Mystery Bowling Oil Pattern #1: How to Get Lined Up

Hi there. Welcome to the national bowling Academy. I'm Erik Vermilyea. And today I'm joined by my good friend here, Nick Larson. We're going to tackle one of the one of the hardest things in bowling today.

And that's simply where to throw the ball. I've got a little system that kind of helps you guide you in the right direction. It breaks it down into, you know, four or five, six shots somewhere right around there. The amount of shots you get before a normal league session normal tournament session for shadow balls for practice balls to kind of figure out where you're playing. It all kind of hinges on starting off with that first shot with what I call a benchmark ball.

Nick, do you have a benchmark ball on your bag? Yeah. You know, it's going to be my GB three. It's a pretty solid ball all around Yeah. So benchmark ball pretty much every company makes something that fits the bill.

What you're looking for in general is a solid cover stock. You know, nothing, nothing pearlized, nothing crazy shiny, nothing crazy dull. You know like 2000 and 1000 grit solid cover stock with a pretty simple symmetric core, you know a medium differential, low RG. All it's going to do is pretty much roll. Read the land, give you an idea what's out there and ends up being a starting ball quite a bit, but really, again just gives you an idea of what's out on the lane.

And as far as where it fits in your arsenal, it's going to be pretty much right in the middle to maybe just one of your middle with stronger balls. So you do have options both stronger and weaker to adjust to. Nick, is that about what you have for an arsenal here with us today. You had pretty much, pretty much is. All right, so what we're gonna run through today, again the exact amount of shots, will vary, a little bit.

This is all about gathering info with your first couple of shots, reacting to what you see on the lane. Getting narrowed in, getting everything figured out and ready to go as fast as possible before your practice time runs out. First shot, we're always going to do, we're going to target right around third arrow, right around 15 or so at the arrows. You wanna throw it, you know, somewhat on the slower side just focus on good, clean release. Keep the ball on the lane, get it going up the lane somewhere.

And all we're trying to figure out roughly, length of the pattern volume of the pattern. And not the exacts, we're not trying to see exactly It's 37 feet exactly, 43 feet. Is it a longer pattern? Is it a shorter pattern? Is it a medium pattern?

And then as far as volume, does the ball clear the fronts real easy, or is it a lower volume pattern? Does the ball want to pick up quick? Is it something they have to worry about? That first shot is going to give us a little bit of info with, with that. And the first shot usually isn't even close to striking.

We'll take a little bit of that info, store it away. Second shot, we're going to move further towards the outside part of the lane. We're to get an idea of what what's closer to the gutter is the gutter going to hook? Is it gonna hang? Is it gonna fall in the gutter?

This will give us an idea of A: is that an option? Is it an option to move further out? And then B: if it doesn't hook, you kind of know it's gonna be a little bit lower scoring pace. If that outside part of the lane's out of play, it takes away a lot of your miss room, it's gonna funnel everyone into the middle which is gonna draw and make them lowering scoring. From there, you know, we'll make a good guess again probably with that still benchmark ball.

See what that one does. Again, gather up all the info, we'll chat about it as we go. Maybe try a stronger ball, maybe try a weaker ball. See if we can confirm what we're thinking. Hopefully within four or five, maybe six shots.

We'll have an idea of what we're looking to accomplish. Get lined up before the arrow comes up next to our names and competition starts. Nick, you ready to give it a whirl? I'm ready. Let's give it a go.

All right, let's do it. Okay. So here we are. We're ready for that first shot. I got my benchmark ball in hand.

The one that we discussed earlier, just kind of a, a low RG medium differential ball. My first shot is going to be right around the third arrow to try to keep the ball on the lane. Slow ball speed just have a nice, good release. Get a feel for what's out there as far as the length of the pattern, the volume. And that's what we're hoping to gather on this first shot.

Okay. So first shot, obviously it didn't strike. That's not the goal on the first shot. We did see that the ball had no problem closer to the front part of the lane. So I can see plenty of volume out there and the ball did go out in the lane, quite a ways for it made its move.

