Changing Lanes

With the invention of the Kegel LaneMapper, came a study about bowling lane topography like no other in the history of the game. Truth be told, when lanes were made of wood, and resurfaced in a timely manner and taken care of by craftsmen, topography was not really an issue. But with the proliferation of synthetic lanes and overlays, along with lanes getting minimal attention today, topography is much different and more influential than in past times – and the Kegel LaneMapper has been able to show it.

We now know what lanes shapes favor different type ball rolls. We know exactly why the same oil pattern can play completely different from one center to another. We know that different lane shapes can affect the durability of an oil pattern, or lane conditioner. And we know that different types of lane constructions are not created equal, nor do they change equally. It’s within this last statement this edition of the Inside Line will focus on – how synthetic panels laid on top of wood lanes can change with seasonal changes.

“All lanes look flat, but they really aren’t.”

We’ve always known that wood lanes change from summer to winter. In the days of regularly resurfaced and maintained wood lanes, we saw depressions go from the minus .010” range to maybe the minus .020” to .030” range in the winter months – a depression increase of 10 to 20 thousands of an inch. In climates where seasonal changes and humidity differences were greater, so were the changes in the lanes.

But today, because of the aforementioned lack of attention lanes receive, we are seeing changes much greater from season to season - especially in climates that have greater seasonal differences.

A big part of Kegel's original Mission Statement was “we study the game of bowling”. It was a mandate from the late John Davis. This edition of the Inside Line will focus on some of that study from bowling centers around the world, and we will show how much, and how fast, bowling lanes with synthetic overlays can change in shape.

Real World

Our first example is from a bowling center located in the northern hemisphere. Being in the north, there can be significant differences in humidity from summer to winter - it is humidity that makes wood change in shape.

The graphic below is a lane with a synthetic panel on top of existing wood lane (overlay) in the summer time when the humidity is highest. Humidity always enters wood in the area of least resistance and with a wood lane humidity enters the wood from the bottom of the lane.

Synthetic overlay measured in August when humidity is high.

We call this a ‘bird wing’ shaped lane because the wood lane pushes the panel up between the screw rows (2L, 20C, and 2R boards) causing a hill around the 10 board. This lane shape will cause hang spots outside of second arrow, and “hook” inside of second arrow. Medium length patterns are most difficult on this lane shape.

The wood lane underneath the synthetic panel "pushes up" the panel between the screw rows causing the shape of the lane to resemble a bird wing.

What is also interesting is the lanes in this center pass the plus/minus .040” specification at every distance on the lane, in the summer time.

The below graphic shows what the lane looks like during the transition from summer to winter, or winter to summer. In the fall time, the humidity has decreased causing the moisture in the wood lane to also decrease - everything is contracting and the panel takes shape of what’s underneath it. In the spring time the process is reversed. Medium oil patterns begin to play easier - actually all oil patterns begin to play easier.

As the humidity begins to lower, the moisture in the wood lane begins to release, making the wood lane contract. Measurements taken in early November.

Where the lane gets the most abuse, the head area, the depressions begin to exceed the minus .040” specification. The toe screws holding the wood lane together, and the screws that hold the wood lane to the levelers below, are getting loose, or back out all together in many instances. The lane acts like an accordion.

It must be noted that when the heads are cut out and replaced with a substrate like MDF, we do not see these huge depressions. Synthetic panels on top of a substrate like MDF, HDF, or PSL, do not seem to be affected near as much during seasonal changes.

Below is what the above lane looks like in the winter time, when the humidity is lowest. In some instances, bowling centers may even turn the heat on, which lowers humidity even more. It's at this point in the year most of the moisture has come out of the wood lane and the depressions are the greatest. This is also when oil patterns tend to play the easiest; everything “ramps back” to the pocket.

When the humidity is the lowest, the depressions increase the most.

What may be thought provoking for some is, every distance on this lane has now exceeded the minus .040” specification. We have seen this in more than a few instances.

Oil patterns on a lane with depressions of this magnitude will also tend to break down quicker, when playing outside of center. This happens because there is more pressure (gravity) pushing up against the ball when outside of center so it's easier for the ball to "poke through" the oil film on the lane - the “shot” will tend to go inside quickly because of that. Think of a car rounding a curve on a banked road or race track - the banking is there to help a car navigate the turn.

This is when lofting the gutter often comes into play on competitive longer patterns - the ball will “see the lane quicker” as the pattern breaks down on the uphill slope. So players quickly move to and play the downhill side of the depression as long as they can. Physics dictates that the ball will retain energy longer on the downhill side of depression and then hook off of the uphill side easier. Once deep inside, bowlers with high rev rates, high axis rotations, and high tilts will benefit the most on this lane shape - that's physics at work also.

The Kegel Slope Graphs make the slope differences even more apparent:

Same lane over the coarse of seasonal changes.

The Slope Graphs are revolutionary in bowling because they are the first illustrations that show the severity of the ‘rise and falls’ on a bowling lane. Slopes to the right are in the blue color spectrum – the darker the color the more severe the slope to the right.  Slopes to the left are in the orange/red spectrum - the darker the color the more severe the slope to the left. Read more about Kegel's Slope Graphs.

How fast can lanes change?

The following graphic shows how a synthetic overlay pair of lanes can change over the course of 28 days – from May 17th to June 13th. This center is also in the northern part of a country and one floor below ground level – so if anything changes are less than a center on the ground floor or above. The foul line is at the bottom of the graphic.

A pair of synthetic lanes with overlays changing during a 28 day period - from May to June. The foul line is at the bottom,

What to notice here are the slopes on the outside part of the lanes – reds on the right are slopes towards center and blues on the left are slope towards center - so the lanes here are predominantly depressed at the beginning of this time frame.

Over the course of 28 days it is clear that the depressions are decreasing. The reds become lighter in color so the movement towards center is less influential, and some areas of the lane are even turning to blue in color, which indicate slopes to the right. Hang spots are caused by these "outward slopes". What we noticed during these 28 days was "the oil pattern" became tougher as the lanes flattened out - gravity always wins on planet earth.

If we talk about the raw data, the lanes were changing (swelling up) about 6-7 thousands of an inch per week as it takes in moisture. In 28 days the depressions went from the mid-minus 30 thousands of an inch to less than 10 thousands of an inch. And the process will reverse itself come fall time as the wood releases all that moisture.

“Gravity always wins on planet earth.”

How this can help you – the proprietor, the bowler, the coach, the federation, or the tournament organizer.

With synthetic lanes it’s even more crucial to see these slopes because it’s the only way we can really understand what’s happening with ball motion – is it friction or a significant slope causing the ball to hook too much, or not enough?

Knowing the shape of the lane at different times of the year will tell you the answer, and it will also tell you how an oil pattern will play, develop, and breakdown.

For instance; when the wood underneath the synthetic swells up in the summer your pattern will play longer or it seems like carrydown comes out of nowhere – the ball has a hard time moving towards center, when the lane is sloped towards the gutter.

This lane swelling can also "make the shot" go more inside as bowlers stay away from the hang area towards the outsides.

This is especially important to any one bowling center when trying to provide lane conditions for their weekly league customer base. If your center has lanes that change as much as these examples, you may need different house patterns for different times of the year so the house playing characteristics stay more similar.

It’s also important to know if a bowling center wants to “experiment” with a different oil pattern or try a new chemical product. If you don't which way your lanes are changing, or how much, it will be difficult to know why things are playing the way they are.

It’s important for tournament organizers or federations to know so when they ask for a pattern months in advance they have a better idea of what to expect come tournament time. Testing an oil pattern in one part of the year and expecting things to play the same at another time of year will often make the question "what happened" arise.

