Lane Conditions

[wimberlyt]

How do you tell what the lane conditions or patterns are? Can you tell just by looking or do you have to throw a couple balls to find out? Thanks.

[bowl1820]

Unless they post a print out of the pattern they put out, You'll have to throw a ball. Just looking at the lane wont tell you what you need to know. other than if its long or short maybe or if you know what to look for maybe a general pattern idea.

But throwing a ball is the best fastest way to get a read of the lanes. Take your control ball, make a few shots across different parts of the lanes and see where the wet and dry areas of the lane are.

[mrbill]

Even if the pattren is posted I don't let that be the only factor to go by.
You always have to roll some practice balls down the lane at half speed to see where they break.
I throw my first ball down the 1-5 board area, the next up the 6-10 and the next up the 11-15 Then and only then do I get a mental picture of what the lane man has instore for me................

[wimberlyt]

Thanks guys.

[JAnderson]

Even if the pattren is posted I don't let that be the only factor to go by.

That's good advice. Going into a session with a pre-conceived notion of how the lanes "should" play often causes bowlers to fail to adjust to what is actually there. Instead, properly interpreted lane graphs - and that's a skill - should be treated as a starting point.

Unfortunately, we're mostly flying blind because we can't see the conditioner from the foul line. It's actually easier to see it if you stand at the pin deck and look back towards the foul line. Why that is true has never been adequately explained to me.

So we throw to different parts of the lane and make careful observation of ball reaction. There are all different kinds of methods to reading a pattern in _____ number of shots. Find what works best for you, but be sure to use a method that checks all parts of the lane.