Sometimes targeting arrows can fool you........

[Hammer]

Tonight on league night I found out that what you think is a good arrow to target isn't. Using my Blue Hammer ball in the first game I thought that a good target arrow would be shooting over the second arrow to the breakpoint of the 5th board to get a good hit at the pocket. It turned out that this wasn't working out for me. I was standing with the arch of my sliding foot on board 20 using these targets.

What I tried next surprised me. Instead of my sliding foot arch being on board 20 I moved it to board 25 keeping the same target arrow and breakpoint. The ball hooked much better to the pocket and I stayed around the same area the whole night just making slight changes from board 25 to board 22. That is how being left handed works to your benefit sometimes. No one else was bowling on the left side of the alley.

The Blue Hammer being a urethane ball it would seem that it would hook better with my sliding foot arch on board 20 using the reasoning that it would hook more being more to the left for a down and in to the pocket. But standing 5 boards more to the right on board 25 with my sliding foot arch made the ball hook better to the pocket. I thought that moving 5 boards right would make the Blue hit too light.

It only goes to show you that sometimes a target you think won't work right for you with the ball you are using turns out to be the right target for your ball that night. Sometimes you just have to try something that you think won't work and get surprised when you find out it does. So as it turned out what I thought would work at the beginning of league night didn't and what I thought wouldn't work did. Bowling can fool you sometimes.

[Mike White]

Tonight on league night I found out that what you think is a good arrow to target isn't. Using my Blue Hammer ball in the first game I thought that a good target arrow would be shooting over the second arrow to the breakpoint of the 5th board to get a good hit at the pocket. It turned out that this wasn't working out for me. I was standing with the arch of my sliding foot on board 20 using these targets.

What I tried next surprised me. Instead of my sliding foot arch being on board 20 I moved it to board 25 keeping the same target arrow and breakpoint. The ball hooked much better to the pocket and I stayed around the same area the whole night just making slight changes from board 25 to board 22. That is how being left handed works to your benefit sometimes. No one else was bowling on the left side of the alley.

The Blue Hammer being a urethane ball it would seem that it would hook better with my sliding foot arch on board 20 using the reasoning that it would hook more being more to the left for a down and in to the pocket. But standing 5 boards more to the right on board 25 with my sliding foot arch made the ball hook better to the pocket. I thought that moving 5 boards right would make the Blue hit too light.

It only goes to show you that sometimes a target you think won't work right for you with the ball you are using turns out to be the right target for your ball that night. Sometimes you just have to try something that you think won't work and get surprised when you find out it does. So as it turned out what I thought would work at the beginning of league night didn't and what I thought wouldn't work did. Bowling can fool you sometimes.

You don't say how far down the break point is, so I'll assume 45 feet to make the math easier.

Most people have an offset of about 7 boards between the center of the ball, and the inside edge of their sliding foot.

If you stand 20 (the ball would be at 13) and you hit 10 at the arrows, your ball has crossed 3 boards out in 30 foot length.
If you hit 10 at the arrows, and 5 at 45 feet, you balls crossed 5 boards out in 30 foot length.

Bowling balls don't tend to change direction like that while skidding.

The better way to go about this is to pick your break point, and your target at the arrow, and calculate back where to start your feet to create a straight line through all 3 points.

To play 10 at 15 feet, and 5 at 45 feet the math would be:

feet = target*2-breakpoint+offset
Where offset is 7 boards.

feet = 10*2-5+7 = 22

If you have a consistent drift you can factor that is as well.

You want the two lines (start thru arrows, arrows thru break point) to be collinear.

You also can use where you slide at as a check.

slide = (target*2 + breakpoint)/2 +offset

slide = (10*2 + 5) / 2 + 7 = 19.5

[Hammer]

Our league bowls on a THS pattern. I am not sure where the oil ends on this pattern but I think it could be 36 to 38 feet. My breakpoint is somewhere from 40 to 45 feet so you are right on your assumption of my breakpoint distance. So my thought was standing with my sliding foot arch on 20 did not have as powerful of an entry into the pocket as standing with the sliding foot arch on 25. It seemed to me that moving 5 boards right would have made the shot hit the pocket light or to not even hit the head pin and stay left of the pocket. I am left handed by the way.

[Mike White]

Our league bowls on a THS pattern. I am not sure where the oil ends on this pattern but I think it could be 36 to 38 feet. My breakpoint is somewhere from 40 to 45 feet so you are right on your assumption of my breakpoint distance. So my thought was standing with my sliding foot arch on 20 did not have as powerful of an entry into the pocket as standing with the sliding foot arch on 25. It seemed to me that moving 5 boards right would have made the shot hit the pocket light or to not even hit the head pin and stay left of the pocket. I am left handed by the way.

This is going to cover an area I disagree with Rob M so expect some conflict.

My opinion:

The ball starts with a rev rate based on the release of the bowler.
The ball starts with a forward speed based on the arm swing of the bowler.


Due to "bowling evolution", for most people the forward swing imparts more energy into the ball than the rev rate.

When the ball encounters friction, the rev rate will increase, while the MPH will decrease.

As these two factors come into balance, the ball enters the roll phase at it's maximum rev rate.

The friction between the ball and the lane changes from kinetic friction, to static friction.

Video about the difference between Kinetic and Static friction

From this point both the speed, and rev rate will begin to decline.

The goal of a strong hitting ball, is to contact the pins after the maximum rev rate has been achieved, and before there has been too much decline.

Based on your description, is sounds like when you stand 20, your ball in encountering friction too early, and the distance when it hits the peak RPM rate is too far from the pins.

By moving in, the ball passes through more oil, and encounters friction at a greater distance from the foul line, moving the distance of the peak RPM rate closer to the pins.

If you watch video of Malott losing to Belmonte recently, he seems to have his ball still in the Kinetic Friction state (hook phase) when it contacts the pins, causing significant deflection.


As for moving in, and having the ball finish further out….. Thats flat oil thinking. Since the oil isn't linear across the lane on a THS, the results from moves aren't linear.

Flat oil thinking still applies to the THS when is comes to shooting spares with a non-hooking ball, as long as the speed / rev rate doesn't combine to let the ball achieve static friction.