It’s important for coaches and bowlers so they can properly prepare for an upcoming tournament, or make the proper adjustments when the bowling ball is not reacting like they think it should.

Technology can definitely make life easier when used in the proper manner – the Kegel LaneMapper is one of those advances.

When used it can definitely help a bowling center get know their lanes better and use oil patterns that compliment the predominant shape of those lanes to provide more consistent playing conditions for their customers.

Or better yet, the LaneMapper can tell you where and how to correct your lanes if needed so they are "fair" for as many styles as possible.

In a game like bowling, providing equal opportunity for as many different playing styles as possible should be the goal. It worked before and although history may not always repeat itself, it sure does rhyme.

The One Thing That Really Makes Oil Patterns Play Different

Normal force, N, is the force that pushes up against an object, perpendicular to the surface the object is on. In other words, the normal force is the force pushing the two surfaces together. The stronger the normal force, the stronger the force due to friction.

How often have you experienced an oil pattern that didn’t play anything like the pattern graph suggested it would? The pattern was ‘x’ length, the high point of the oil on ‘y’ board, yet when you played on it your ball didn’t react anything like you expected, and the optimum pattern exit point wasn’t near where it was “supposed to be”.

From there we look for explanations, and we might get answers like; “the temperature was different today”, “it was raining outside”, “the lane machine put out the wrong pattern”, or who knows what else. In past years technology might not have been available to check things, so theories flourished.

Today, however, we can use technology to confirm the correct pattern is in the lane machine. We can use the Lane Monitor to make sure it was applied correctly to the lane. And with the Kegel LaneMapper, we can even measure the topography of the lanes to see if and how that influenced things.

Knowing and understanding these critical components about our invisible playing environment can help us answer the infamous question every person entrusted with lane conditions has heard at least once in their life; “what happened?”

What lane topographies are most common?

The Kegel Training Center has 12 fully adjustable lanes that can be shaped to mimic almost any lane topography known to exist. After measuring thousands of lanes over the years we have shaped three pairs of lanes in the KTC with some common topographical shapes, and one pair of lanes we consider as “fairly neutral”.

Neutral lanes are not perfectly flat, no lane in the world is, but a neutral lane has topographical slopes on them which do not “overly disturb” the ball as it travels from the foul line to pin deck.

We see neutral lanes often when they are made of wood and resurfaced regularly – these lane types are the “flattest” lanes with regard to topographical shape.

We also see neutral synthetic lanes, but not very often. In fact, of all the synthetic lane bowling centers we have mapped over the years we can count the number of centers having totally neutral synthetic lanes on one hand – it's definitely the exception, not the rule.

The three most common topographical shaped lanes today are what we call a seagull-wing or bird-wing shape, depressed (dish-shaped), and crowned (mound-shaped). These lane shapes are where things get interesting with regard to oil patterns, how they play, and maybe most important, how they develop as the oil pattern breaks down.

Seagull-wing shaped lanes have slopes towards the center from around the second arrow, and slopes towards the gutter outside of that. This happens because a synthetic panel is mostly screwed down on the outside 1st or 2nd boards on either side and then in the middle on the 20th board. In-between there are no securing screws “holding the panel down” other than where the panels meet, which is only every 10’ or 12’ depending on the manufacturer.

Seagull or Bird Wing Lane Shape

In the summertime when the humidity is high, or in climates with high humidity, we see this lane shape very often - especially when wood lanes are underneath the panels.

Moisture penetration on a wood lane comes from the bottom of the lane where the boards are put together essentially making the lane swell up, which then pushes up the panels in-between these rows of securing screws. This causes the lane to “mound up” around the 8-9-10 board creating slopes towards center inside of that area, and slopes towards the gutter outside of that. The resulting shape resembles a seagull's wing.

Furthermore, in both new lanes with a continuous LSL underlayment (Laminated Strand Lumber - an engineered wood product) and for certain manufacturers who use MDF or LSL to replace the old wood head section, there is a similar securing-screw pattern.

Just like the lane panels themselves, the underlayment is top-screwed in three spots across the lane, near the two outer edges and near the middle, at each of the 30 or so securing locations along the 60' length of the lane. This can also create a bird-wing shaped lane; albeit not as severe as what we see with a wood lane underlayment in high humid environments.

Crowned lanes also happen in year-round climates with high humidity; like Island countries, cities by the sea, or in Southeast Asia. This often happens with overlays where the wood lane underlayment was not screwed down in the middle prior to the lane panel installation.

Depressed lanes often happen in lower humidity climates, or in the winter time, with a wood lane underlayment. In fact, all wood lanes are cut with a slight depression in them, but the longer the panels have been on top of the old wood lane, the more they tend to depress - especially in the area of the lane that takes the constant pounding of the bowling ball, the first third of the lane.

Have you ever notice that scores often go up after Christmas time? This is when a wood lane, or synthetic panels on top of wood lanes, become most depressed because the moisture has finally been released from the wood causing it to contract (shrink). Think of a high banked race track - it's much easier to navigate the curve.

New synthetic lanes can also be installed with a depression, but rarely do we see a nice smooth depression like a resurfaced wood lane has.

Although we see these type lane shapes often down the entire lane, we also see at times a combination of shapes on any one lane. For certain type overlays, we often see very depressed heads and slightly beyond (mostly related to ball impacts), and then bird-wing shapes after that.

In the case of a new synthetic installation, we often see topography slopes that are totally random throughout any one lane, or even within one panel.

Lane shape is more the reason than anything else why certain styles (ball rolls) “match up” to certain bowling centers.

Because of the invention of the Kegel LaneMapper and resulting Slope Graphs, we now know why, and we can show it.

Where the rubber meets the road

A few months ago the Men’s National Team from Sweden came to the Kegel Training Center with a special request; to learn more about topography and train on lanes with topography differences. So to prepare for their visit we adjusted lanes 5-6 with a seagull-wing shape, lanes 7-8 with a crown, and lanes 9-10 with a depression. We also made sure the lanes remained within USBC specifications.

Below are the Slope Graphs of each pair of lanes:

Remember, the specification for lanes is plus/minus .040”, and it does not specify which way a lane must be shaped in order to satisfy those requirements. The specification also does not state over how many boards those min/max numbers can hit their limit, and that’s where things can get interesting.

For instance, if there is a .024” rise on the lane from the gutter to the eighth board, that’s an average Slope per Board of .003” – that equates to a smooth cross-tilt of .120”. The ball has a very hard time “hooking back to the pocket” on a slope this severe and we see this more often than you might think.

For more about Slope per Board, read this article: Kegel’s Revolutionary Slope Graphs.

So how does lane topography affect an oil pattern and the resulting breakdown?

This is where we have learned the same thing Sir Isaac Newton learned – you can’t fight gravity, you can only work with it.

For a little test and learning experience for all involved, we decided that the 12 players from Team Sweden would bowl six games across the three pair of lanes moving every game – this would make all players hit each pair twice.

There were three left-handed players and nine right-handed players. We chose a medium length oil pattern from the 2017 World Bowling patterns, Beijing.

Here is what the fresh oil pattern looked like, with the foul line being at the top of the graphic:

2017 World Bowling Beijing oil pattern

After 12 games of bowling, we took after tapes on each of the pairs to see how the players broke down the oil pattern on these different lane shapes.

On lanes 5-6, the bird-wing shaped lane, players tried to play outside in practice but the slopes towards the gutter made it play very difficult - they immediately “moved inside” and away from the “hang spot”.

