Don’t get mad when the foul light goes off. Bowling alleys have a reason for not wanting you to go past the foul line on the approach. There is oil out on the lane. It is slippery. If you try to walk down that lane, you will fall. It will not feel good.
There is a scientific method behind the existence of oil on a bowling lane. Three very important components of bowling are the speed in which you throw the ball, the accuracy of your throw, and the angle that the bowling ball enters the pocket. The combination of these is what makes someone very good or very bad at bowling.
If you watch the professionals on television or any avid bowler, you probably will notice that they make the ball hook into the headpin. They do this because it creates an angle into the pocket that increases their ability to throw a strike. When I say the pocket, I mean the area just slightly to the left or right of the head pin. You never want to hit the head pin square on; you want to hit off to the side.
The amount in which avid bowlers can make the ball curve greatly depends on how much oil there is on the bowling lane. The more oil there is, the less the ball tends to hook, because less friction is created. The less oil there is, the more friction is created, and the ball will hook more.
When bowling centers put oil down on the lanes, they normally don’t put the same amount evenly across the lane. For regular leagues and open play, bowling alleys will put down what they call their “house shot.” The house shot is considered the easiest and yields the highest scores among league players. There is a higher concentration of oil put in the middle of the lane, and as you move toward each gutter, that amount of oil tapers off.
This yields the highest scores because the margin for error is large; in other words, you can be less accurate, but still throw a strike. Remember what I said about friction earlier? When the lanes are oiled like this and you miss your target to the inside part of the lane, the ball is going to curve less because it is skidding through all of that oil in the middle of the lane, so it will just skid into the pocket. If you miss your target to the outside of the lane, there is less oil there, and more friction is created, so the ball will be able to curve more to get back to the pocket.
In more competitive situations, like in bowling tournaments, they are more likely to put a more even layer of oil across the lane, requiring players to be more accurate.
Learning to conquer the different variances of these lane conditions will allow you to be more successful and have more fun and hopefully make some money in your league or your tournament!
