Author Topic: how do you know where to play the lanes? (Read 2325 times)

chipmunkbowler · « **on:** August 21, 2009, 03:30:29 AM »

i myself am a young bowler who is very particular in terms of versatility.
i use speed rotation and sometimes rev rate to play the lanes in different ways.

in most tournaments i bowl in we get 5 minutes of practice then it starts and that gives my the issue of making the wrong decision in terms of lane play.

in the tournaments where the bowlers only get a short amount of time to practice to line up what should i do to let myself know where to play the lanes?

BTW: we never know the pattern we bowl on

bowlingnut07 · « **Reply #1 on:** August 21, 2009, 11:36:12 AM »

one of the best ways i can tell u is this
find the dry orwhere the ball hooks most
then move left till the ball stops hookin
usually shot is in between those 2 areas
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TripFour · « **Reply #2 on:** August 21, 2009, 12:00:56 PM »

One of the best ways I've found is to simply watch the other bowlers on your pair. This is especially helpful if one, or more, of them has a similar style to yours. You can really learn a lot about the lanes from watching how others are playing them.

Atochabsh · « **Reply #3 on:** August 21, 2009, 12:55:26 PM »

There are a lot of articles on this. You have a set warm up procedure. You target for the bucket spare, your ball movement will tell you how much oil there is or isn't in the middle. But mostly you have to watch your ball movement. If your ball is deflecting when it hits the pocket the you are too far in the dry for that condition and ball. If the ball never reaches the pocket then you know you are too much in the oil for that condition and ball.

One thing a lot of new bowlers do is during practice they immediately start up full speed wanting to strike. First of all, you should warm up your ball speed gradually so that you do not get too fast too soon. Because we tend to speed up as we bowl. If you start out at full speed you have no where to go but out of control fast. Striking. New bowlers want to strike. Just get to the pocket first. The strikes will come with fine tuning after you have gotten more information about the lane condition from a 1/2 dozen balls or so. Get into rhythm first, then fine tune for striking. And it takes practice.

Erin

chipmunkbowler · « **Reply #4 on:** August 21, 2009, 02:36:38 PM »

what i want to know is how in this 5 minutes can i find out where to throw the ball at the breakpoint what type of rotation to use and where to play (big hook straight or inbetween)

trynabbest · « **Reply #5 on:** August 21, 2009, 02:56:58 PM »

everyone can only tell you what they do, so i will do the same. I was taught practice is not for finding your line its for warming up, (its my dad i know i know probably wrong but after 10 years of hearing it i cant help it). what i do now is start all the way left (righty) and throw the ball really slow for timing purposes and just watch what it does. If it skates all the way across into the gutter, we know where not to play. That means get to the right. Then when the game starts i look for dry. Ill pipe it up 5 or 10 and watch what it does (hopefully you're catching the trend). if it hooks too much. . . adjust. If it hooks 5 boards too much then that means you move 5 boards to the left. when in doubt keep moving till you find it. worst thing you can do is end a game of struggling by not trying everything you can. to sum it up for you throw the ball and watch what it does analyze analyze analyze till you figure it out. oh and everybody else said good things especially about watching the other bowlers.

livespive · « **Reply #6 on:** August 21, 2009, 03:10:43 PM »

quote:
quote:
what i want to know is how in this 5 minutes can i find out where to throw the ball at the breakpoint what type of rotation to use and where to play (big hook straight or inbetween)

Watch your ball, watch your ball, watch your ball!

If you pay attention, your ball will tell you what the lane conditions are. If you don't learn what to look for, the ball can't help you.
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________________________________________________
There is more to bowling than just knocking down pins.

+1

To do this I always start with my benchmark ball, the ball that I use at a "normal day in the office" lol, I then make moves off of that.
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Xcessive_Evil · « **Reply #7 on:** August 21, 2009, 03:16:09 PM »

quote:
quote:
what i want to know is how in this 5 minutes can i find out where to throw the ball at the breakpoint what type of rotation to use and where to play (big hook straight or inbetween)

Watch your ball, watch your ball, watch your ball!

If you pay attention, your ball will tell you what the lane conditions are. If you don't learn what to look for, the ball can't help you.
--------------------
________________________________________________
There is more to bowling than just knocking down pins.

+2

It'll leave you clueless and fishing for something. To make it worse, when you do get a strike, you won't even know what it is that made them fall.
--------------------
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You may be the better bowler, but my car would blow the doors off of yours.

