For most of my life, I didn’t wear glasses although I really should’ve, imagine my surprise when I went bowling for the first time last year and discovered how much more precise I could be by using the boards to aim!
- There are 39 boards on every lane, and there are 7 arrows as well. Each arrow marks a distance of 5 boards. On the edge of the lane, 7 dots correspond to each arrow.
- There are lots of oil patterns in bowling, but the default one (unless you participate in a special league or tournament) is called “house shot”
- House shot is a very forgiving oil pattern, which is why it's chosen as the default. It allows inexperienced bowlers to throw straight balls more easily and also has a margin of error when hooking that still allows you to get the desired outcome. The reason I mention this is so that my explanation of the boards and arrows makes more sense
- On house shot, the oil is very heavy in the center (roughly boards 10-30), and very scarce on the outsides (roughly 1-10 and 30-39), and the oil tends to stop altogether around two-thirds of the way down the lane when fresh.
- The simplest way to explain oil is that more oil = less hook, and less oil = more hook. This is because of the way a bowling ball is designed to move down the lane. If you throw a bowling ball with the intent for it to hook it doesn’t just start hooking as soon as it hits the lane, instead, it enters a gliding phase until it finds a dry enough spot to have friction that makes the hook happen. This is why the oil pattern stops around two-thirds of the length.
- Now that we’ve gotten the basics about oil patterns and boards out of the way, let's talk about how to aim to use them to your advantage.
- This is going to be VERY dependent on what ball you use, the lane conditions (the status of the oil), and your style
- I personally always start with my feet lined up with the leftmost dot, take my approach, and then aim for the third arrow. Most of this time it will work out for me with some minor adjustments as I go, but as the games progress and the oil gets burnt/spread. This allows me to really get my speed and momentum under the ball.
- By targeting a specific arrow (and eventually specific boards) you can control where the ball ends up when it exits the glide phase and starts hooking.
- The basic rule for this is that for every 2 boards you adjust your stance (moving your feet 2 boards over), aim 1 board towards that same direction you just moved
- I hope that this helped you start to learn what changes are possible/needed. If you still are struggling please feel free to message me, or check out our next post on hand placement and ways to throw the ball!
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