Loft

[snugbucco]

whats loft suppose to do ? I know its suppose to take some of the lane out of play (whatever that means). will it make the ball hook sooner ? will it take hook out of the ball?? When do you idealistically want to use loft, when the heads burn up?

[I suck at bowling]

Your ball can't hook when its not on the lane, lol.

Lofting makes the ball hook later, and you want to loft when your ball is overreacting or is reading to early.

[J Anderson]

whats loft suppose to do ? I know its suppose to take some of the lane out of play (whatever that means). will it make the ball hook sooner ? will it take hook out of the ball?? When do you idealistically want to use loft, when the heads burn up?

The main reason for lofting the ball is to delay the hook. On a typical house shot there is generally enough oil that lofting shouldn't be necessary. If the heads are completely burnt you might need to loft it.

If the ball is in the air, it doesn't matter if the lane is flooded with oil or bone dry, the ball isn't going to react to it. That "takes the lane out of play" The other thing that takes the lanes out of play is throw the ball dead straight, either through technique or by using a nice shiny polyester ball.

The down side of lofting is that for most of us it screws up our technique. Instead of releasing at the right time we hold on to it too long, waste energy throwing the ball up instead of out. Because the timing's off the revs are down and the accuracy is off.

[Flyer41]

I only resort to lofting when my weak equipment reads the lane way too early due to burnt up heads. It's something pretty tough to do, and I lose a lot of accuracy doing it. I would rather do anything other than it, but there has been a few times where I had to resort to it because my equipment just couldn't read the lanes properly.

[ArtVandelay]

In golf, loft is an acronym... Hahahahaha. Actually, we just joke that it stands for Lack Of Fu**ing Talent. And in golf, thats fair or me and anyone I play with. Hahaha

[noeymc]

i always loft the length of my towl i set it on lane and thats how i was shown to throw a bowling ball

[Tampabaybob]

John is correct when he said that lofting the ball can mess up your timing and release. Usually people will hang onto the ball too long when they try to do that. Most synthetic lanes, burning up the heads isn't as much of a problem as seeing the mid lane area start to dry out. Now this also depends on the oil pattern you're shooting against, but the theory here, is that the midland area (a few feet past the arrows to maybe the 35 foot mark) drys up on you and your ball starts to hook too soon. What's the fix ? Well lofting in that circumstance isn't going to help because then your lofting it right into the dry area and as soon as the ball lands in that dry area it'll take off. Moving your feet and your target left (for righties) is the best advice. Move you feet at least 3-5 boards and your target 2-4. This "should" get your ball down earlier into the head oil and hopeful miss that burned up area on the lane. Sometimes even a further move will be required but you can see what you'll need from the reaction of the ball on that first move. a

Placing a towel on the lane side of the foul line is a technique that I use all the time for my students. It's an excellent way to get people to get the correct release and reach with their follow through.

[noeymc]

John is correct when he said that lofting the ball can mess up your timing and release. Usually people will hang onto the ball too long when they try to do that. Most synthetic lanes, burning up the heads isn't as much of a problem as seeing the mid lane area start to dry out. Now this also depends on the oil pattern you're shooting against, but the theory here, is that the midland area (a few feet past the arrows to maybe the 35 foot mark) drys up on you and your ball starts to hook too soon. What's the fix ? Well lofting in that circumstance isn't going to help because then your lofting it right into the dry area and as soon as the ball lands in that dry area it'll take off. Moving your feet and your target left (for righties) is the best advice. Move you feet at least 3-5 boards and your target 2-4. This "should" get your ball down earlier into the head oil and hopeful miss that burned up area on the lane. Sometimes even a further move will be required but you can see what you'll need from the reaction of the ball on that first move. a

Placing a towel on the lane side of the foul line is a technique that I use all the time for my students. It's an excellent way to get people to get the correct release and reach with their follow through.

my older brother was the one who showed me how to bowl that was one of the first things he told me to do it should hit just past it =D also helps to teach u to keep ur head down cuz ur watching to make sure u clear it =D

[Tampabaybob]

If your ball starts hooking too soon your best and safest move is to lay the ball down about 2-4 boards left of where you were playing. From where you were playing you have moved the oil to the right and left of that original area (assuming that you were consistent in your lay down area). Moving left now would put your lay down area into fresher oil and where you have moved some of the oil over. This will keep your ball sliding (spinning) through the head area and not let it grip the lane too soon. Make sense?

[bowl1820]

Loft is just another adjustment you can make, the important thing to remember is keep the launch angle as parallel to the lane as possible.