MI 2 AZ · « **Reply #8 on:** August 21, 2009, 04:28:06 PM »

Chipmunkbowler, I think what you are asking for is in the first link below. I included the others for after warmup.

http://www.bowlingcoach.com/CEJuly02.pdf ---- #5, page 19.

http://www.bowlingknowledge.com/tips/borden/fb200011.pdf

http://www.bowlingknowledge.com/tips/michellemullen/mm200011.pdf
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BrianCRX90 · « **Reply #9 on:** August 21, 2009, 04:28:34 PM »

Watching other bowlers is over rated. It may help but I would start out on a certain board on a condition where I know it's fresh or stand on a certain board on a broken down condition right off the bat. Of course depends on the strength of the ball. As long as I get a good release in practice on that first ball I could care less where it goes and unless it's a tough condition can read on the next ball generally where to play.

sdbowler · « **Reply #10 on:** August 21, 2009, 04:29:18 PM »

If there is a shift prior to me I try to watch those guys. I have always started off with what ever ball I have been starting with and toss a normal shot. I then adjust off of that. Some people will say this is wrong some people will say that is what they do. It all depends on what will work for YOU. That I know of there is no right or wrong way for you to figure it out. You just need to find something that you can get use to and stick with that.
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Kyle

DON DRAPER · « **Reply #11 on:** August 21, 2009, 04:46:34 PM »

i'd like to emphasize two points before i answer your question:

1) i'm sorry but 5 minutes of shadow balls isn't enough. i know at the usbc open that's all you get that's part of what's wrong with bowling today. 15 minutes would be fine.

2) trying to line up off other players can be difficult at best. the odds that someone else has your ball speed, axis rotation, axis tilt, same ball ,same surface, etc., is very slim.

what i do when i go to a different house/tournament is stay within yourself. don't try a style and/or line you can't play. that being said i will stand on 16 walk straight to the foul line and simply roll the ball down 10 and carefully watch the ball reaction. watch the balls' roll all the way thru the pindeck. i will try several shots straight down 5 and straight down 15 as well. my decisions as how to play will be based off these trial shots.

MI 2 AZ · « **Reply #12 on:** August 21, 2009, 04:55:14 PM »

Missed this one, again page 19.

http://www.bowlingcoach.com/PSNAug2002.pdf

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Atochabsh · « **Reply #13 on:** August 21, 2009, 05:04:10 PM »

quote:
what i want to know is how in this 5 minutes can i find out where to throw the ball at the breakpoint what type of rotation to use and where to play

You can't. That's the point. You just get to the pocket and fine tune the strike ball as you get warmed up and into your first game.

Now if you are bowling in one center on a regular basis and its a house shot, then the shot is not going to vary too much from week to week. Therefore you have a good idea when you step onto the approach where you are going to start. From there, you watch your ball, get into rhythm and fine tune your pocket shot.

Erin

tenpinspro · « **Reply #14 on:** August 22, 2009, 12:37:25 PM »

Hey chipmunk,

All the tips submitted here are very good and I'd like to add to this in the area of "deflection".

Deflection can come from a few different ways. One way is as Atochabsh stated, if a ball has expended too much energy in the front part of the lane and does not have enough stored energy on the backend to allow it's motion to continue and "drive" through the pins, it can/will deflect.

A couple of other ways is if a ball does not get into a roll soon enough or breaks too late (improper entry angle resulting in an improper exit angle), it can/will also deflect as it enters the pins/pocket. This can result in playing in too much oil as well or if carry down is present.

Basically (the most common ways), deflection can be caused by a ball rolling out "or" not rolling up as well. Unfortunately, it takes a little more of a seasoned bowler with the "eye" to be able to know the difference and then apply the proper move or adjustment. Just hang in there, experience can help teach you this.

The harder shots that we as bowlers encounter are typically when there isn't a good puddle in the middle (free hold) or a fair amount of friction to the right (free hook). If one or both of these situations do not exist, our area on the lane can/will be limited so accuracy and consistency with lift and speed become crucial.

I also highly agree with Atochabsh and Buggs41....we must watch our ball to see where it crosses areas on the lane and how it responds to that particular area to know how we're going to adjust accordingly. Hope this helps some...
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Author Topic: how do you know where to play the lanes? (Read 2325 times)

chipmunkbowler

how do you know where to play the lanes?

bowlingnut07

Re: how do you know where to play the lanes?

TripFour

Re: how do you know where to play the lanes?

Atochabsh

Re: how do you know where to play the lanes?

chipmunkbowler

Re: how do you know where to play the lanes?

trynabbest

Re: how do you know where to play the lanes?

livespive

Re: how do you know where to play the lanes?

Xcessive_Evil

Re: how do you know where to play the lanes?

MI 2 AZ

Re: how do you know where to play the lanes?

BrianCRX90

Re: how do you know where to play the lanes?

sdbowler

Re: how do you know where to play the lanes?

DON DRAPER

Re: how do you know where to play the lanes?

MI 2 AZ

Re: how do you know where to play the lanes?

Atochabsh

Re: how do you know where to play the lanes?

tenpinspro

Re: how do you know where to play the lanes?