Adjusting Bowling Alignment for Maximum Precision

Okay Coach, let's talk about alignment. Our game's about angles and getting to the pocket the right way. When I'm a player and I need to get an alignment system together, what kind of options do I got? What's a good way for me to figure out how to get there. Yeah Steven that's a great question and, especially when you start to bowl more team oriented stuff, but even when you're bowling in league, there's a simple way that you can kind of figure out where your ball needs to be laid down at the foul line, to accurately, sort of recreate the angle you're trying to recreate.

You know, like I said. Us as collegiate coaches It's great if we tell somebody, "Hey, we want you, you know, to be crossing around 15 at the arrows and then get your break point to be about 10." Well, there's a really quick, simple way, so you know well where you need to slide and where the ball needs to be laid down in order to accomplish that. But take it even back more from a singles standpoint, if your bowling league or a tournament, and you run into your buddy who's five pairs away from you and he tells you, "Hey, this is what I'm doing." Well, you should be able to adjust and recreate that same angle within a shot to see if you know, maybe that's the reason why you're struggling and why he's striking so much. Yeah. Being able to do that efficiently sounds like an important part of the game obviously, because you don't want to lose shots trying to fish on the lane one way or the other, and figure out what to do.

Yeah. That's a great point. You don't want to take three or four or five shots especially in our situation with college bowling. You don't want to take three or four or five frames to get lined up because before you know it you're in a 10th frame, the game's over. So if you can tell within one or two shots and you know, it'll be a quick easy way that you can tell if you're doing the right thing in order to recreate the angles you want to recreate.

So, let's take a look at alignment and how to quickly line ourselves up with a quick system that's going to get us precisely in the right part of the lane, as few shots as possible so we can increase our score and score better each time we get out and play. So we have the targeting system on the lane have this chain system hanging there, and now we're going to take Shannon, and we need to figure out her alignment based off the tool that she's got, and kind of where these chains are. So talk to us a little bit about what we're looking at and what we're trying to do. Yes, we have two sets of targeting systems. We have one at the target arrows, just chain hanging from that, which is on board seventeen.

And then we have a chain hanging at our break point, which is on board nine. So how the system works it really just comes down to some pretty simple math. So you take the difference between where your ball is going to cross at the arrows, which is seventeen, and then subtract what you want your break point to be, which is nine. So seventeen minus nine is eight boards. So you go back to the target arrow number which is seventeen, then you add that difference from the break point from the target arrow, and then the break point distance.

So you add eight to the seventeen, which means that we're going to want the ball to be laid down at board twenty-five. Great, so, we've drawn a line basically from both of those chain systems to where she's going to slide, the lay down point is going to be on the approach now. So now what about her adjustment for getting the ball to lay down on that spot? Yeah, And this is where it comes down to knowing what your number is meaning how far away from your ankle the ball is laid down from where you're sliding. So Shannon is right about four boards, so you can see her ball is being, she sliding into board twenty-nine, and her ball is laid down on twenty-four and a half or twenty-five, pretty much right at that number.

And you can see the ball hits the first chain, and then because their angle is proper through the front part of the lane, the natural trajectory of her shot is going to take it to the second into our break point chain, and then the ball comes back and hits the pocket. So it's a simple series of numbers basically the break point, the target range in the front where you've got a chain hanging as well, where she's going to lay it down, and then where she's going to slide those four pieces are going to give her an alignment that basically draws her angle through the lane, along the correct path to what you're aiming for. Yeah, because of the lane has oil on it It's not going to change directions, laterally left or right too much until it gets to the end of the pattern. So it really comes down to, like we said some pretty simple math about, just trying to take the break point number where you want the ball to get to and find the difference between that number and where you want the ball to cross at the arrows, whatever that number is the difference between those numbers then add it, to where you want the ball to be at the arrows. And that'll tell you where you want the ball to be laid down at the foul line.

So let's look at another example. We have Jarvis here. Jarvis is going to give us a another example with a higher rev rate. And he may potentially would have more angle possibly to the front part of the lane but he's going to slide in different spots So, let's talk a little bit about what he's going to do on the lanes. Yeah.

If we can see here, Jarvis' ball is just a little bit farther away from his ankle. Jarvis, you can see is sliding into about thirty. He knows that already. So he knows that he has to slide into thirty in order to get the ball to be laid down at four twenty-five. So once again, regardless of his rev rate, regardless of his speed, he was still able to accomplish that same angle through the front, and then projection to his break point to get the ball to create that angle that he's trying to create.

So the reasons why these become so huge is just like we talked about a little bit ago is that, if you have a coach that's asking you to play a certain part of the lane or if you have a teammate that's asking you to try and recreate something. Or if you're just watching one of your friends bowl who's striking a lot more than you, You can get yourself lined up within one or two shots. And just strictly by looking down and saying, okay I know I need to slide into thirty in order to recreate that angle, but you look down and you're not sliding there. You know it's impossible to recreate the angle you're trying to recreate Yeah, given the dimension of the lane, this angle system you're talking about and knowing what you, as a bowler do, what you're looking for for the angle, for the ball. All the system comes together it sounds like and it makes it really simple to determine whether or not you're going to actually accurately get through those points on lane that you need to for lane play.

So let's look at a couple of bad ones here. So now we have Jarvis who, is trying to accomplish that same angle. So we're trying to cross seventeen through the arrows and get the ball to nine at the break point. But you can see here, he's now, the ball is being laid down around twenty-one board. He sliding about four boards farther right than he was just a shot ago.

So, once again he hits that first target and that first chain at the 15 foot mark, but because he's sliding farther right, the angle isn't as steep, it's more going up the lane, and you can see the ball has no chance to get out to his break point and goes broke and leaves the six pin. Yeah with his rev rate he's going to miss left for sure on that. So, what happens when we go the other direction? Yeah. So now we have Jarvis who's just moved a few boards inside of that.

Once again, we're trying to recreate that seventeen to nine tight break point. That you can see now he's sliding a little bit, about two or three boards farther left, the balls laid down on twenty-seven or twenty eight. Once again, he's able to hit the target at the fifteen foot mark, but because he's sliding deeper than he supposed to, the angle is too steep, it takes the ball too far to the right down lane, and never quite has enough to come back fully to the pocket and he leaves the two pin. Yeah this is a great example of what we've seen with bowlers. A lot of times is that they may be pretty accurate in the front part of the lane, but down lane they don't quite have the combination of launch angle and direction to get it in the same spot down lane so, this series of information, as far as drawing it back to the player, knowing the numbers and really getting accurate, with where you're going to launch, is a great way to clean up accuracy.

If you get players in the right part of the lane as quickly as possible. Also to clean up accuracy down lane so that you make sure you're exiting it the right way. Yeah and it's not taking us four or five shots to do it. just simply one or two shots you can look down if you know you're sliding in the right spot. Then it's completely about execution.

It's no longer about if you're even lined up in the right part of the lane or not. Yeah, this is great. Alignment definitely is one of the keys to execution and accuracy as far as repeating shots. And this system's easily going to make any player better when it comes to improving their game.