Beijing oil pattern breakdown on the bird-wing shaped lanes

The after tapes show the paths of all balls by way of oil pattern depletion. From these tapes, we can clearly see both left-handers and right-handers played deep inside on this pair of lanes. Our tape data also shows the farthest outside anyone got was on board 9, because there was hardly any pattern depletion of the pattern outside of that. Specto data confirmed this depletion observation.

On lanes 7-8, the crowned pair of lanes, everyone stayed much more outside and never migrated that deep - in fact, they never got inside the third arrow. A few factors involved here; gravity simply helps “push” the ball towards the outside, and the ball doesn’t see pattern breakdown near as much because it's rotating "with the slope" - Normal Force is lessened.

Beijing oil pattern breakdown on the crown shaped lanes

On lanes 9-10, the depressed shaped pair of lanes, the depletion data shows how quickly everyone moved inside and how far they banked it to the towards the outside part of the lane – there wasn't a "hang spot" on that lane.

From our experience we know the ball “sees breakdown" much quicker on the uphill side of a depressed lane because the lane is essentially pushing up against the ball (greater Normal Force) making it “poke through” the thin oil film easier, which causes more friction and makes the players move inside quicker.

Once deep inside and players can play the “downhill side” of the depression the oil pattern might even feel like it has “stabilized” when in fact, it’s just gravity helping the ball “push” towards the outside. In this case, we literally mean push.

This lane shape is the main reason lofting of the gutter comes into play. Along with the pattern "feeling" like it's breaking down quickly, by lofting the gutter cap the ball is able to remain on the downhill side of the depression longer. This allows the ball to retain more energy while also creating a bigger margin for error, along with improved pin carry.

If players tried to stay to the right towards or on the uphill side of the depression, the ball would simply use up energy too quick, minimizing both pin carry and mistake area.

Beijing oil pattern breakdown on the depressed shaped lanes

Along with depletion data, we used Specto to track the ball paths on each lane. The below graph shows the average lines of each right-handed player during the last game; the blue line is the bird-wing shaped lane, the orange line on the crowned lane, and the grey line on the depressed lane.

Specto showing the average right-handed ball paths during game six of all three lane shapes

Just like the depletion data showed, the players were most inside on the bird-wing shaped lanes in order to stay away from the hang area and to control the pocket. On the depressed lanes they had more “free hook” so they could swing the ball out farther. And on the crowned lanes, they didn't have to move deep inside so they stayed to the right much farther and played a tighter line.

So there we have it – the same oil pattern, applied at the same time with the same lane machine, using the same oil and cleaner, on the same lane surface, with the same bowlers, but three different lane shapes causing that oil pattern to play different, and break down significantly different.

Topography has been a buzz word for a few years now and we’re really seeing how influential it is, and how it affects lane play. For instance, want to know which part of the lane your ball is influenced by topography the most? Or how different ball rolls are affected by these slopes on the lane surface?

We’ve watched enough over the years to make some conclusions which are not only backed up by results but by physics. Stay tuned, the answers will be enlightening…

5 Must Know Things about Oil Pattern Taper

Oil pattern taper, the amount of lane conditioner in the front part of an oil pattern versus how much is at the end of the oil pattern, has had to change significantly as bowling ball technology has changed. Lane conditioner (lane oil) has two main functions; to protect the lane surface, and to provide smooth predictable ball motion for as many styles as possible.

1 - History

When bowling balls were balanced, the rotation of the bowling ball was very stable and there was essentially one oil ring on the surface of the ball. Front-to-back oil taper with balanced balls is very different than what is needed with modern high flaring balls, which have multiple oil rings on them.

Remember, with high flaring balls, the oil pattern breaks down from back to front and with low flaring balls it’s the opposite, oil patterns break down from front to back. As a refresher, here is an article on that explains how oil patterns breakdown differently between the two types of bowling balls: Breakdown and Carrydown – Then and Now.

At the same time that bowling balls were going through changes, lane surfaces were also changing – “it’s very hard to hit a moving target” was something John Davis used to say often when referring to the art of lane conditioning.

As we have shown often in seminars and online articles, regularly maintained wood bowling lanes are the most consistent type of lane surfaces from lane-to-lane, and bowling center to bowling center. There may be some lengthwise level differences from center to center, but the overwhelming majority of wood lanes were cut with a slight depression, which allowed statements like “the oil pattern taper should be 3:1” to be more valid.

With synthetic lanes however, lane shapes are all over the map, and blanket statements about front-to-back taper, or any oil pattern statement for that matter, can often do more harm than good for people trying to find the best solution for their bowling center.

In measuring hundreds of bowling centers around the world with the Kegel LaneMapper we have found the lanes in any one center follow the same trend as it relates to lengthwise levelness. The only exception to that rule is when bowling centers have added sections of lanes over time.

So if we simply talk about oil pattern taper as it relates to the lengthwise level of a bowling lane, if a lane went downhill we could easily increase the front-to-back taper ratio to help the ball slow down to achieve “good ball motion”. Conversely, if the lanes in a bowling center predominantly go uphill, we might decrease the taper of the oil pattern so the ball would slow down less in order to provide good ball motion for the majority of bowlers.

When lanes were made of wood and resurfaced often, and bowling balls were essentially balanced, it was that simple – but not today.

Today’s synthetic lanes can be crowned, they can be depressed, they can be depressed up front and crowned down lane or the opposite, they can be high right, high left, and anything in between. We very often have seen synthetic lanes that are shaped like a seagull wing; crowned outside and depressed in the middle.

Add the fact that your customers have bowling balls that are still balanced (low flaring) to the very unbalanced kind (high flaring), providing that perfect front-to-back taper can be a challenge.

Of course your daily house pattern is most important for your center, and getting that one pattern “right” can be accomplished, but applying a tournament pattern, or one of the many named patterns out there, and having players expecting it to play similar from center to center is like expecting to win the lottery.

2 - House Shot Patterns (Recreational Type)

Most daily patterns used in bowling centers around the world are of the easy variety – a lot of conditioner in the middle and not much outside. For these type oil patterns, it is most important to control the amount in the mid lane and at the very end of the pattern to 1, minimize carrydown and 2, to open up the outside portion of the lane.

The graphic below is of a typical oil pattern taper when only non-flaring balls were in use. The goal then was to protect and apply conditioner only in the head area and let the conditioner “bleed off” the oil transfer system the rest of the way down the lane to the end of the oil pattern. From 8’ to the end of the pattern was typically a front-to-back taper ratio of 3-4 to 1 and that was with a maximum of 20 units in the head area!

Today’s oil patterns with today’s high flaring balls require a different type of taper, and much more volume. If we start with 80 plus units in the heads, there might still be 50 plus units in the middle to the 30 foot range. We do this in order to provide the bowler with a lot of hold area and decent ball motion, along with providing durability to protect the lane as long as possible.

To get that amount of oil throughout the pattern, the buffer brush must be loaded much more throughout the oil pattern with possibly a much more drastic drop off of conditioner towards the end part of the pattern. The amount towards the end of the pattern should decrease at a rate according to the type of lane conditioner in use and/or lane topography.

Below is an example of a typical daily oil pattern taper using high flaring bowling balls. As you can see, much more conditioner is used throughout the entire pattern.

The outside portion of the pattern has very little conditioner because most centers want to provide the bowler with a lot of mistake area outside of target. So even though we may want some taper there to allow the straighter player to start more to the right, most are concerned about not having too much conditioner towards the outside area in order to provide the largest margin for error possible.

3 - Challenge and Sport Oil Patterns (Competitive)

When designing competitive oil patterns, the goals of a specific oil pattern can vary greatly. If the pattern must play good on the fresh, because of a match-play format for example, finding that perfect taper for game one might be in order. That type pattern will usually be a higher front-to-back taper ratio in order to get the ball to read the lane sooner within the oil pattern.

