Let Your Bowling Ball Be Your Guide
Updated 9/9/2020The best way of getting lined up to the pocket when you first begin bowling is to let your bowling ball be your guide. In order to line up correctly to the pocket, you must first read the lane conditions. Reading the lane conditions requires reading your bowling ball reaction first so you can make logical alignment adjustments to hit the pocket.
Once you are lined up to the pocket, expect the lane conditions to change the more you bowl, particularly if you are in a league or a tournament where multiple bowlers share your pair of lanes.
Once the lanes change due to oil carry-down and break-down, adjustments are needed to restore your ability to continue hitting the pocket.
Your best guide to tipping you off as to the type of adjustment needed is your
bowling ball reaction.
If you learn to watch your ball carefully travel down the lane and spot the precise area of the lane when your ball transitions from the skid phase to the hook phase and again from the hook phase to the roll phase, you will see if your ball reacts consistently and predictably.
Hitting the pocket is every skilled bowlers objective. If you can read your ball reaction, you can read the lanes and make sensible decisions about lane play adjustments.
Adjustments might be made by moving your sighting target on the lane and the positioning of your feet on the approach to change where you slide and the delivery path your ball takes as it travels down to the break point on the lane about two-thirds of the way down the lane.
You may have to adjust your feet positioning and your sighting target away from the outside edge of the lane or nearer to it depending on the ball reaction you see. Once you are lined up to the pocket, you will have to adjust your alignment again when the oil condition changes to restore your ability to hit the pocket.
Your ball reaction will alert you when to adjust if you watch carefully each shot you make and not be so concerned with pinfall as to take your eye off of the
bowling ball.
You may have to make other adjustments for changing lane conditions such as a change of bowling balls, a change of applied finger rotation to slightly alter your bowling ball axis tilt, a change in ball speed, a change in loft control over the foul line, and, of course, changes of your intended delivery path to the the break-point down the lane.
Regardless of the type or frequency of adjustments you need to make during competition, your bowling ball reaction is your chief guide to alert you when to adjust.
As was stated earlier, keep your eye on your bowling ball. Observing your bowling ball motion is your most reliable guide for spare and strike alignment decisions.
