Can bad pin carry be attributed to just bad luck?

I bowled in a tournament this past weekend and actually for much of this year in league bowling my pin carry has been horrible. I'm leaving everything on the back row with a bunch of 4 pins added in. It's been a really frustrating year.

no

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
What he said.

 Consistent carry issues, whether good or bad, cannot be attributed to "luck".

 The occasional occurence maybe. But not on a regular basis.

"i got robbed!!"

Watch what other people are doing to carry.  More than likely they are coming in at a different angle, hitting heavier or lighter, ball reving and rolling up at the pocket, have more speed so the corners are being taken out by pins off the wall.

Those are some of the things that could be the difference in why you aren't carrying and others are.

And if that doesn't work, always believe they are all going to fall on every shot and they will. 

I've noticed that the bowlers with the best "carry" are the ones that have good forward roll when they get to the pin deck.  Those that have more spin tend to leave more solid tens and other pins on good hits. I define good forward roll as the ball seeming to go rolling faster than the forward velocity of the ball.  Think of a hot rod with the wheels spinning faster than the forward motion of the car. Also it seems that the faster the ball gets into this forward roll, the better.

Thanks for some of the interesting replies.

All I know this year is that it seems like no matter what I try, be it different lines, styles or balls the results still end up the same. Then I watch other guys bowl they are striking a lot no matter were or how they hit the pins.

It's just been a very frustrating year and with the season ending tournaments coming I was just wondering if there is anything I could try to do to make my odds better at pin carry.

Thanks....

I've noticed that the bowlers with the best "carry" are the ones that have good forward roll when they get to the pin deck.  Those that have more spin tend to leave more solid tens and other pins on good hits. I define good forward roll as the ball seeming to go rolling faster than the forward velocity of the ball.  Think of a hot rod with the wheels spinning faster than the forward motion of the car. Also it seems that the faster the ball gets into this forward roll, the better.

Most of the problem with carry is people's too broad of a definition of the pocket.

It seems the pocket has been defined by "where I can get away with the most strikes"

If you shoot at the 1-2-4-7, and try to hit the pocket side rather than brooklyn, the goal is to get the ball to that "perfect" sport which hits the 1 into the 2, into the 4, into the 7.

The more you miss that spot, the more likely you are to break the chain reaction.

If you think of that spot as the pocket, and anything that would break the chain reaction as missing the pocket, most of your non strikes can be directly related to missing the pocket.


Once you reach that spot, the next factor is deflection.

Deflection is a function of momentum.

If we were able to quantify the quality of the release, and how complete the ball reached the roll phase, we may be able to compare "apples" and "oranges".

A moderate release 70%, and completed roll phase 100% could equal 70% momentum into the pins.

A stronger release 90%, but only obtaining a 80% roll phase could equal 72% momentum.

Most of the shots that you see rolling forward and hitting the pocket properly, the ball exited the oil pattern right up against the wall of oil.

Which if hits the pocket once, tends to hit the same spot over and over again, until the end of the oil pattern gets damaged from usage.

This is where the notion of "wrong ball" comes from.

With a wall, you can exit the pattern up against the oil all night long with plenty of room for error leading up to the exit point, but the real question is can you get the ball to go from there, to the pocket.

IF you brought enough different balls with you, and know how to read the reaction, you should be able to figure out which ball to switch to.

However, if you didn't bring the right ball for those conditions, it's going to be a long night.

Off by a little bit, and your carry suffers.

Off by a lot, and you're all over the head pin.

It really all boils down the rotational energy ( or lack thereof ) and deflection.  Almost all 10 pins result from too much deflection of the ball into the 3 pin ( for right handers ).  Deflection is reduced by the release of rotational energy as the ball is entering the pocket.  If a ball has used up its rotational energy too soon, there will be too much deflection on half pocket hits regardless of how much entry angle is achieved.  In fact strong entry angle actually causes more weak 10 pins if not accompanied by rotatlonal energy.  The reason for this gets further into geometry than is necessary here, but it can be demonstrated easily.   Think how often you can carry better by hugging the oil line and preserving energy than by projecting to the dry and burning off energy early to create entry angle.   

If the ball that hugs the oil line preserves the "energy", then what about the ball that is pulled slightly into the oil, and becomes the "frozen rope" to the pocket.

You would think it would preserve even more "energy", but it deflects significantly.

If you take almost any ball, play from left to right in the heavy oil (never getting close to the oil line), and throw an amazing (600+) amount of revs, the ball has this so called rotational energy, but good luck getting it to not deflect.

What you need is momentum.

In this video, the ball has a good balance of momentum (right to left, vs. front to back) which you know of as entry angle, but is has very little rotational energy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EVw8c-X1l4