If the goal is for the pattern to keep players in a specific zone for a longer time, front-to-back taper might not be as important as making sure the end of the pattern holds up for more games. That type of pattern would most likely have much less taper and play more difficult on the fresh, and then become easier as depletion towards the mid and end part of the oil pattern occurs.

A perfect example of an oil pattern with very little front-to-back taper is the 2015 US Open pattern that was used in Garland Texas. The amount of oil in the middle at 8’ on this pattern proved to be in the high 50 unit range, at 22' in the mid 60 unit range, and at 2’ before the end of the oil pattern (41') was in the mid 30 unit range. The front-to-back taper in the middle of that oil pattern was about 1.75 to 1 from 8' to 41', and 2 to 1 from 22' to 41'.

Below are two graphics of the 2015 US Open oil pattern – the 3D and 2D graphs. Lane tapes were taken at 8, 14’, 22’, 27’, 32’, 36’, and 41’.

The pattern goal of that event was to try and keep the players from lofting the gutter, which was accomplished, but we cannot discount what was done with topography at that venue as well. Our studies show topography is always a factor in how oil pattern plays, develops, and breaks down. In this case, the USBC made topography public so we know lane topography definitely was an additional reason the pattern held up so well. (The why will be a future article!)

4 - Lane Conditioners

The lane conditioner you choose also must be factored into your oil pattern’s design. Lane conditioners are developed with specific characteristics and your oil pattern should complement those characteristics in order to benefit from them.

For instance; FIRE and ICE were created for increased durability and both require less conditioner at the very end of the pattern than many of our previous conditioners. If there is too much conditioner at the end of the oil pattern the ball will read the carrydown much more than if, for example, the same amount of Prodigy was at the end of the pattern.

If using our newest lane conditioner, Curve, more conditioner can be applied at the end of the oil pattern simply because it’s a higher friction conditioner, and that will help the ball slow down. Also, the ball won’t “see” what is carried down beyond the oil pattern as much as it would with FIRE or ICE. The trade-off however is durability.

5 - Topography

Now that we have those other factors covered, we can touch base on topography some more and how lane shape affects oil patterns. As we touched base earlier, wood lanes have very similar topography; all are slightly depressed (lower in the middle than the outsides) with the main differences from center to center in lengthwise levelness.

Yes we have more wear issues with wood lanes, which can be corrected with a resurfacing or re-coating, but with synthetic lanes we have more diverse shapes on the lane than ever before in the modern history of the game. Those shapes can vary from lane to lane, and even within the same lane. This makes finding that perfect oil pattern on synthetic lanes across any one bowling center more challenging than ever.

For lanes that are predominantly crowned, lowering the amount of conditioner in the mid lane and at the end of the pattern will help the ball lose energy at the proper rate, which will help provide truer ball motion. Crown lanes tend to act like lanes that go downhill, so anything you can do to help the ball slow down will help your bowlers with good ball motion.

For lanes that are severely depressed, and if you wish your bowlers to play right of center, additional conditioner in the mid lane and at the end of the oil pattern helps reduce friction slightly, and therefore helps the ball not lose energy as quick. Think of depressed lane like a banked curve on a race track – the inside part of the lane is lower than the outside part of the lane so the ball is rotating up the hill causing it to use energy quicker, along with normal force helping the ball move more to center.

For seagull wing shaped lanes, and believe us when we say there are many overlays like this, shorter patterns will need increased front-to-back taper in order to get the ball to read the lane earlier. Yet longer patterns on this lane shape will need less taper simply because from 10-10 the lane is depressed - once the ball gets towards the middle and end part of the pattern it sees the lane more, and sooner, as the oil depletes.

Conclusion

In the article titled Breakdown and Carrydown - By The Numbers, we showed how today the front part of the lane never really depletes to the point of excessive friction unless there is a major wear issue – it’s the mid lane and backend that deplete to the point of the ball seeing a great amount of friction.

Sure the front part of the pattern depletes, but if we start with 70-100 units up front, or less like in the US Open example, at the end of play there is still 30 to 40 plus units of conditioner in the front part of the lane, which is plenty to provide a low amount of friction.

In addition, that part of the lane the bowling ball has the least amount revolutions and the most amount of speed - both of those attributes make the ball “see the lane less” than it does at it slows down and revolutions increase.

The point is, front-to-back taper ratios with today’s patterns is not as important as controlling the amount of conditioner in the mid lane and at very end of the pattern.

If you get that correct in your center, the majority of bowlers in your center will have predictable and controllable ball motion, and back end change (carry down) will be minimal. And for the most part, hopefully, you will have happy bowlers.

Oh No! My pattern is not playing the same as last year!

By Doug Dukes - Kegel Technical Sales Specialist and Kegel Pinsetter Parts

"My pattern is the same as last year but it is not playing the same"  is one of the #1 lines we hear this time of year.  As one of the techs at Kegel that has the privilege to not only help all of you on the phone, but to also work on lane machines in the field, let’s take a look at some overlooked parts and adjustments to your lane machine.

CLEANING - “You can’t paint the Mona Lisa on a piece of toilet paper.”

The number one overlooked problem on a lane machine is its ability to clean.  Anytime a pattern adjustment is requested because they don’t play the same, our first question is “have you done a clean only”.

On Spray Jet machines, the screen check valves (153-0220) should be taken out regularly and cleaned.  Lint build up on these can wreak havoc on the jet's ability to spray properly and as the check valves get weak, your spray tips can drip.  If you notice that your machine is using less cleaner, it may be a good time to take these screens out and clean them.  There are also two filters that cleaner passes through before it gets to the screen check valves, one in the tank (154-0212B) and one inline filter before the pump (154-8867A or 154-8887).  It is always good to replace these filters every summer.

On Sprayless Cleaning Systems, you need to replace the two filters talked about above, but also your Norprene tubing in your cleaner pump (154-0861B).  This style cleaner pump operates by using a set of rollers that press cleaner through this tubing every time the motor turns on.  Over time, this tubing can lose its ability to allow cleaner to be pushed through it, and your volumes can be significantly reduced.  Many times I have run a cleaner volume check on a lane machine and looked at the touchscreen only to realize that I was the last one to run the test during the yearly service last year!!!  You guessed it……the volume was significantly lower than what it should have been.

Once you change the tubing, run a volume check and set it to your desired output and monitor this for a few weeks as the tubing breaks in.  It will vary a bit during this time and a readjustment may be required, but it will settle in quickly.  This should be checked on a regular basis throughout your season as well.

The cushion roller (153-8838 standard roller and 153-8839 roller with wrap), is another frequently overlooked piece to the cleaning puzzle.  The size of the cushion is the key to your cleaning.  If we think about how the cushion roller works, when the cloth unwinds, the cushion roller drops onto its stop bolts.  When the machine is pushed onto the lane, the cushion actually lifts up off the stop bolts, and the weight of the cushion is what helps clean the lane.  Simple right?  If your cushion has gotten smaller over time, now it is not making full contact with the lane surface.  This means it will not clean well.  Mona Lisa and toilet paper soon to follow.

If you look at your cushion roller and see the “alligator skin” look, the ends are flaring out or torn and the cloth is visually pulling into the roller, or if you can wrap your hand completely around it, it is probably time to send it to greener pastures.  One trick I show during service stops is releasing the tension on the cushion roller when you finish your lanes.

On machines that have the take up roll on the top, you can stand the machine in the transport position when finished and open the duster compartment.  Slide the take up roll to the side and turn it 180 degrees and lock it back in place.  This will relieve the pressure on the roller and when you turn the machine on to run lanes the next day, the machine will find “home” and wind the cloth back up for you.  This can extend the life of your cushion and save you from headaches mid-season.

