**** Official Bowling Slang / Bowling Term Thread
Per PBA site
Randy’s Rants
Seattle, WA -
Randy Pedersen, a 13-time PBA Tour titlist and 24-year Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour veteran, has served as ESPN’s color analyst for PBA telecasts for the last six years.
On each week’s ESPN telecast, Pedersen can be heard giving his expert commentary on oil patterns, bowlers’ techniques and bowling strategy. If you’ve ever heard Pedersen use a term you’ve never heard before or you simply don’t understand his lingo, PBA.com is here for you to provide an explanation.
“Randy’s Rants” features Pedersen’s own set of “bowling lingo,” helping you follow along with Randy each week on ESPN.
“Randy’s Rants” will be updated every week with Pedersen’s own set of “bowling lingo,” helping you follow along with Randy each week on ESPN.
"Wet/Dry”
Wet/dry is a term used to describe the sensitivity of a particular lane condition. This reaction is normally caused by the lanes causing the bowling ball to not hook at all in one spot and then to hook too much in a spot immediately adjacent. The wet-dry phenomenon is commonly seen on the television show when the lanes are not immune to changes.
An example would be a ball rolling over the 10th board and missing the head pin while a ball hitting the 9th board would make the ball hook too much and leave a split.
"Ball Travels in the Direction of Rotation"
Ball travels in direction of rotation, meaning that once friction is created the ball will then grip the lane and change or travel in the direction the ball is rotating. The more side rotation, the more the ball will hook or change direction in the back part of the lane, the more-end-over-end, the less reaction
"OB" or "Out of Bounds"
The term “out of bounds” is used to describe a lane pattern where a bowling ball will not hook back, or recover, from an area too far away from the head pin.
The OB is commonly intentionally placed on a lane pattern (Shark) to allow the athlete to play an extreme angle on the lane.
"Ball is Looking for Friction"
The ball is looking for the dry part of the lane -- whether it’s the outside part of the lane or down lane (back end). When the ball finds this part of the lane, it hooks.
Ball is "Rolling Out"
Roll out is when the ball has found too much friction and it stops traveling in the direction of rotation. The ball starts to hook up and then quits, sometimes it has to do with too much forward roll.
"Skid/Flip"
Skid, flip is when the lanes are very slick up front and dry in the back part of the lane or when a player has a lot of side roll. The ball slides a long way down the lane and then breaks loose hooking very, very sharply in the back part of the lane.
”Pace”
When talking about scoring, what is "pace" -- pace is when you assume the player will go strike, spare, strike, spare. As opposed to striking out, which would be max score.
Pace can also describe the difficulty of a particular pattern. For instance, the Cheetah pattern has an extremely high scoring pace as compared to the U.S. Open pattern which has an extremely low scoring pace.
“Forward Roll”
The hand is more behind the ball and stays in that position through release, creating a roll that is more end-over-end.
”Side Roll”
The hand starts behind the ball and then rotates to the side after the thumb comes out, creating a roll that is more sideways (ball hooks more than a ball with forward roll).
Bowling Lingo
ABC
The American Bowling Congress was founded in 1895 and was dissolved in 2004. It was replaced officially on January 1, 2005 by the United States Bowling Congress as an organization to combine the efforts of the ABC, WIBC, YABA, and USA Bowling.
ACTION
1) Spin on the ball and the movement of the pins caused by that spin. A relatively slow ball with a lot of action can be much more effective than a very fast ball with little action.
2) Pins flying and mixing, ending with a good makeable leave.
3) Bowling for money, usually one-on-one.
ADDRESS
The bowler's stance before beginning the approach.
ADJUSTMENT
The changing of part of your game to be more competitive on the particular lane and/or lane condition you are bowling. This can mean an alignment change, equipment change, or even changes in your physical or mental game; some are subtle, others more pronounced.
APPROACH
1) The space extending back from the foul line used to make the steps and delivery.
2) How the bowler gets to the foul line.
AREA
A player has "area" if they are able to hit a larger number of boards and still get the ball back to the pocket. Modern high scoring environments can often give a player a 5-8 board area.
ARMSWING
The path your arm takes from your pushaway to release. Generally it is desirable to have your armswing in a consistent plane of movement.
