K.A. Affordable Performance
Brunswick Affordable Performance line is a set of three “affordably-priced performance balls leveraging legendary designs.” This series, called the Avalanche series, uses proven core technology that has been refined over the years to the cutting edge of precision. The Avalanche series is for the bowler who knows how to make the ball hook and is looking to step up their game from their entry-level ball, but may not be willing or able to invest the kind of high-dollar sums that groundbreaking (and sometimes unproven) technology and research require. If you want tried and true, then an Avalanche is for you.
The Avalanche Slide is designed for dry to medium lane conditions, and lanes with broken down heads. It is covered with a reactive pearl coverstock to help it stay on course even when the end of the lane would normally cause your aim to swerve out of control.
Avalanche models also come in reactive pearl coverstock for dry to medium-oily lane conditions, and reactive solid coverstock, for medium-dry to medium-oily lane conditions.
As with the Groove line, the Avalanche line is designed to complement itself, but you can also invest in one bowling ball and cover most of your bases. Once you have learned to manipulate the bowling ball and direct it reliably, the Avalanche is the next logical step so that you can put your skills to good use with a ball that fights on your side against difficult lane conditions.
Brunswick's Upper Mid Level Bowling Balls A.K.A. Advanced Performance
Brunswick Advanced Performance bowling balls are also part of Brunswick’s proven-design approach to affordable technology. As with the Affordable Performance series, these bowling balls are not cutting-edge, but they are classics that are periodically refined, recovered and honed to reliable bowling perfection. If you are bowling at a fairly competitive level, but are not comfortable with the idea of experimenting with new technology or changing up your game dramatically to suit a new core or coverstock, then the Advanced Performance series is for you. Your options expand a little in this series, however, since you can choose from reactive coverstocks, which react to lane conditions to get you the best response possible, solid coverstocks, which generally are intended for more oily lane conditions, and particle coverstocks, which grip lane surfaces and drive the bowling ball into the pins. As you can see, while this series is still not on the groundbreaking edge of new, experimental technology, as you advance in your abilities your options for making optimal use of those abilities also expand. These bowling balls also move you into using different types of core technologies so that you can get familiar with different types of performance and start really testing your limits with new research and design.
Rattler Reactive Pearl debuts Brunswick’s Activator coverstock at this level. This means that Brunswick considers the Activator proven effective at this point. It gives strong downlane recovery and makes sure that your ball continues on your intended course all the way down to the pins. In addition, the Rattler is extremely durable. It contains a multi-sided rocket core system that provides an aggressive move at the end of the breakpoint. If you have been looking for a ball that starts working with you at the end of the lane instead of just doing as it was told, then the Rattler Reactive Pearl is a great way to start dealing with interactive and responsive bowling technology.
Copperhead also uses the multi-sided rocket core system, but its coverstock is among the most popular of any in Brunswick’s arsenal. The PowrKoil 18 coverstock is a perennial favorite among bowlers, and if you are looking for a bowling ball with clearly recognizable technology, then this is the ball for you. It is highly controllable, but also provides high hook potential and a variety of polishing and drilling options. Many people own several of this model drilled to perform in highly specialized ways.
Swarm combines the tried and true PowrKoil 18 coverstock with a new RG Honeycomb core. This delivers great length on everything but the driest of lane conditions. If you are looking to pair some new technology with some of the best proven designs around, then Swarm is a good place to start.
In keeping with the innovation/proven design combination, the Sidewinder features Brunswick’s first solid/pearl hybrid coverstock paired with a lower RG Rocket core system. This ball is made for recovery, so if you are playing on more demanding, sporting lane conditions then the Sidewinder will help you deal with the adversity involved in higher levels of competition without overwhelming you with options, add-ons and more technology than you can handle.
Brunswick's Upper Level Bowling Balls A.K.A. High Performance
Brunswick High Performance Bowling Balls are a line of balls that feature symmetric and asymmetric versions of low and ultra-low core technology as well as the newest in groundbreaking coverstocks. This line is designed for bowlers who can work the tried-and-true bowling balls, and now need something that they can make their own. If you are looking for a signature bowling ball that you can literally “train” to work your own personal style of bowling magic for you, then this high-performance line is for you.
The Wild Ride pairs the new ConneXion reactive pearl coverstock with a medium RG Torsion Asymmetric core to deliver wild response at the break point in medium to oily lane conditions. ConneXion provides unheard of traction response to push through the heads and keep on going. If you have the skills, but you lack the confidence to push for the strongest follow-through possible, then the Wild Ride is for you.
The MaxxX Zone, designed for medium to oily lane conditions, has a low RG Symmetric core wrapped in the PlaZma Reactive Solid coverstock. The PlaZma is new and designed specifically for the MaxxX Zone. It sticks to the lane and provides continuous traction. If you have been feeling that your game would benefit from this type of unprecedented lane hugging traction and control, then the MaxxX Zone may be the ideal solution for you.
Smash Zone is a combination of the Brunswick EnMotion reactive Pearl coverstock and an Ultra-Low RG Symmetric Core. It is perfect for medium-dry to medium-oily lane conditions. The Smash Zone is a combination of updated technologies that have recently been altered and fine-tuned to provide continuous back-end reaction and great mid-lane recovery. If you have problems with flaring when you use your other bowling balls, then Smash Zone can work with you to resolve this difficulty.
The Ultra Zone, like the Smash Zone, uses the Ultra-Low RG Symmetric Core to in conjunction with the EnMotion Reactive Solid/Pearl Hybrid. If your hooks tend to go a little wild, then the Ultra Zone will help you rein them in without sacrificing power or recovery.
Brunswick’s Pro-Performance bowling ball line is the ultimate in state-of-the-art technology. If you love finding out just what kind of power move you can invent with new technology and your own bowling expertise and ability, then this line is just what you have been waiting for.
Brunswicks Bleeding Edge Technology Bowling Balls A.K.A. Pro Performance
Whether you like hybrid combinations in coverstocks or just plain sick – and literally twisted – core technology, then the Pro-Performance series is for you. With names like the Twisted Fury Destruction and the Ultimate Inferno, this line is limited only by your imagination and the strength of you arm. Make that just your imagination, because these bowling balls are designed to bring out the best in every bowler in ways that you may have imagined, but not ever implemented in reality.
Brunswick Style
While ultimately, it is the technology that powers your bowling ball down the lane, we all know that there is a bit of vanity in owning an arsenal of bowling balls. No one wants an ugly ball, and Brunswick makes sure that you will have every factor – including the intimidation factor – working for you when you head out to play. Whether you go for themed polyester custom covers, limited edition graphics or the T Zone vibrant polyester glow, you will know when your Brunswick bowling ball is in the lanes by the awesome power and the startling colors and designs that are tailored to fit every personality in the alley.