Squeegee blades (153-8204E Blue or 153-8834 Brown) normally are not overlooked, but why leave them out.  Your squeegees should be flipped every six months, and changed once a year.  You don’t want to leave any cleaner behind.  Always check for your 1/8 to 3/16 adjustment as well, once you change or flip your blades and adjust accordingly.

Recovery tank filters are another overlooked item in the cleaning process.  Waste tank a little lighter than normal?  Check your filter and change it regularly. This is the perfect time to flush out your vacuum hoses and check for small pin holes that may affect suction, along with cleaning your vacuum motor and checking the motor brushes.

Conditioning - “The best canvas deserves a worthy brush.”

A few minor adjustments in your transfer system that have been overlooked can also make you pull your hair out when you’re dialing in your pattern.

Have you checked your crush adjustments on your brush?  Most people check the crush from the buffer brush to the lane and set their buffers at 1/8 to 3/16.  What most people don’t check is the crush to the transfer brush or roller depending on the machine type.  If it can’t pick it up off the transfer brush or roller it can’t get it to the lane!

As the brush wears, it may lose some contact with the transfer brush or roller.  When getting ready for the fall season with an existing brush, or when putting in a new brush, always check this adjustment.  We like to see 1/8 inch of crush to the roller or transfer brush.

On a transfer brush system, if you turn the buffer on while the brush is in the down position, you should see a thin light colored line where the transfer brush and buffer brush meet.  This is from the bristles on the buffer brush being pushed together as they push against the transfer brush.  Adjust accordingly.

Your pressure gauge can tell you a lot about your lane machine as well.  If your pressure gauge fluctuates as you are applying loads or your pressure seems much higher than normal, you may need to clean your oil control valve.  Dirt can accumulate in your valve over time and cause pressure fluctuations while applying loads.  If the valve is dirty, take a good look at your filter inside your oil tank as well (154-0212).  Replacing it once a year will keep you in top running order.

Your lane machine is one of the most important machines in your center.  My final example I tend to give to proprietors and mechanics alike goes something like this…….

If one of your pinsetters happens to go down during a league, you may upset at most the 10 people that are bowling on that pair. But you probably have the parts to be able to fix this later that evening.  If your lane machine goes down, and you have a 32 lane center that is full, you’ve now made 160 people upset, and you may NOT have the parts to fix it.  You next day air the parts, but your still down the next night, and 160 turns into 320.  It is extremely important that you keep your machine clean, do your daily and monthly preventative maintenance, and not take your lane machine for granted.  Always keep a few parts on hand.  One of every relay, two of every fuse, a fuse holder, a head drive belt, check valves, etc.

This minimal list of low-cost items can be the difference between a full house of happy bowlers, or a lynch mob and a quick backdoor exit of the center.   Spend ten minutes a day, 20 minutes once a week, an hour a month and a half day every six months on your machine, and you will be able to keep it clean, and inspect the machine for wear on a regular basis.  Always remember we are only a phone call away 24 hours a day 7 days a week from anywhere in the world.  We are ALWAYS here to help.

Good luck and good scoring on your new season.

Kegel’s Revolutionary Slope Graphs

With the invention of the Kegel LaneMapper™, came a greater than ever extensive study of bowling lane topography. With that study, came a stark realization that gravity randomly affects the bowling ball much more on synthetic lanes versus regularly resurfaced wood lanes.

The reason gravity and topography comes into play more today is because synthetic lanes deviate from flatness more than wood lanes ever did.

Also, although a dry synthetic lane has more friction than a wood lane (smoother surface causes a greater footprint from the bowling ball), a conditioned synthetic lane has less friction than a conditioned (oiled) wood lane, making it easier for an object to move “off line” in a non-flat situation.

For years, people in the game of bowling only talked about thousands of an inch with regard to the level specifications of a bowling lane. In short, a certified bowling lane can not deviate from +/- .040” over the width of the lane (cross-tilts), nor can any crowns (hills) or depressions (valleys) along the surface be greater than the +/- .040” specification. This specification was implemented in 1939 by the American Bowling Congress along with the Annual Resurfacing Requirement, which was made for wood lanes.

Sometime before 1964, the Annual Resurfacing Requirement became the Bi-Annual Resurfacing Requirement. But in 1964 by pressure from the for-profit bowling industry, resurfacing requirements on any time line by sanctioned bowling centers was removed by the ABC, yet the level specifications remained.

The deletion of that rule created a huge asymmetric lane wear issue, which culminated with the PBA creating their own lane maintenance division, and implementing their own lane surface policies for PBA Tour events.

But today, with the large number of synthetic lanes, we have not only asymmetric wear issues, we found bowling lanes can also have severe asymmetric level issues. For Kegel and the LaneMapper project, our next challenge was to find a way to easily show the affects gravity had on a bowling ball on any one lane at any specific distance.

The breakthrough came by creating and defining a brand new term in bowling - Slope per Board™.

Although we explained Slope Per Board in our last Inside Line article, Lou Trunk's What a Shock - Newton Correct, we can't stress enough the importance of looking at a bowling lane in this manner. Remember, the bowling ball only reacts to the board it's on, and could care less about the boards it's not on.

Once we compile all the data of a lane the Kegel LaneMapper is able to give us, cross-tilt numbers and each board’s crown or depression values, we are able to calculate the individual side slope of any one board at any point the lane is measured at. 

For instance, we know a bowling lane consists of 39 boards, and if a bowling lane is tilted high right 40/1000” (1 mm), which is the maximum allowable amount under the specification rules, that would give us a slope per board value of about 1/1000” (.025 mm) for each board on the lane (.040”/39=~.001”).

If we double that cross-tilt to be .080”, which is two times the allowable amount under the specification rules, that would give us a Slope per Board value of .002” for each board (.080”/39=~.002”).

Another instance that would give us that same .002” Slope per Board value, but be within current specification, would be a .040” V-Shaped depression, or crown, directly to the center of the lane. The calculation is a .040” slope over 20 boards, which equals a .002” Slope per Board as well (.040”/20=.002”).

Understand, the ball doesn’t care about the lane being in specification or out of specification. The ball feels the exact same gravitational influence of .002” under each scenario – one scenario twice the allowable amount, and one perfectly within specifications.

However, as soon as we introduce crowns and depressions into the equation, that cross-tilt slope per board value can increase or decrease significantly, and depending on which way the gravitational slope is, it will influence the bowling ball to the left or to the right as it travels down and across the lane surface.

With synthetic lane installations, it is common to see crowns or depressions combined with tilts to produce Slope per Board values well over .005”, which is equal to a cross-tilt that is five times (.200”) the legal specification limit.

“The breakthrough came by creating and defining a brand new term in bowling - Slope per Board.”

The Slope Graph

Now that we realized the random deviation from levelness of a synthetic bowling lane, we began to experiment with different graphical representations of the data. After some experimentation, we settled on a seven color overhead graph, with varying shades of blue being right gravitational influence (the darker the color, the more influence), varying shades of red being left gravitational influences, and green being neutral to very little gravitational influence on the bowling ball (arrow graphic below).

Our current LaneMap Slope Graphs (pictured left) have been scaled to be much wider than an actual bowling lane so to easily see the left-to-right definition of the lane when a pair of lanes is on one sheet of paper.

To the left is an example of a bowling lane that has some severe depressions the first 28’ of the lane; this is very common with aging synthetic lanes installed over existing wood lanes.

After the 28’ mark, the lane becomes slightly crowned. This is evident from the blue colors outside on the right side of the lane, and the red spectrum colors on the outside on the left side of the lane.

