Practice Time: Finding Your Starting Point on the Lanes

Practice time for bowling leagues and tournaments is when you learn how the oil pattern is going to affect the bowling ball’s motion. The goal is to find the pocket and strike. You can’t waste frames in competition. If you’re unable to get lined up in practice time you’ll be starting from behind.

In this premium video lesson, Scott Pohl, owner of On Track Pro Shop, demonstrates how to get lined up quickly for every style of bowler during practice time.

Straighter

More often than not you’ll find straighter players throwing the bowling ball closer to the gutter aka the outside part of the lane. Struggling during practice time, Kaley Triske’s bowling ball is hooking too much into the pocket (hitting high).

Kaley needs a different line to be able to match up for how the lane is playing.

Moving her feet 2 (boards) left and her eyes 1 (board) left is a diagonal move that changes the shape of the shot while keeping the same breakpoint.

Changing her launch angle allows the bowling ball to enter all three phases of ball motion successfully accompanied with a good entry angle into the pocket resulting in a strike.

Tweener

Our tweener player for this example is Scott and he is also struggling to find the pocket during practice time. Scott missed the pocket to the right (light). The bowling ball doesn’t get into a good roll and deflects when it hits the head pin.

Scott is going to move to the right with his feet 2 boards and 2 boards right with his eyes on his target making what is known as a parallel move.

A parallel move keeps the shape of the shot and moves where the bowling ball begins to hook down the lane (breakpoint).

Cranker

Hailey Triske is our cranker; her revs match her ball speed. Hailey is struggling to find her line during practice time crossing over on her last shot. Increasing the bowling ball speed will keep her in the same part of the lane and lessen the hook on the back end.

Moving back on the approach, Hailey gets her ball started quickly while her feet are moving faster resulting in increased ball speed.

Check out “Lane Surface and Ball Choice” and “When Should I Use Surface on My Bowling Ball” for more concise instruction.