Trust Your Own Bowling Game

bowlingball.com, Originally Posted: 3/3/2014; Updated: 11/30/2022

With all of the coaching information available today through television, articles on the internet, and the literally hundreds more articles and videos posted posted in “BowlVersity” on this site, it can be easy to get caught up in trying to know too much about too many things instead of knowing and placing trust in your own game.
If you are having difficulties in adjusting to the lanes during competition, then it pays to thoroughly understand your range of effective adjustments and avoid the temptations over-adjusting or of doing absolutely nothing and getting the same poor results.
Everyone makes mistakes with lane conditions or struggles making the right adjustment decisions. Keeping your range of adjustments simple will help you more often than not.
Let’s face it, if you are most comfortable playing the lanes between the 8 board and the 15 board and are not well practiced or adept at playing either further inside or further outside, then you need to stick with what you know.
If the lane conditions breakdown, as is the a good example, after a game or two in competition, then trust your ability to adjust within your range of effectiveness when making lateral adjustments to try and hit the pocket.
If you have the ability to play deep inside or out near the 1st arrow for your strike line, then all the better.
One thing to keep in mind is that if you have made your lateral adjustments within your effective range and still cannot find the pocket, then there are other adjustments which can help.
One such adjustment is the depth adjustment where you change your sighting target nearer to you or further down the lane. If the lanes have broken down, then the likely choice should be to sight further down the lane to increase ball skid and prevent the ball from hooking too soon and more than desired.
Of course, you can also make speed or loft adjustments and maybe alter your release slightly, but caution should be taken to avoid exaggerating these adjustments unless you are well practiced and will not lose your accuracy in doing so.

If and when these adjustments fail, then it is time to change bowling balls to one which provides you additional skid length to combat the hooking lanes.
If you switch to a ball with an aggressive coverstock on hooking lanes but have a limited range of angles to play, you likely will be unsuccessful finding the pocket.
If you change balls to one which provides extended skid length, try and use one which also has low to medium track flair so you do not get a severe over-reaction on the back end of the lane.
Having a sound equipment arsenal can be an advantage when your usual range of adjustments does not help you hit the pocket on hooking lanes.
Don’t be hesitant to change equipment and think that you will simply deliver your ball better next frame and not make some type of adjustment. The commonality in today’s game is that it is very difficult to outbowl a poor ball reaction.
Adjustments are your scoring lifeline in competition. Get to know and trust your own bowling game.