ARROWS
The triangles embedded on the lane used in aiming the throw.
AXIS
Generally the reference is to the positive axis point (PAP), which is the point on the ball where the bowler's release creates the initial axis of rotation.
AXIS TILT
Ranging from 0 to 90 degrees, this is determined by the direction your axis is facing when you release the ball. 0 is parallel to the gutters, 90 is parallel to the foul line. The less axis tilt you have, the sooner the ball will go into a roll. Higher degrees of axis tilt promotes skid.
BABY SPLIT
The 2-7 or 3-10 split. Easier to pick up compared to a regular split.
BACK ENDS
Usually refers to the far end portion of the lane where the most hook can occur. If the back ends are very dry, the ball will continue to hook with power for most players; if the back ends are tight, most players will see more deflection in the pocket and fewer strikes.
BACKUP BALL
A ball that curves left to right for a right-handed bowler or right to left for a left-handed bowler. Professionals normally do not throw back up balls.
BAD RACK
A full set of pins that appears to have one or more not properly positioned; generally undesirable. See Re-rack
BAGGER (SUCH AS FIVE BAGGER)
A string of strikes; i.e., five bagger is five in a row.
BAKER GAME/SYSTEM
A method of team play in which in all five players bowl together to make one game; player #1 bowls frames 1 and 6; player #2 bowls frames 2 and 7 etc. Most Baker matches are two games, total pins.
BALANCE (AS APPLIED TO A BALL)
The weight of a bowling ball is not always evenly distributed in the sphere. USBC rules allow a ball to vary 3 ounces from the drilled top half to bottom half of a ball, and one ounce from the left to right side. Before resin balls, these weights were used to subtly change the roll pattern of a ball. A ball that has negative balances tends to be influenced to turn away from the pins; a ball with positive balance will be influenced to turn into the pins.
BALANCE (AS APPLIED TO A PLAYER)
A player is in balance if, at the point of release, they are able to complete their follow through without falling off to one side; generally means that the release and slide are simultaneous.
BALANCE HOLE
As a general rule, if you take a bowling ball and place the label in front of you and then exactly dissect the ball into two equal halfs, a right and left side, the gross weight of each half would be the same. However, if you dissect the ball off center, a greater portion of the weight block will be on one side of the ball, possibly making that half of the ball too heavy vis-a-vis the other half; also, modern high tech balls and their asymmetrical cores can be drilled in such a manner as to be in violation of the maximum tolerances allowed by the USBC for side to side weight (which is a one ounce differential); to get the ball back to legal compliance an extra, non-gripping hole may be drilled to remove the excess weight. This extra hole is the balance hole. The balance hole can also be used to increase or decrease a ball's reaction and/or to fine tune a more subtle change in ball reaction.
BALL RETURN
The physical part of the equipment upon which the ball sits after being sent back to you after a delivery.
BALL SPINNER
A machine that is used to spin a ball in a container so that the user can apply ball polish or sand the ball down more quickly.
BALL TRACK
1) the area of the lane where most balls are thrown;
2) the area on a ball where the ball rolls; most balls will show scratches and wear in this area after several games.
BEAK
The nose; the center of the headpin.
BED POSTS
The 7-10 split.
BELLY THE BALL
Describes the type of shot where a player stands inside and tosses it to the outside in the hopes it returns to the pocket for a strike.
BIG FOUR
The 4-6-7-10 split.
BLIND SCORE
When a league bowler is "blind" and can't find his/her way to the league that evening, the bowler's average is simply used (as if he/she just bowled that score) when figuring the team's total for each game.
BLOW
A miss or an error failing to covert a spare other than a split.
BOWL OUT
The practice of allowing a team player to complete their game by bowling more than their scheduled turn at one time; allowed as a courtesy to a player that has other time commitments; league and tournament rules can prohibit the practice.
BOARD
A lane consists of 39 strips of wood, each called boards; they are usually numbered by the player and used as targeting terms; i.e., I was throwing the 5th board; in synthetic lanes there are no boards as such, but usually the synthetic overlay has a pattern that resembles natural wood lanes.
Originally Posted by ColumbiaCranker
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