mrbowling300
EOG Dedicated
Ha, I actually did have a ball worked on this week, to re do the thumb hole!If the NFL preseason plays don't work, look for him to re-drill the holes on his ball.
BTW, when I show up at league, I bring 6 bowling balls! They are in 2 three ball bags. I have another 6 at home in reserve that I will bring out for tournaments, or if I don't like a particular ball anymore.
If you imagine the bowling lane is like a sheet of ice (like in hockey), the least aggressive ball will slide down the lane like a puck does on ice. The most aggressive ball will actually be able to "grab" the ice due to the surface of the ball, create friction and hook (think of curling and how the sweepers create friction to make the "rock" curl). Same concept with a bowling ball and what the surface is made of. And then the other 4 bowling balls I have have a variety of surface friction that will make the ball react somewhere in the middle of like a puck going down the ice vs. something able to curve on a sheet of ice!
The lane itself, with a variety of oil patterns may look like a very flat surface to you. But to me, I view the bowling lane as something like a golf putting green, with all kinds of slopes, peaks and valleys. At some bowling tournaments, the oil pattern is typically announced, and a lane graph is provided so you better know what equipment to bring. The picture below is a good sample. It shows how far down the lane the oil pattern is applied. This graph is a 41' pattern. The lane is 60'. The longer the oil pattern, the shorter the ball has to hook and the tougher the scoring pace will be. The graph also shows volume of oil applied to the lane. The right side of the chart is an overhead look at the lane of where the oil is applied....darker shading is more oil vs lighter shading. The bottom of the chart shows a 3-D look at the lane as if it were a putting green. The area that is shorter, the ball will hook more in that area, the area that is taller, the ball will hook less, because there is more oil. if your ball hooks from the less oil part and into the heavier oil part, your ball will start to slide too much. The key is to find the "wall" where the lower oil part meets the higher oil part of the lane, which is your sweet spot. This can become very difficult the tougher and more demanding the lane oil pattern is. There is maybe over 100 of these patterns that are programmed into the lane oil machine, that applies the oil pattern to the lane. The other key is keeping your other factors very consistent. There is 39 individual boards that mark the width of the lane. You need to have the ball roll over the same board at say the 10 foot mark as well as the 50 foot mark, and both marks you may be using different boards, depending on your hook. Speed is very important too. If you have a constant speed, you do well, with everything else combined. If you speed is off, or you miss your board "mark", then catastrophic results could occur, like leaving a difficult spare or even a split. Maximum penalty can occur. As you can see, bowling is much more than just shoeing up, grabbing a ball and chucking it down the lane!
That is my quick bowling lesson for today!
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