So it looks like we're on a either a medium to medium high volume pattern. And I would say something on the longer side probably at least more than 43 feet. So you've gathered some info from the first shot. So now let's see how the outside part of the lane looks. I'm gonna go ahead and move everything a couple boards to the right I'm gonna target probably closer to the second arrow, maybe even a little bit right of second arrow.

Get the ball closer to the gutter and see how it responds there. Okay. So again, some pretty good info on that one. The ball pushed on the lane quite a ways. It did make it back to the pocket but it was still pretty weak.

So this tells us a couple of things. First, there is some hook to the outside, but not a ton because the ball still did wanna push down the lane quite a ways. So we know we don't have to play real leave on the lane but there is quite a bit of volume. So we'd probably go ahead and use a pretty strong ball and give it a little bit of room. So from here, I'm gonna take the info I've gotten from those first two shots.

I know there's plenty volume out there. There's plenty of distance, but I can go ahead and be a little bit towards the outside part of the lane. So using this, my third shot I'm going to kind of split the difference. I'm going to throw one probably between second and third arrow but I'm also gonna go to a little bit stronger ball. This is just using the info game from the first two shots.

We're going to give it a whirl and see what happens. Okay. So third shot in the books. Honestly, it wasn't a great shot. Hung on my thumb a little bit, and it was a little inside of my target but it still struck.

So again, more info gathering here. That's what these shots are all about. I'm three shots into practice, and I've got a whole pile of info to work from. The stronger ball still cleared the lane hit the corner nice and strong. Hit the pins really hard.

So I think we're pretty close. So to test my theory, I'm gonna go ahead and throw an even stronger ball. I gonna use this fourth shot, the ball up to one ball even stronger and see if it's too much or if it's just the ticket. Okay. So fourth shot on the books, I actually went to an even stronger ball on that one.

Results look awfully good. Ball hit the pins really hard, created a nice motion on the lane, and still cleared the front part of the lane. Didn't hook early, had a lot of power at the pins and seem to shape the right way. So I think I've got the right ball on my hands but I've got just in this time left in practice here to try one more shot. So for a fifth shot, I'm going to ball down and go the opposite way just to make sure what I think is going on out there is really going on.

If I'm right, this ball should pretty much just miss all the, all the break points, shoot down the lane, probably not get into the roll. Might even miss the head pin. If this is what I see, then my suspicion should be correct. And I should be good to go with that stronger ball right around between that second and third arrow. So let's get that weaker ball a try and see what happens.

Okay. So five shots in the books. We started off that benchmark ball. Looked all right, gave us some info. Moved a little bit further outside, further right in the lane.

Got some more info from that one. From there, went to that stronger ball. It seemed close, went to an even stronger ball on our fourth shot. Looked really good just to confirm what I was seeing, and went to that weaker ball with that fifth shot. Kind of as I thought, it did miss the head pin.

So I think using our five shots we've centered in on a medium to longer pattern, pretty good volume kind of a higher volume pattern. For me, the stronger ball between that second and third arrow looks like the ticket. Gave me a good result and I think I'm all set. So now that's, what's going to work for me on this pattern. To kind of give you a different look at what's out there, I'm gonna bring in my friend, Nick.

Left hander, he'd give us a little different look on the lanes. I'm gonna have him walk through the exact same process and see if he gets a similar result to me. Okay. So we're back out here to give you a little different look at how to figure out the lanes. Nick, thanks for helping us out today.

Absolutely pleasure to be here. All right. You got your benchmark ball in your hand. Again you know, medium differential, low RG ball, solid cover stock. Same process.

We're just gonna walk you through. I know it's kind of a slow ball speed hit around 15 right around third arrow. Keep the ball on the lane, and all we're looking to do is get a feel for how long the pattern is and roughly how much volume. So take your approach. Go ahead and give it a roll and we'll see what kind of info we get.

Perfect. Okay. So first shot in there. What do you think you saw? What are your kind of first impressions as far as volume and distance on that one?

