Jack's Professional Bowling Tips Home

Professional Bowling Tips Information

	Top Professional Bowling Tips Sites

	Professional Bowling Tips Information

I need to make an adjustment.  Where do I start?

Help!  The ball didn’t go where I wanted it!  Here is a rule of thumb that has always worked for me.  In the previous article I spoke of the ball going in the 1-2 pocket instead of the 1-3.  If you are “off” by a pocket, move three board with your feet (using the same target) to the left for your next attempt to strike.  Think of the path of your ball as a seesaw on its side with your target as the fulcrum.  If one side goes down, the other goes up.  So with your ball, if you want it more right, you need to move your feet to the left.

Why three boards?  Well you can get out your 9th grade Algebra and 10th grade Geometry books for the answer.  Let me try to explain it.  You are standing about 15 feet from the foul line.  It is another fifteen feet to the arrows.  Since the pins are 60 feet from the foul line, they are 45 feet from the arrows.  So using your target as the fulcrum, there are 30 feet on one side and 45 feet on the other.  That’s a 3 to 2 ratio.  This means if you move your feet two boards, the results if the shot should be 3 boards in the opposite direction.  Since there are five boards between pins, there are also five boards between pockets.  So here is the equation: 3 is to 2 as 5 is to X.  X is equal to 3.33 boards.  Well since all of this is an approximation, moving three boards should get you close.  Using the same 3 to 2 logic, if you needed to move your target from the second arrow (10th board) to the third arrow (15th board) you would move your feet eight boards.  But in this case, you move your feet in the same direction!  Trust me; it works!

OK, let’s say you try to strike and your ball hits the three pin square on.  Well using the 3 board per pocket rule and the answer would be to move you feet one and a half boards to the right.  Do you get the picture?  Based on this formula you should, assuming you are consistent in how you throw your ball, be able to make the necessary adjustment.

Now let me throw in one wrinkle.  It is the choice of the bowling lanes management, or corporate headquarters for chains, how they oil their lanes.  Each lane will be (or should) oiled the same.  Usually this is done with an oil machine that goes up and down the lane distributing the oil.  But the oil can vary in “depth” across the lane.  Some lanes oil the same all the way across the lane.  But some put more oil in the middle of the lane than on the edges.  Understand the 3 board rule is a rule of thumb.  If in moving you throw your ball in more of less oil the reaction is not going to be the same.

So why do they oil the lanes?  It is for the protection of the lane.  The real reason a ball reacts to the “spin” you put on it, is because of friction.  It is that friction that “grabs” the lane.  You know from something a simple as rubbing you hands together, friction causes heat.  Heat will “burn” the surface of the lane.  Refinishing a lane is something that should be done periodically to keep the surface of the lane consistent.  Friction can actually burn grooves in an un-oiled  lane, making the surface inconsistent, causing more expensive refinishing, and after a number of year, lane replacement.

In any event, if you use the three board rule and get a result you are not expecting, it could be the oil “pattern” on the lane.

Previous article | Next article