Are you aware of your miss room?

[RobLV1]

In discussions among bowlers on a particular pair of lanes, I often hear a question like, "Do you have the left lane tighter"? I believe that by defining the differences between lanes totally in terms of total hook, bowlers are missing a real opportunity to boost their scoring. Are you aware of how misses, at the breakpoint, not the arrows, react on individual lanes? If you are, what do you do to take advantage of a lane that gives free hook right (for right handers) vs. one that gives you plenty of hold on misses left.

[fokai73]

I bowl second shift leagues and not every pair plays equally or close to each other every week. In fact, coming in through the bowling alley doors, I never expect things will be the same like the week before.

Anyway, when lanes are playing differently, I don't try to over think things. I approach each lane like a new day. I know in the back of my head I can play a certain way on a left lane that has more hold and I just focus on that lane just before my turn is up. I don't think about the right lane at all. Once my feet touches the approach, I already know what I should do. In fact, I don't even say things like "don't swing it" or "this lane you can't swing"...kinda like, don't hit the beach or water in golf... one lane at a time...

[Aslan]

What miss room?

I haven't had that since Concourse took out their wood lanes.

[fortheloveofbowling]

Misses many times will be with your feet and the lay down point.

A) If you are talking about true free hook and no over under with a larger defined friction area at the break point, i will make a big move left and open up my angle with a polished mid to stronger ball and try to get in the middle of that friction down lane.

B) The bigger hold area would be the opposite and create some over under for guys really trying to wheel it. In this case i like to use a stronger ball with surface that will read earlier in the oil line on misses left and in turn not jump as much off the friction. I try to stand as close to the friction area and close my angle down.

Just to clarify, i never like to use higher rg balls. My reference to stronger in example A was higher diff and example b was surface with mid diff.

They key really to any shot easy or hard is to determine where you can play and be able to miss and still find the pocket. That is something i read that Brian Voss said in a article a long time ago. If one of the greatest shot makers of all time looks for miss area as a primary goal that is good enough for me.

[ChuckR]

Had a TERRIBLE night. Both teams tried to help each other. Everyone bowled well, but the pins were absolutely dead. A fellow on our team had 3 strikes in a row and then had his 3rd Greek Church of the night. 4 splits in a game was not unusual.
On a night like this there was no line, speed or release that helped. The only saving grace was that the bar was nearby.
Yes Rob, it was Suncoast.

[dnhoffman]

THS high street is all about finding miss room for me.

[Ptnomore]

I know enough to try as many lines and ball combo's as I can in practice to find that miss room on both lanes, but I'm NOT good enough, yet, to make the right move after I realize over/under, long hold, etc. I don't completely know what I'm seeing yet. And I have plenty of reason to question my own ability, rather than jump right into what the lane is doing.

Is that over/under because the ball is trying to read the lane too early, or am I just missing the break point? Did I not get the ball off my hand? Did I "chicken wing" it? Was I balanced at the line, or did I fall off?

I try to watch some of the other bowlers in the leagues that throw similar speed and rotation as me, but I've learned that it's not very helpful. These guys ALWAYS try to through their most aggressive equipment, and will fight like mad to get it to work. The volume just isn't there. But you can't tell them that. Because that ball was "Money at XYZ lanes the other night" or here last night".

More and more, I'm finding that I'm on my own and through that I'm getting smarter and better with my decisions. I don't talk it through with team mates any more. More often than not, they will lead me astray. I found ONE guy in the entire league that has come to know my game, and has a similar game himself, that I can talk to. He's honest about his own game, knows and acknowledges when he throws a bad ball. I'm not kidding you when I tell you that he is the ONLY one, out of (18) 5 man teams, that can do that, instead of blaming the lanes.

I may not be able to verbalize what I'm seeing yet, but when I find something, I know it when I see it. My last ball purchase is representative of that. I looked at what others were struggling with, what a few others found that was working sometimes, or at least giving them a "tight" line, looked at what my stuff was doing (hitting light, over/under, etc) and came up with a plan, that Rob and Amyers helped me verify.