I've been struggling lately and before last night I didn't hit 600 for almost a month.  Yeah so my average has dropped a lot since Summer league.  Anyways, I spent several hours at work in my office yesterday studying the targets on a bowling lane.  I've decided to go back and target the dots (the dots 6 ft from foul line).  Last night shot 606 and helped us win 2 of 3 against 2nd place team in league.  Shot 213 last game (score took major hit despite hitting 6 of last 7 strikes because I had a 5 pin split in 8th frame).

What do you all target and why? 

Here is what I know:

Dots near foul line or 6 ft from foul line - easier to hit, Wes Malott uses this method, may cause you to dig ball into lane instead of throwing it out onto lane, small errors become big errors.

Arrows - traditional and used by most bowlers, may cause you to increase ball speed to "make" ball hit arrows, could be hard for people, small errors stay small errors.

Hash tags - what super advanced bowlers use, helps decide breakpoint, requires extremely good vision, may not be a good indicator of what is happening in the first 40 feet.

Area - what many recreational bowlers use, house hacks that go coast to coast.

Pattern - what Sean Rash uses, don't look at targets, just follow ball pattern and adjust stance from there.

Pin bowling - what very bad bowlers use.

DISCUSS 

I spot bowl: it could be at the end of the pattern, the reflection of light, the reflection of a pin, or the pin itself - left half, center, right half. Only if the lanes a dressed heavily, then I bring my eyes closer to the foul line. - arrow or dots.

Before I bowl, I draw a line in my minds eye from the "target" to my lay down point. I should do this when playing up the boards, but I do this when I'm playing around the 3rd arrow and in.

Anyone can hit the 2nd arrow, but not everyone can it the spot down the lane.

I use area and stance adjustments

Thanks for the replies!  Let's keep them coming!  While everyone is trying to buy the latest and greatest, what we should be doing is finding ways to hit our target over and over.  Hit the same target 12 straight times with an old ball and you will be averaging 230+ with ease.  I did notice in the last game for a few frames when I needed to strike my mind was trying to go back to bad habits and ignore the targets on the lanes.  I wound up pulling the ball left or putting more revs than needed and watching the ball Brooklyn strike.  But I need to focus on the game inside the game.  In fact, I think to hit the next level 215-220 avg I need to focus on hitting the dot on every strike ball.  If I do that, I don't care what happens lol.

I will target long medium or short based on varios factors.  Normally I target further down the lane when I start to move in.   I also will target longer when I am trying to project the ball further on to the lane

You can be very precise looking at pins.  My best method is to start at the pins and draw a line back. Once lined up and ready to go, I execute and watch my ball down the lane. It was really tough to get into that observation mode, it is so easy to lose focus and only see the ball bend into the pins.

There are 5 points on each pin (Center, Left, Right, Lower Left, Lower Right). Also you can look at the gap between pins. All of these are basically the board locations down at the end of the lane.
 

Quote from: trash heap on November 29, 2016, 04:23:17 PM

You can be very precise looking at pins.  My best method is to start at the pins and draw a line back. Once lined up and ready to go, I execute and watch my ball down the lane. It was really tough to get into that observation mode, it is so easy to lose focus and only see the ball bend into the pins.

There are 5 points on each pin (Center, Left, Right, Lower Left, Lower Right). Also you can look at the gap between pins. All of these are basically the board locations down at the end of the lane.
 

I know some who look at pins.  The only downside, if you want to call it that, is you don't have an indication of accuracy.  You look at the center of the 6-pin but you don't expect to hit there.  I guess you can use the results (pocket percentage) and an indication.

I like the idea of drawing a line back to a point you can look at and get an idea of accuracy, but how much different is that than just using that location to begin with?

Well, when the line starts to transition, you could follow that drawn line and push your target closer towards the pins so your ball could go longer before it starts to face up to the pins.

Sorta like one would do back in the days of short oil. Instead of putting that target from that line close to you like at the arrows or closer, push it farther down the lane. That way you can still remain accurate relative to your line, but hit the target of that line further down the lane. Does that make any sense?

BL.

I been practicing the 3 point targeting and have been having decent results.  Lots more practice needed to be more efficient and comfortable at it. 

Just shot 233/278/244 over the weekend using this method, but the shot was pretty easy, or at least seemed that way.  My regular house that has very old, beat up wood lanes and very little oil will be a big test.