Practicing Versatility

bowlingball.com Staff Writer, Cortez Schenck

Published: 6/23/2022


I often get asked how to practice versatility. In my opinion, the best way is to practice bowling on sport-compliant patterns. By practicing on sport patterns, many will naturally see that they will need to be able to play different parts of the lane with different hand positions to strike. Using your touch is key to having success on sport patterns. A simple ball change will not suffice as it might when bowling on a house shot.

Practicing on sport conditions is very helpful for bowlers because it forces you to practice playing lines and angles that could be out of your comfort zone. Practicing on sport-compliant patterns is easier said than done for many bowlers.
For many it can be difficult to find lanes that have something out there besides a house shot. One of my favorite drills to simulate bowling on sports patterns is playing the Dot game. This game will guarantee you to learn how to manipulate a bowling ball. Here's how it works:

As many bowlers know, there are dots on the approach. Each dot is five boards away from the other. The goal is to hit the pocket from each dot while throwing the same bowling ball (does not need to strike). Ball changes are not allowed. In order to do this successfully you will need to be able to control variables like speed, RPMs, and axis rotation. To start, you will stand on the first dot (the far right dot for right-handers, far left dot for left-handers). You then throw your shot and then try to hit the pocket. If you succeed, then you move to the next dot and try to do the same thing. If you succeed in hitting the pocket again, then you move to the next dot.

Now, the tricky part is when you miss the pocket. If you miss the pocket, you only get one more chance to hit the pocket again from that dot. If you are able to hit the pocket after missing one time, you can continue moving forward. If you are to miss the pocket two times in a row from a specific dot, then you will need to move back to the previous dot you were at before and try to hit the pocket again to keep moving forward. This process keeps on going until you make it to the final dot. Once you make it to the final dot, you continue the process by working backwards back to the starting dot. As you first try this drill, I recommend having light mixer hits and high flush hits count as pocket shots. Once you get better at this drill, you can add more restrictions like only taking a flush shot to keep moving on to the next dot or make it even harder by requiring a pocket strike to move on.