Definitely seems to be a little bit heavier volume. Certainly pushed a long ways, obviously with the big split I left. So it looks like I'm gonna need to make an adjustment. Okay. So on this one, you know, we, again kind of established higher volume, pretty decent length.

Let's see what the outside part of the line looks like. If it gives any additional hook, or if that's going to be out of play. So just go ahead and shift everything a few boards to the left, maybe look right around seven eight, nine at the arrows, just a little left of second arrow. Stick with that same benchmark ball, give it a roll, we'll see what we get. Well Nick, from my somewhat trained eye, That shot looked all right.

It was pretty good. What'd you see out of that one? Certainly picked up a lot sooner read the right part of the lane and picked up and struck. Okay. Yeah.

All those things. It looks like there is still some hook to the outside part of the lane which doesn't always happen with longer patterns. So it seems like what we have here is something that's got pretty good volume, pretty good length. So probably, yeah, at least more than 43, maybe 44, 45 feet. Plenty of volume.

That shot did look pretty good. My only concern is it came off the pattern pretty strong. I had a lot of back-end kick for a benchmark ball. Maybe go ahead and ball up a little bit, see if you can smooth it out a little bit. Might get a little mistake room.

We'll go and use our third shot to try something just a little bit stronger and see what it gives you. Sounds great. All right Nick, so I think that was a pretty effective third shot there. Balled up, definitely saw a little different shape. Didn't really move all that much, maybe just gave it a hair more room standing up at the same spot.

What'd you see on that shot? Oh, definitely read the lane a little bit better. Like I said, it hit the spot, certainly made a move. It looked like pretty good reaction. Yeah.

I liked pretty much everything about that. So three shots and we got pretty much the distance pretty much the volume we tried balling up and it seemed to read the lane even better. So I would say, we might already be one shot ahead but we've got a few more shots, got some more more time left in practice. I say maybe we ball down a little bit and just kind of see what it gives us. You know, if we're on the right track this ball should look pretty bad.

So go ahead and step down a little bit to a cleaner cover stocks, something with a little bit of polish to it and just see if it can kind of confirm what we're seeing so far. Okay Nick, so we're four shots in I think we're on the right track. We tried the shinier ball pretty much the same part of the lane. Definitely saw it push on the lane longer and pretty much fly through everything. What are your thoughts so far?

Certainly throwing that one, It definitely went a long ways. Did not pick up at all. Obviously with the wash over left it was put me in trouble all day. Pretty much. So I think we're on the right track.

The ball you threw for your third shot looked really good. We've got one more shot to try. We are on the longer pattern, you know, pretty much a shot to gain some free info at this point. Maybe grab that ball that we're we're pretty sure is the right ball and you pretty much know where you want play, but why don't you go ahead and move a little deeper on the lane and just see what happens. If nothing else, we've got basically a free shot at this point.

We've got just enough time to practice for one more. So might as well use it to gather some more info. As the night goes on, that shot's gonna break down a little bit for you. So if you get a free shot, you might as well see what kind of info you can gather because it might come in handy later on for you. Sounds good.

All right Nick, I think that fifth shot was pretty much ideal for what we're thinking there. You went a little deeper with the ball that we think was right. So basically you were trying to miss With what you thought was going on the ball still made it back to the pocket, came in a little late, left the seven pin, what are your thoughts on what you got there? Yeah, I mean, it was a pretty good move in, threw a pretty good shot. Obviously left a weak seven.

The ball didn't quite react like it like it would if I'd moved a little bit further left. Exactly. Definitely shows me I have a little bit more room to play with. Perfect. So I think some of this we gathered we know the volume roughly, we know roughly the distance, we know where you want to start.

You've got a really good look there. And we also know that as the night progresses, once you've started to move in, you're still gonna have that same shape that same ball motion. Just a little bit more push. So as the lanes break down you should pretty much know what your moves are going to be. I think you're set for a pretty good night here so far.