Identifying when to make adjustments

[Gutternut]

I used to bowl with only 2 fingers and at the beginning of last year I started to learn to bowl traditionally using my thumb. My avg has jumped from 140ish to 188 as of last week. I still feel like I need to work on my release but I feel much more comfortable and confident now.

Last night I shot my highest series ever of 777- 265/245/267. I was asked to fill in on a scratch league the same night and shot 529 lol (133/172/224). My regular league has a medium to heavy oil THS but the scratch league has a lot less oil. On those lanes it seems to take me 2 games to make the right adjustment, I have shot a 278 there before but it was in the 3rd game.

So my question is what should I recognize first? Obviously the ball isn't finishing where I need it to but should that be my focus point on determining that an adjustment needs to be made?

[chip82901]

I asked this very question to Wes Malott during a pro-am once, and he said, "the ability to read the lanes in one shot vs reading the lanes in 3-4, is what separates me from you". While some might see it as a **** comment, it's the truth. Most of us don't see the transition fast enough, hence we don't make the move WITH the transition, but rather after. My guess would be that if you are struggling on the short, or less volume pattern, you are probably throwing too much ball, whether it be surface, core, or both. Too much surface and the ball will burn up energy and not have enough to make the move. I'd suggest something with some polish of some sort to help get the ball down lane and save some energy.

[Phonetek]

So my question is what should I recognize first? Obviously the ball isn't finishing where I need it to but should that be my focus point on determining that an adjustment needs to be made?

The most very basic answer to give you can be quoted by Nelson Burton Jr. from way back when in his tips of the week. "If you miss left, you move left. If you miss right, you move right" No matter how much technology has changed that still holds true today. Now throwing technology into the mix, if you have to make too drastic of adjustments then you can try different balls or as previously mentioned add surface to the ball. It's not the only answers but at least a place to start.

[Gutternut]

I asked this very question to Wes Malott during a pro-am once, and he said, "the ability to read the lanes in one shot vs reading the lanes in 3-4, is what separates me from you". While some might see it as a **** comment, it's the truth. Most of us don't see the transition fast enough, hence we don't make the move WITH the transition, but rather after. My guess would be that if you are struggling on the short, or less volume pattern, you are probably throwing too much ball, whether it be surface, core, or both. Too much surface and the ball will burn up energy and not have enough to make the move. I'd suggest something with some polish of some sort to help get the ball down lane and save some energy.

I don't see his comment negatively at all, it makes sense.

I do have to use a ball with less surface on the lightly oiled lanes. My "gamer" for my regular lanes is the Pivot which is 500/2000 and for the lightly oiled lanes I use my game breaker gold which is 3000 I believe but I still can seem to get wide / go right enough (left handed) while being comfortable.

[JasonNJ]

When you say the scratch league has less oil, that would probably mean less hold in the middle. So misses left go left. With your first 2 games how are you missing? Are you struggling to find the pocket the first 2 games then when the lane dries out a little you tend to have more miss room and bowl better? If that is the case, then it's more about you needing to be more accurate and consistent with your shot while bowling on a tougher oil pattern. On an easy house shot, you probably have 4 or 5 boards of miss room and can still strike.


Also on better leagues, you'll find the lanes will transition faster. Better leagues usually means better players with more aggressive equipment and higher rev rates. I bowled in a more competitive men's league last year and I struggled for the first 2 months, I wasn't used to how fast the lanes transitioned and found myself having to move way more than I was comfortable with.

[bowl1820]

The most very basic answer to give you can be quoted by Nelson Burton Jr. from way back when in his tips of the week. "If you miss left, you move left. If you miss right, you move right" No matter how much technology has changed that still holds true today.

That's not necessarily true today, do to the THS (Typical House Shot) and the high tech balls and covers.

There was a small 5 part series of articles called "Lane Conditions 101".

The part 4 was called "Why “House Patterns” are bad for bowling." which mainly summarized the first 3 parts about how putting out a THS affected a synthetic lanes surface and also caused buffer brush degradation etc.

But the thing I found interesting was something they just touched on in the last part of the article in the "solutions" and they don't elaborate on it.

The Non-Intuitive & Intuitive Adjustments.

They mention how narrow, high ratio patterns such as how most typical house shots (THS) are, present bowler's with non-intuitive adjustments because of how their ball reacts.

Example reaction:
miss right, ball hooks further left. has a non-intuitive adjustment

So I thought about it and yes a lot of typical house bowlers, when their ball misses right and they see it hook too much.

They intuitively think of how they should adjust to that reaction.

Usually they tend to start throwing the ball farther right, trying to give it more room to get back to the pocket. Which usually results in the ball hooking just that much more (if it doesn't just roll out.) do to getting more into the friction. Instead of them maybe playing the ball more inside in the oil.

Or they might follow the old adage "Miss left, Move left. Miss right, Move right."

They may move left and get more into the oil doing this, but they will still send the ball more outside into the dry (to "give it room"). Causing it to hook just as much or maybe even earlier and still miss left.

The solution the article suggests is going to wider, flatter patterns, which they say would promote the more intuitive adjustments.

Example reaction:
miss right, miss target to the right. has a intuitive adjustment

The bowler seeing that type of ball reaction instead, would then be able to use a more intuitive adjustment. so lower average bowlers can actually improve their skills

[mx1alex]

The part 4 was called "Why “House Patterns” are bad for bowling."

I don't know if the THS is bad for bowling or not but I do share a frustration with it. As a noob trying to learn and interpret what my ball is doing it's hard for me to know if what the ball did is more a result of myself or the lane. I'd like to get on a flat pattern someday so I can better recognize what I am doing wrong physically.

[bowl1820]

I'd like to get on a flat pattern someday so I can better recognize what I am doing wrong physically.

Summer might be the time to do that, Look and see what kind of leagues you have. If they have any sport type leagues, Here we have the "15 for 15 Sport Challenge League" 15 weeks,15 sport patterns. I did it to try and find the problems I was having, while I didn't fix everything. It helped identify problems and get me closer to fixing them. I'm going to do it again this year.

[boatman37]

@Bowl...we had a similar issue a few weeks ago. A teammate kept moving left because he kept hitting high. The more he moved the higher he was hitting. I suggested that his ball was hitting the drier part of the lane and told him to try moving right. Not sure what he did but finally figured it out. I told him to move inside more next time to get more oil but he is a one line bowler (204 average). 99% of the time his line works for him but that night was different.

[JerseyJim]

Most bowlers that I see don't test the whole lane in practice. They tend to line up in their favorite spot, and work off that. On a THS, that works most of the time, however if the lanes start breaking down where do you move? During warm ups I try to find at least one other area that I can move to outside of my preferred zone. A few weeks ago, it seemed like everyone on our lanes were using the same area of the lane. We started to get a lot of over/under in that area. I was able to jump inside of everyone by 10 boards. I don't like being inside, however in this case I was able to keep my ball in play, and ended up with a 630 series. There have been a number of articles on how to warm up and find your line. Susie Minshew published a few. Wes Malott put out a film on reading lanes a while back.