i remember a telecast of the bpaa us open and they showed david husteds ball speed at the foul line was 19+mph and the speed at the pin deck was 13+mph. he was throwing a moderate hook-----16 to 10.

I would think a more probable explanation for the phenomena you are citing would be that you are running into carrydown when you are playing down and in but you are going around it when you are swinging the shot.

Looking at your theory for why a ball would bleed off more speed playing inside, it's not just the distance covered but the friction the ball experiences rolling over different surfaces.

Taking your example of covering 9 boards to the break point and 9 boards back to the pocket, we're talking about covering what? 61 1/2 feet instead of 60 feet.

How significant do you suppose that extra 1 1/2 feet is compared to the difference in friction a ball experiences sliding through 40 feet of oil vs rolling through 40 feet of bone dry wood?

Then we get to the backends. The guy who has enough revs to play through the oil, is probably going to create a lot more rolling friction once his ball does hit the dry than the guy who strokes it up through the dry so he could bleed off speed at a faster rate once he hits the dry.

Pretty complicated bit of physics going on there and we haven't even got into the axis of rotation and tilt of the ball yet. I'm getting dizzy just thinking about all the calculations so I think I'll stick with my carrydown theory...

Thank you Jerry, I know that possibility of carry down and totally understand the friction part, also revs and rotation makes a huge difference, so does that extra foot or two of friction make any noticeable difference on ball speed at the pin deck?  I know the calculations are tough, Pchee2 can probably work them out, but am I talking about a difference of a mile per hour or a tenth of a mile per hour?

V/R,

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Nicanor (Ten On The Deck)

Edited on 11/21/2003 1:25 PM

A ball that's set down on the 40 board and hits a breakpoint 40 feet down the lane on the 1 board and comes back to the pocket only travels and extra 5 inches (approximately).  Not really a factor.

The difference in ball speed from from the extra distance traveled would be roughly 0.1mph.

so where does the cubica system measure?  That has been the only means i have used to measure ball speed.  Does it measure at the heads? middle?  40 ft?  at the deck?
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Buzzsaws are very, very dangerous.

I've noticed that all factors are important in the total speed equation or
should I say the difference in speed off the hand vs speed at the pin deck.

For example I am about 17 off my hand on a day I went to kegel.
For some reason that day I had a ton of entry angle compared to anyone else there!  Almost 5 degrees all day.  Also I had the largest speed differential between off the hand and at the pins.  Probably a correlation.

I have noticed that when bowling on heavily oiled lanes I have recorded speeds at the pin deck of 18 mph(I don't even usually throw it that fast). At the pin deck particularly if pulled a little bit.

If I play a large swing shot with Duller ball I have had many speeds at the pin deck in the low 13 and high 12 range(often leaving a wimpy looking 7 pin and a worn out ball at the pocket).  Ball has covered a lot of total feet on the lane, and ball friction has been high.

Final thought I used to bowl with a really bright guy, 1 ball, no spareball and no practice and he averaged 236 that year.  He said watch that speed guage closely it will tell you a lot.  When they have them I do.

REgards,

Luckylefty
PS One of my best night's bowling, oh let's not be koy about it, my best ever.
I ranged at the pin deck between only 15.4 to 15.9 all night!  For like 7 games!

This means I was consistent and I was hitting consistently similarly oiled parts of the lane, with very good line and projection consistency.