To give you an example how much those front lane depressions affect a bowling ball; if a 15 pound ball is placed on the right side 8th board at the foul line, and it is straightly rolled end-over-end at 18 mph, by the time it reaches the 28 foot mark, based upon this actual lanes levelness in that area, the ball will have moved almost 3” to the left!

After 28’, and the ball being almost to the 11th board, the forces on this lane are basically non-existent, or cancel each other out, keeping the ball near the 11th board the rest of its journey to the pins.

Remember Andy Varipapa's “double hook trick” where he spin rolls the ball at the foul line to the right side of the lane, and then it rolls to the left side of the lane, and then back to the right again to make the 10 pin? This is most likely gravity at work on a depressed lane surface - all wood lanes were cut with a depression. It’s only a trick because many assume slopes that are not visible to the naked eye will not affect a bowling ball’s path.

However, our testing has shown these "invisible slopes" can affect the path of the ball significantly. It's possible Andy also knew that, and he might have known spinning the ball would decrease the friction between the ball surface and the lane surface, helping gravity “do its thing”. After all, the Laws of Motion were around long before Andy Varipapa.

It must be noted, in accordance to the Laws of Physics, that a side slope on an oiled lane (low friction) will make a ball move off line more than on a perfectly dry lane because less force is needed to move the ball offline. Think of a car on a side hill on an icy road versus dry pavement; the same physical forces apply to bowling balls.

We have also been studying how a rotating bowling ball is affected by these different side hill slopes, and with all the varying degrees of axis rotation, axis tilt, and rev rates of different styles, along with varying amounts of friction, ball weights, and ball speeds, it is very complicated math.

But basically, the Laws of Physics still apply - a ball rotating against the slide slope will deplete energy quicker than a ball rotating with a side slope.

For example, a player like Pete Weber, who has a high degree of axis rotation on his normal delivery, will be affected more on a side hill slope perpendicular to his axis of rotation than a player like Jason Belmonte, whose axis of rotation is much less. It could be a positive or negative effect depending on which way that side slope is and how the players must attack the lanes to find the most room for error and best pin carry.

However, with Kegel's Slope Graphs none of that matters because we are comparing different lanes to one another, with all those rotational and friction properties being near the same for any particular player.

So far the Kegel Slope Graphs have been spot on in real world situations. Not only have we been watching and proving them in action at many high level events and championships over the past two years, from a thousand miles away, after fully measuring a bowling center with the Kegel LaneMapper™ and creating a Kegel LaneMap™ Report and Guide, we can tell a proprietor what lanes in their bowling center have certain characteristics, or which pairs are the highest and lowest scoring, without ever steeping foot inside their center. Every time they are amazed what we can tell them from this data.

In addition, when having these Slope Graphs compiled into a full Kegel LaneMap Report of any bowling center holding a tournament or championship, we can also predict what lane is tighter, what lane hooks more, where a lane will play the fairest, and what pair topography will be least influential, or be the fairest for most styles, and therefore, to hold the finals on.

From our formal and concourse educational seminars, we find understanding these graphs and how it relates to ball motion takes very little time. But to this day, and with all the education on oil patterns, most still don’t understand oil patterns and how they relate to ball motion,

How many times have you heard, “the oil pattern didn’t play anything like it did at home”, or “the oil pattern says we should play here, but it seems to be better over there”?

With Kegel’s LaneMapper and the reports and Slope Graphs it generates, we now know exactly why that happens.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Below are links to download Kegel LaneMap Guides for a few bowling centers so we can show you real world examples on how lanes differ from one another.

The proprietors of these two centers, Werner Knoebl of Dream Bowl Palace in Munich, Germany and Ronald Dol of Dolfijn Bowling in Tilburg, The Netherlands, are very progressive and sport oriented bowling proprietors. It is their feeling that sharing this information makes for a more level playing field.

As any proprietor knows, one of the biggest challenges for the weekly bowler is trying to adjust to radically different lanes.

Kegel LaneMap Guide Downloads:
31 January 2012 - Dolfijn Bowling - Tilburg, The Netherlands: 1.3MB PDF - this report was made available to all players by the organizers of the 2012 European Bowling Tour's Hammer Bronzen Schietspoel International.

2 February 2011 - Dream Bowl Palace BEFORE the March 2011 re-leveling. After the re-leveling, lane play became very similar from lane to lane.

This example is one of the absolute best new synthetic installations we've seen: 20121015 LaneMap Report from Bowl for Fun in Langen, Germany

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What a Shock - Newton Correct!
Topography: What does it all mean?

What a Shock - Newton Correct!

By Lou Trunk – Professional lane installer
Two time winner of BPAA Special Projects Award
USBC National Tournament Lane Installer and/or Stand-By Service Manager since 1987

Over the past 24 months, along with the staff at Kegel, we have stepped up the topography testing of years prior by performing revolutionary experiments and gathering data from all over the world. We have been closely studying different lane shapes, creating formulas, having late night jams sessions, and watching 1000’s of bowling balls go down the lane trying to prove, and disprove, how topography affects the motion and the direction of the bowling ball as it rolls from foul line to off the end of the pin deck. Notice we didn’t write head pin. As you read the full series, you’ll come to understand why.

This series of articles may be the most important subject players, proprietors, tournament organizers and administrators of the game have ever read regarding the technical side of the modern day sport of bowling.

Newton Correct!

The “thought experiments” we, along with a very few others, have been executing in our minds for over 20 years, finally took to the lanes early November 2009 in the form of actual measured real life situations of lane topography, on which actual real life bowlers of various styles threw shots, which produced observable and CATS™ measured ball reactions.

The initial tests were exciting and invigorating to John Davis, Bill Mongeau, Ted Thompson and me, but probably not so shocking to Sir Isaac. Indeed, it appears that Newton’s First and Second Laws in fact apply to the game of Bowling.

In layman’s terms, these experiments involve three basics: 

1. Momentum, (and the law of conservation of momentum): a body’s momentum equals it’s mass times it’s velocity p=mv (p is the symbol for Momentum).

2. Newton’s First Law of Motion, which states in the absence of force, a moving body will move in a straight line at constant speed.

3. Newton’s Second Law of Motion, which states when a force is applied to a body,acceleration will result in the direction of the force.

Most important with regard to Newton’s Second Law for our experiments, is that the net force on an object is equal to the time rate of change of its linear momentum.

For example, the more momentum a ball has, the more force will be needed to act upon the ball, in order to change the ball’s path by a certain distance.

In bowling, the gravitational force on a bowling ball comes from a lane’s tilts, depressions and crowns. And mind you, there is not a perfectly flat lane anywhere on this planet.

Most everyone in the bowling industry considers the lane surface as a two dimensional surface. A flat plane, or an X and Y axis, with the X axis being the width of a lane, and the Y axis being the length of a lane. If the lane was merely two dimensional, gravity would simply be a constant throughout any bowling ball’s journey down any lane. That is simply never the case, and the often unconsidered Z axis – the change in elevation – has a significant amount of influence on ball motion.

For our experiments we considered the force, momentum and inertia situations. The constants on repeated shots were mass (ball weight), lane surface, gravity, oil type and oil pattern; which combine to produce a certain ball path shape for a certain bowler with a certain ball on a flat surface. Then we changed only the topography, and that’s where the “shock” began. And it was shocking to us, but not to Sir Isaac Newton.

Slope per Board is the Key!

The first thing we must explain is the creation of a brand new term in bowling called, Slope per Board. With the invention of the Kegel Lane Mapper, by taking crown and depression readings of each and every board across the lane, and then adding the single crosstilt reading to each board, we can calculate the slope of each board at any distance on the bowling lane.

