43 Comments on “Bowling with the World’s Lightest Bowling Ball (2 LBS) with PBA Champion Marshall Kent”

    1. Would also be really cool to see when the players with different styles start getting in on this. From 2 handed, and odd releases, would be really cool to see how the ball reacts to their style and how the adjust to compensate.

  1. As a kid in the early 70s, I got my first ball. It was an 8 pound Brunswick Black Beauty. Because it was so light, it would not return after the first shot. So, I had to use a heavier house ball on the spare shot. The house ball would then return, while pushing my 8 pound ball back to me… True story. 😊

    1. @Kevin Hall That’s good to hear. It sounds like the ball return mechanism has improved since the 70s.👍

    2. As a pinsetter tech, I can give you a little insight as to what was going on. Since it was the 70’s, you were either bowling on Brunswick Model A (started in 1956) or A-2 (Started in 1965). If it was an AMF pinspotter, it was either the 82-30 or 82-70.

      For the Brunswick pinsetter ball return mechanism. There was a large steel wheel that always rotated, the ball would rest on this wheel, sitting inside the wheel was a part called lift rods. The idea was that the ball would be pinched between the lift rod and the ball wheel. The lift rods are stationary, so all the ball wheel rotates, the idea is that that the ball wheel would roll the ball up along the lift rods. After the ball was lifted up high enough it would enter the ball return track to be sent back to the bowler. Very light balls like 6 and 8 pound bowling balls would not have enough weight to “fall into” the ball wheel to make it’s way up as the ball has to ‘lift’ the lift rods ever so slightly to allow itself to be wedged between the ball wheel and lift rods. This would, in turn, cause the ball to simply spin at the bottom of the ball wheel. Then when the second, heavier ball was thrown, it would push the lighter ball into the lift rods to be sent back. And because the other ball was heavier, it would have no problem returning back as well. This is actually a preventable issue as there are a few adjustments that can be made. But usually, because the issue “fixed” itself, it’s rarely called back to techs to fix.

      Now for an AMF pinspotter, they had a what was called a pit conveyor. As the name implies, it was just an conveyor belt that always spun. The ball cushion (the piece a bowling ball crashes into to stop its momentum) was mounted at a slant. So as the conveyor would rotate, the ball would move towards the side of the pinsetter where the ball return was. The problem here is that very light balls didn’t weigh enough to open what’s called a ball door. As the name suggests, this is where the ball enters to be sent back to the bowler, only a ball could open the door, not a pin. There was a button towards the top of the door that only a ball could depress and not a pin. The ball would press against the button, the door would open, ball would roll on through and then the door would slam shut. But 6 pounders were notorious for not weighing enough to push the button in enough and would have to wait for another ball to push against it to open the door. Again, there are adjustments that can be made to help reduce this from happening.

      A little bit of a long-winded response, but I wanted to put it here in case you were curious what was going on behind the making units.

      And believe it or not… no ball return technology hasn’t changed. Marshall was bowling on the newer Brunswick GSX pinsetter, and a lot of that pinsetter takes a lot of queues from its AMF counterpart. One of those being the ball return, it is simply a more modern version of the AMF ball door set up I explained earlier. So no, 40 years later, and not much in terms of innovation. Haha

    3. @ibengmainee Thanks so much for all the details as to how the ball return mechanism works. The bowling alley where I bowled, was a Brunswick house that was built in the mid 50s. Maybe I can find a video on YT that shows just how this works. That’ll help me get a feel for your explanation, if I were to actually see it in operation. Thanks again. 😊

  2. Hi guys, quick suggestion.

    You could do a series with this.

    Inviting different pros to throw 2lb and keep track of score.

    Something like what top gear does with celebrities racing times.

    1. @Ken Knapp The 2 pound ball is for kids. Pete Weber started with 5 pound ball, thus his high backswing. Most of us kinds bowl duckpins when we were little in the Mid Atlantic area and later gradated to10 pound balls in ten pins.

  3. I’d like to see Marshall throw another game with a 2-pound ball, but with only 1 set of finger holes. I want to see if that 2nd set of holes made any difference.

  4. This is why your a legend Matt. And so gracious to your fans. Your someone I love to support because you love your fans. Congratulations and can’t wait for next video

  5. That 2 pound ball could actually be a tactic on some crazy splits, the way it bounces off a pin so far could actually be useful sometimes lol. Should do a trick shot video with it!

    1. The alley I bowl at has some 6 lb balls for kids that I use just for tough splits. Depends on whose working though, some of the staff won’t let me use em. With it being so light you get huge ricochets off the pins.

    2. @bullfrog#7601 I don’t know about consistent, but you’re right that it’s possible that the ball could take out both pins. Since the ball weighs less than the pin, if it hits the 7 pin dead-on, it will bounce *backwards*. If you merely graze the pin, the ball’s direction will be virtually unchanged. Therefore, there must be *some* angle where the ball will travel perfectly parallel to the foul line, right into the 10.

    3. @Rayzr By my calculations, it can, and would likely maintain at least 70% of it’s momentum (assuming a roughly 45° angle between the initial velocity and the plane of contact, which is around the angle you’d need.)

  6. This is an excellent example of how using a ball that’s too light for you hurts your score exponentially more than a ball that might be too heavy

    1. That’s true but the ball also has two sets of holes… that definitely played a part so I think they should do it again but with a ball with only one set of holes.

    2. Actually, I think this is an example of how a ball that’s improperly drilled is impossible to throw consistently.

  7. For videos like this, it would be nice to see two rounds so they have an opportunity to get a little comfortable with the challenge

    1. Marshall was starting to realize that harder and straighter would be the better strategy. we made it tough on him as we didn’t give him any practice shots with that ball before we made him start. Thanks for watching!!

  8. Now I’m wanting to see a series of episodes with odd challenges. The 2 lbs ball is one, obviously. How about a 30 lbs one? Maybe a different set of challenges for a bit of team sport? Your team has to complete a predetermined set of frames with each player taking turns on each throw (meaning two players per frame). Set up a 7-10 split for your team mate and they have to clear it. 8 points for a partial completion (meaning the setup is done properly) and counts as a spare and 10 points for a completion and counts as a strike.

  9. Hearing that ball roll down the lane on the extra finger holes if the bowling equivalent of fingers scratching a chalkboard!

  10. That was fun to watch him get better with it! He caught on super fast! Definitely shows why he’s the pro he is xD

  11. My prediction of 83 was looking good for a while! Im impressed Marshall was able to actually get decent pin action with a 2lb ball. Well done!

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