Burning up energy

[e-tank]

That there is too much friction between the ball and the lane, which causes the ball to hook early, causing it to lose energy and roll out.

When you make a shot, the ball goes through three stages Skid, Hook and Roll.(which is harder to see now a days, because the balls transition through the stages faster.

Skid-
Skid is when the ball is spinning (rotating) perpendicular to the direction of travel. Which causes the ball to hydroplane on the oil that's on the lane. Like a car tire sliding on wet pavement.

During this period it is storing energy, to release it when it hits the dry. To make that hard turn and hit the pins hard.

Hook-
Is when the ball starts to come out of the oil and encounters the friction of the dry lane. It then stops skidding and starts to change direction and go into a forward roll toward the pins.

This is when that energy starts to kick in, it's like spinning your car wheels. They spin till they get a grip on the road and the car takes off.

Roll-
Roll is when the ball is rolling parallel to the direction of travel, a forward roll. The energy is falling off and the ball starts slowing down.

If the ball is too aggressive, the hook and roll will happen to early (Burn up). So by the time the ball hit the pins, it will have lost most of its energy and will carry weakly. Or it won't quite make the turn toward the pocket and leave a washout or something.

That's the thing a lot of bowler's don't get. They think they are bowling on heavy oil because their ball isn't hooking and they want a stronger ball. But a lot of times they are bowling on a dryer shot and they need to use a weaker ball or one with more skid, so it retains energy longer.

just wanted to bump this and say thanks bowl. I googled this topic and this was the first result and you explained it perfectly and it a way i could understand. My heavy oil ball was def burning up a couple days ago.

[sprocket]

I just wanted to add that the best carrying ball is one that is no longer hooking as it hits the pins. It needs to be in the roll phase, rolling in a straight line, but not rolled out. True roll out only happens when the balls rotation axis and tilt both equal zero. Then the ball is just lazily rolling end over end and has no more stored energy. "Hook" can very much be an illusion. When viewed from the foul line a ball that is rolling diagonal to the lane can appear to be hooking, when actually it is in the roll phase and is rolling in a straight line.

Often times an aggressive ball that hooks early achieves a very poor entry angle. Even if it hasn't rolled out, the entry angle is too shallow and therefore it won't carry. This makes it look like the ball has rolled out. It is very possible to use an aggressive ball, play far enough right, have the ball hook early, and carry all day long. There's a guy on my league who does this. He starts the ball up the far outside and his rotation is quite end over end. The ball start to move early but is very controlled. His entry angle ends up being superb! But if he moves in a little further as the lanes dry up, he may have to change rotation or change balls or his carry can suffer.

[sprocket]

One more thing since I can't seem to edit my previous post:

In the old days the bowling physicists would demonstrate the perfect entry angle by setting a ramp right in front of the pins and then rolling a 16lb hard rubber ball end over end down the ramp. Once the ramp was in the right place at the right angle, carry was 100%. They didn't need "Throwbot" to do that. How important was cover stock? How important was RPM? How important was it whether the ball was rolled out or not? None of that mattered. The only things that mattered were ball speed, ball weight, entry position, and entry angle. Everything else is just a means to achieve those ends.