To fully understand the significance of this reading, we must understand that as the bowling ball travels down the lane from foul line to pin deck, it simply reacts to whatever gravitational force is acting on the ball on whatever specific board it is on at any one moment in time, and it doesn’t care about the slope of surrounding boards.

For instance, we know a bowling lane consists of 39 boards, and if a bowling lane is tilted high right 40/1000” (1 mm), which is the maximum allowable amount under the specification rules, that would give us a slope per board value of about 1/1000” (.025 mm) for each board on the lane.

If we double that crosstilt to be 80/1000” (2 mm), which is two times the allowable amount under the specification rules, that would give us a slope per board value of 2/1000” (.050 mm) for each board.

Another instance that would give us that same 2/1000" slope per board value, but be within current specification, would be a 40/1000” v-shaped crown or depression directly to the center of the lane (.040” slope/20 boards = .002” slope/board.)

The ball doesn’t care about the specification. It feels the exact same gravitational influence of .002” under each scenario – one scenario twice the allowable amount, and one perfectly within specification.

Further, as soon as we introduce crowns and depressions into the equation, that crosstilt slope per board value can increase significantly, or even decrease, and depending on which way the gravitational slope is, it will influence the bowling ball to the left or to the right as it travels down and across the lane surface.

What did we do?

We, so far had introduced a “force” to the ball, a Gravitational Force. We shaped a few of the adjustable Kegel Training Center lanes with consistent gravitational shapes relative to the lane, yet contradicting gravitational forces relative to the ball’s inertial path.

On one pair of lanes, we created as near a non-imbalanced gravitational force as we could, as flat as possible. This gives us a benchmark ball motion reaction where there is constant gravitational force on the bowling ball as it rolls down the lane.

On another pair, we created two opposite shapes.

One lane had a legal gravitational imbalance of approximately .003” slope per board (SPB) low left for a right-hander playing anywhere from 1-20 board. We did this by creating a .040” low left crosstilt (.001”SPB), plus a .040” smooth V-shaped depression from both 1 boards to the 20 board (.002” SPB) which gives us that .003” per board slope effect toward the center of the lane for a right-handed player.

On this lane’s mate, we created the low right equivalent. We did this by reversing what we did on the companion lane.

It is important to note that this very shape yields only a .001” slope for a left-hander playing anywhere from boards 1-20 on his side, since the combination of the tilt and the crown/depression compound the slope for the right-hander but are partially counterbalancing for the left-hander.

And finally, just like the pictures above, we created two lanes with real world situations of a net gravitational imbalance of approximately .005” slope per board. One lane with a gravitational force towards the center of the lane, and the other gravitational force towards the right gutter for a right-handed player, which was again opposite but nearly flat for the left-hander because of the counter-balancing combination of the crosstilt plus the crown and depression.

What did we see?

Newton would be proud. The left-handers had all pairs about the same. The right-handers certainly did not. The relative effect on the bowling ball was proportional in three ways. First, there was nearly double the effect on a ball’s path at .005” slope per board as there was at .003” slope per board in the direction of the slope.

Secondly, the effect was proportionally less for higher ball speeds and greater for slower ball speeds. The faster the ball was thrown, the less boards the ball missed the intended breakpoint because of the gravitational effects of the lane topography.

Remember that the displacement caused by a gravitational influence is a function of the time spent on the influence, so it stands to reason: faster speed = less time on the influence = less displacement.

Sure enough, the differences in the two opposite gravity force lanes were proportionally greater for slower ball speed players. And third, lighter weight balls were proportionally more effected by a certain slope.

“Displacement caused by a gravitational influence is a function of the time spent on the influence.”

So at this point, what we had tested so far, were bowling lanes with a consistent gravitational force, either inward or outward, and bowlers of various speeds and ball weights relative to themselves – comparing a bowler’s data to his own data on the various shapes. Then we gathered data comparing bowlers to other bowlers. Bowler A playing straight up the 5 board and Bowler B playing 20 to a break point of 5.

For Bowler A, where the ball hit the pins was greatly different since his ball’s translation was almost continuously at a 90 degree angle to the gravitational force vector. The net change in impact position was greatest with this style on these opposite lane shapes.

Bowler B’s net change in impact position was not as significantly different as Bowler A’s, because Bowler B had the gravitational force displacing his ball at a slightly more obtuse angle (an angle greater than 90° and less than 180°).

The results for the two launch angles are very different and very significant.

It would appear that the nightmare pair for the down-and-in type player is one lane tilted left all the way and one lane tilted right all the way, because his ball is continuously influenced near perpendicular to his ball’s path throughout its travel from foul line to pins, so the impact point change is huge. As much as hitting the pocket on one lane and hitting only the 3 off the right (6-9-10 pins) on the other.

The boomer’s ball (Bowler B) had less perpendicular gravitational effects on its way down the lane both to and from the breakpoint in this all left slope or all right slope situation. The impact point doesn’t change as much as Bowler A, but the hitting power and shape of the ball path does.

Bowler B’s ball path shape was more of a curve on the all left slope covering far less boards. It was easier to control the shot, and it was less speed sensitive, but incurred a lower percentage pocket carry. On the all right slope Bowler B’s ball path shape was more of a skid-snap type reaction covering more boards but with less control. The ball was also more speed sensitive however it had a higher pocket carry percentage.

Newton would certainly agree, that to be fair to all players, all ball weights, all speeds, and all launch angles, FLAT is the only fair situation, and the further we deviate from flat, the more unfair the game becomes.

Lighter bowling balls and slower ball speeds are influenced more in non-flat situations than heavier bowling balls and faster ball speeds.

Further, the gravitational effects of depressions, crowns and tilts have widely varied effects on varied launch angles. The more a bowling lane strays away from flatness, the more those gravitational effects influence different styles of play in different ways.

So now it’s time to continue our testing by redoing each test over and over. The story continues.

Newton…what a guy.

Fine Tuning your House League Pattern

This is the time of year when new seasons have begun and pattern decisions are being put to the test. You’ve made your choice, laid out the pattern, and now things aren’t going exactly as planned. You’ve verified that your machine is in perfect working order, now what do you do?

Once the bowlers take to the lane, lots of problems can come to light. If a majority of your bowlers are experiencing the same problem, it may be time to make adjustments to the pattern. Common complaints could be: too much carrydown, back ends too strong, not enough hold area, heads hooking, no swing, track dries up too quickly, or no taper. How do you trouble-shoot your pattern and fine-tune it to get the ideal conditions for this year’s league? Here are some tips for common problems with patterns which should help you make proper adjustments.

Too Much Carrydown

Too much conditioner at the end of the pattern can cause excessive carrydown. This can be rectified by not loading as far down lane on the forward pass or increasing the machines buff out speed, which decreases the amount of conditioner on the lane towards the end of the pattern.

If your machine has our reverse brush drop feature, this is another fine tune adjustment you can make to bring the amount of conditioner farther back towards the foul line, or limit the amount of conditioner towards the end of the pattern. Poor cleaning can also cause carrydown issues. This can come from an incorrect mixture of cleaner or improper machine performance. It can never hurt to double check to make sure your machine is cleaning properly. To do this, perform a clean-only run on a few lanes and see if all the conditioner and cleaner are removed from each lane.

Back Ends Are Too Strong

Lengthen the pattern or create more taper to tone down the back end reaction. Tamer back ends provide predictable ball reaction and make spare shooting much easier.

Different types of cleaner provide different back end motions; this is another “condition” adjustment you can try. You could also experiment with a weaker ratio of cleaner to water mixture, but be careful; there is a fine line between getting the lane clean, and not clean enough.

