When you’re bowling, watch who’s
striking the most and make note of where their ball is changing direc- tion down lane. Then determine how you can get your ball to that spot. Be careful about trying to emulate someone else’s line through the front if that isn’t your normal game. There are multiple variables at work – rev rate, speed, ball choice. But generally speaking, using the formula described above will give you a pretty good head start toward finding the proper place to play. The second piece of information
I take from the pattern description is the volume of oil. That will tell me how much surface – what the cover of the ball is made of and how smooth or rough it is – to use. Our engineers at USBC found the No. 1 factor in ball motion is the surface of the ball. If it’s a lower volume pattern (19
mL or below), I’m going to use a shin- ier surface. If the pattern has a higher volume of oil (23 mL and above) then I’ll use a duller surfaced bowling ball. If you can properly match the surface of your ball to the lane pattern, you are halfway to success. Today, the top tool in changing the
surface of your ball is a flexible abra- sive pad called Abralon. Its grit ranges from 360-4,000 and these pads pro- vide a much more even finish and less mess than the sandpaper and Scotch- Brite pads of the past. Proper usage of these pads can give one ball the versa- tility of two or three.
House Pattern
55
55
45 BREAKPOINT BREAKPOINT 35 35
45
25
25
Now, if you’re still having trouble finding the pocket after narrowing down the area of the lane to play and ball choice, you can opt for another tool out of your bag of tricks – speed control. If you can get a little softer with your speed, it might give the ball a chance to get into a roll sooner. That can mean moving up on the approach, which will slow down your footwork and most likely slow down your ball speed. Another way would be to move your target closer to the foul line. In- stead of looking at the arrows, look at the dots. This will typically get you to lay the ball down sooner on the lane. These are general guidelines to help
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Championships Pattern
The Rule of 31 The USBC research team determined that subtracting 31 from the total distance of a pattern should give a good
indication of where the break point will be on the lane. The break point on a 37-foot House Pattern (left) is around the sixth board at 37 feet. On the 41-foot Open Championships Pattern (right), the break point will be around the 10th arrow at 41 feet. The longer pattern, combined with heavier oil volume, suggests that a typical strike shot on the House Pattern would likely slide well past the break point on the Open Championships Pattern and miss the pocket.
16 USBOWLER APRIL 2011 5
get you prepared for the Champion- ships. Of course, various factors will impact how the lanes will play. As other squads bowl ahead of you, con- ditions change over the course of the day. Keep your approach to the Cham-
pionships simple. Know the distance and know the volume. Those two facts will help you determine where to play on the lane and what equipment to use. Additional ways to fine-tune your reaction can be done by altering your ball surface or changing ball speed. Most importantly, watch your own
ball reaction. It will be the best indica- tor of where to play on the lanes.
Kim Terrell-Kearney is Assistant Head Coach of Team USA and the Interna- tional Training and Research Center in Arlington, Texas.
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