lefty bowling

[Nick]

I used to bowl leagues but have been away from it for four or five years and am slowly getting back into it. I've been told many times (usually by right handers) that I have an advantage using the left side of the alley since there are far fewer lefties and therefore the oil conditions won't change as much as the right side. Yet I notice changes after a few games even if I'm the only lefty bowling. Are these guys just making excuses for themselves or is there something to it?
Honestly, does anyone keep track of the percentage of lefties vs righties bowling in leagues?

[bowl1820]

I used to bowl leagues but have been away from it for four or five years and am slowly getting back into it. I've been told many times (usually by right handers) that I have an advantage using the left side of the alley since there are far fewer lefties and therefore the oil conditions won't change as much as the right side. Yet I notice changes after a few games even if I'm the only lefty bowling. Are these guys just making excuses for themselves or is there something to it?
Honestly, does anyone keep track of the percentage of lefties vs righties bowling in leagues?

If your the only one on the left, the changes happen. they just don't happen as fast or to the extent that they do on the right.

As you say you notice changes after a "few" games. On say a league with 5 man teams, you can notice changes on the right side after just 10 or 15 mins of warm up.

You see 1 bowler during warm up could bowl what amounts to almost a game. So if you have 10 bowlers (9 rightie's & 1 lefty on a pair) the 9 rightys could bowl what amounts to several games on the right( depend on how fast they go). while the lefty would only have bowled around 1 game on the left and all this just during warm up.

So to a extent there's something to it.

So does the left have a advantage? Well sometimes, sometimes not. The left not breaking down as fast on some conditions could help you. But on some conditions you might wish the shot did break down faster.

As for keeping track of righty and lefty's on leagues, yeah they do.

[Nick]

Wow, I never thought about the conditions changing so quickly on the right side. I think I'll consider myself lucky to have the left side generally to myself. Maybe right handers are just used to it and don't mention the changes much -- which is why I thought they were making too much out of my "advantage". But yesterday I practiced seven games by myself and only moved my starting point twice. From your example, that seems reasonable.

[Stormed1]

Being a lefty can be both a blessing and a curse. I heard somewher ( i think it was a shoe rep) that only 7% of bowlers are left handed So as mentioned above your shot does not break down as quickly or as much as a right handers. Most nights this will be a blessing as you don't have to make many moves or ball changes as the transission is minor. However the curse ccomes in when you don't have a shot as you usually don't have help breaking it down. The other thing i see is that because they do not have too move as much Many lefties get caught out by transision if there happen to be 3 or 4 on the pair. Because they do not see the need often for big adjustments a vast majority have great difficulty with moves of more than 3 or 4 boards a night

[randwool]

The few lefties I have know have all been methodical strokers with 200+ averages.

[JAnderson]

There are generally fewer left-handed bowlers on the lanes in league and tournaments. Fewer bowlers on that side of the lanes means it takes longer for the conditions to change. Even if you're the only bowler on one side of the lane (or the other) the lanes will still change, just not as quickly as if there are more bowlers on the other side.

So if the lane conditions are difficult (not much room to miss) to start, the right-handed bowlers may have the advantage over several games because they can break down the lanes quicker than the left-handed bowlers.

If the lane conditions are easy to start, the left-handed bowlers generally have the advantage over several games because that easy condition will last longer while the right-handed bowlers can blow up the conditions.

Of course, this all assumes that the pattern is relatively laterally symmetric (same on left and right)

[Maine Man]

JAnderson nailed it. I am a lefty, and there are times when you have the advantage and times when you have the disadvantage. But, we all still have to knock down the same 10 pins every shot no matter what hand you use, so I try and not spend too much time thinking about which hand has an easier time scoring, and focus on the things I have control over in my own game.