IndexChanging the Angle of Entry
For left handed straight or hook bowlers and right handed backup bowlers.
This is known as the 3-4-5 system and it is used to adjust the angle at which the ball enters the pocket and therefore travels through the rack of ten pins.
Firstly, I'll explain why you should want to change this angle at all. Have you ever had one of those nights when you seem to put in that perfect ball, it hits exactly the right place in the 'pocket' and yet you leave a 7 or 10 pin each time? Or perhaps the mechanic has forgotten to check the oil in the lane machine (it happens more often than you might think!), your ball is turning a lot on the lane and you're either dicing with the gutter or crossing over the headpin. Perhaps the opposite is true, the mecanic has put plenty of oil out there - down to about 50 feet it looks like - and your ball is hardly turning at all. In each of these situations you can change the angle of entry using this system to try and improve the pin carry.
If you've read the other articles on this site, you'll have guessed that 3-4-5 has to do with the number of boards adjustment needed at various points on the lane and approach. In this case, your ball is hitting the pocket where we want (see the 3-1-2 Basic Adjustment if you need help with this) so we do not want to alter that. We need to adjust:
- Where we are aiming at the arrows (the 3 board adjustment).
- Where our sliding foot is at the foul line for line bowlers (the 4 board adjustment.
- Where we stand on the approach (the 5 board adjustment).
To decrease the angle, we make the same adjustments but to the right this time.
As long as these proportions are kept the same, you can move any distance to adjust the angle. If you find it difficult to aim at an individual board at the arrows but prefer to aim at the arrows themselves, then the adjustment would be approximately 8 boards with our feet for the 5 boards which is the distance between the arrows. Our foot at the foul line should be just under 7 boards away from it's earlier place. This can be a quick and easy adjustment to make in a league match with the knowledge that you will still be hitting the pocket....
UNLESS....
The times this system will not work exactly are when there is more oil down the middle of the lane (either from the conditioning or from carrydown) or when the conditioner is patchy, for whatever reason be it heavy open play before the leagues, all the bowlers using reactive balls over the second arrow and removing the oil etc. You should therefore be ready to watch what your ball does as it travels down the lane and adjust your next ball accordingly. I was bowling at a center in Holland where the lanes were dressed for open play and I had to allow another full board in my stance for any adjustment taking the ball over the middle of the lane to compensate for the oil.
Practicing this adjustment will give you a competitive edge in a lot of situations as you will find a lot of other bowlers just have one line and are not prepared to move, whether they use first, second or third arrows (the most common lines). Many people lack the confidence or ability to adjust and will stick with something familiar, even if it is obviously not working. The big thing in this game is being prepared to adjust your bowling to cope with the lanes.
I hope this helps - e-mail me and let me know how you get on.