Not Enough Hold Area

Make no mistake about it, as much as bowlers think they like swing area, what creates the highest scoring environment is hold area. The hold area is created by the amount of shape in the pattern towards the end as well as some friction outside of target. Without both, it is just about impossible to have the other.

If your lane machine has reverse oiling capabilities, starting the reverse oil loads farther down the lane will help increase hold without fear of getting too much conditioner at the end of the pattern, which as we said before, can cause carrydown issues.

Lane topography can increase hold area, a side slope away from the pocket at the break point area for instance, but topography can also minimize hold area if the side slope is towards the pocket at the break point area. Before you start searching for hold area by way of the oil pattern, get to know your lanes to make sure your lanes will allow the type of shot you are searching for.

Heads are “Hooking”

The amount of oil in the lay down area, or a lane surface in poor condition, can cause the heads to hook. In both instances, the lane machine should run slower in the heads, 10 or 14 inches per second on Kegel machines. The slower the machine travels, the more brush strokes per distance traveled which increases the amount of conditioner to any one area. This is better controlled on the return oil due to the direction of travel and the rotation of the buffer brush. Apply oil loads during the return travel that finish closer to the foul line (but not less than 4 feet).

Another thing that will give the perception that the heads are hooking is when the lay-down point of the bowling ball is on the upslope of severely depressed heads. No amount of oil in the world can fight a significant gravity influence towards the headpin in this situation.

No Swing Area

The amount of oil on the outside boards or adverse lane topography can affect swing area. Reducing the length of your oil pattern, or decreasing the amount of the applied oil on the outside boards, will increase the amount of swing area. But be cautious, even though bowlers like to swing the ball, your lanes just may not allow that to happen with the success you, and they, are looking for. Just know, however, our highest scoring patterns are the ones where most styles can go up the lane and have hold area.

A recent example is the 2011 WTBA Women's World Championship where many scoring records were set on the 47' Paris oil pattern. Note: the 2011 version of the Paris pattern tapes out at 4.2:1 at 22', so be aware if you try and use this in your Sport Bowling league.

Another example of a high scoring pattern is our Kegel Navigation Challenge pattern Route 66. This 45’ pattern routinely outscores many higher ratio shorter recreation patterns.

If you have topography issues, or side slopes that go towards the outside portion of the lane, the pattern should be adjusted by stacking up your inside oil line, applying conditioner farther towards the end on the forward and reverse passes, and allow the bowlers to play a more direct line to the pocket. This should create more area where ball reaction is concerned on a longer pattern.

Another topographic issue that can decrease swing area is depressed heads. Depressed heads cause the ball to quickly lose energy which makes down lane recovery (swing area) very difficult no matter how little oil you apply to the outside boards, or how much you apply to the heads.

Track Area Dries Up Too Quickly

Many bowling centers do not apply enough oil to the mid-lane track area on both the forward and return passes. Applying oil to the track on the return pass can help provide more longevity and stability without drastically affecting the forward oil readings and ball motion at the end of the oil pattern. Another adjustment is widening your pattern slightly. As balls hook more, the track area is becoming wider and farther down-lane. Take your middle loads and try widening them out a board or two and see if this adjustment gives you more longevity to your track area.

No Taper to My Pattern

The easiest way to create taper in the pattern is to make adjustments to your lane machine’s drive speeds during the forward pass only. Increasing the drive speeds on your forward run towards the end of the pattern will apply less oil in that area which increases front to back taper.

If your machine has Kegel's reverse brush drop capability, dropping the buffer brush farther back into the pattern on the reverse pass can also give you more front to back taper within your pattern.

Conclusion

With these tips, tricks, and troubleshooting techniques, you should be able to tweak your pattern and make it playable for most of your league bowlers. However, even with excellent lane conditions, you may still not be able to please everyone. If you reach the point where the majority of the bowlers are happy and bowling well, then it may be time to leave the lanes alone.

As always, it is important to remember that the pattern is not the only factor contributing to your lane conditions. You are competing against the lane topography, the other bowlers who share the lane, and Mother Nature herself. With topography, we cannot stress enough how important it is for you to know the shape of your lanes. When that information is known, finding that right oil pattern for your center is much easier. Without it, it's just a trial and error exercise.

Bowling is about skills and technique, but it is also about versatility and one’s ability to read the lanes and make adjustments to account for those factors which are out of your control.

Warning: Managing lane conditions may result in the loss of sanity. If it occurs, please contact our free Kegel Tech Support at (800) 280-2695 and we’ll help you get it back.

Inside Line Tech Tips - Summer 2011

“The oil pattern didn’t play anything like it did at home!”
by John.Janawicz@kegel.net

Often times I hear this comment and there are many reasons why this can happen.  Frequently, the center that you are going to bowl the tournament in (say for example the USBC Open Championships) is using a different brand of cleaner, different oil, and a different lane surface (not even taking account of one of the biggest differences….topography).  Those are very obvious factors, but often people think that because they have the same lane machine as at the tournament site that it should cover all of those differences.  Ultimately, even if you have the same lane surface, oil, cleaner, and lane machine, differences will still remain.

One of the differences we see often is the physical condition of the lane machine.  Even though each Kegel lane machine leaves the factory meeting all of our strict adjustment and performance specifications, what happens to it from there is totally dependent on the maintenance (or lack thereof) that is given to it. 

For an example, let’s compare two cars:  Two 2011 Chevrolet Corvettes. 

One Corvette lands in the hands of a business man who uses it strictly as a commuter car.  He washes and waxes it every week, changes the oil right at 3000 miles, and always uses synthetic oil.  He manages to put 25,000 miles on the car in a 12-month period.

The second Corvette ends up being a rental car.  The car is in numerous drivers’ hands many of which perform routine burnouts and jackrabbit starts.   This car also logs 25,000 miles in a 12-month span. 

Though both of these cars started their life exactly the same, do you think both cars are going to look the same and perform the same after 12 months?  Do you think the interiors are going to be the same?  It wouldn’t surprise me if the rental car’s transmission doesn’t shift as crisp and probably a few of the basic items are a little more worn out (brakes, parking brake, tires, etc.)  All I know is, I’ll take Corvette number 1 and you can take a chance with the rental car, haha!

Knowing this, do you think all lane machines are treated the same?  We’ve seen many lane machines after one year look like they’ve never been cleaned!  Oil drips out of the vacuum motor (where it never should), the transfer brush is filled with dirt and hair, the paint is peeling off due to cleaner being spilled on it numerous times, and the frame has been tweaked throwing the factory adjustments out of spec since the machine has been dropped more than a half-dozen times due to negligence.

- Do you think that this machine I described above will put out the pattern the same way the brand new machines we have at the USBC Open Championships will?

- Do you think the pattern will be the same with a machine that doesn’t clean the lane well because the squeegee blades or cushion roller have never been changed?

- Do you think the pattern will be the same even if the cleaner tank filter is clogged and the Norprene cleaner tubing hasn’t been changed in over a year which results in half the amount of cleaner coming out (resulting in poor cleaning) and now you’re oiling on top of a film?

- Do you think the pattern will be the same even if the transfer brush has so much dirt in it that it keeps the oil in the transfer brush an extra 6 feet down the lane?

Many factors will make a pattern play different from center to center but often one of the biggest is the physical condition of the machine itself.  Stay up with the maintenance of the parts that commonly wear out (squeegee blades, buffer brush, cushion rollers, etc.), keep the machine clean, and your lane condition will be more consistent from week to week and month to month. 

Like our VP of R&D Mark Davis once said:  “Machines that look like new….tend to perform like new.”

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Preparing your Lane Machine for the Fall Season
by Steve.Cross@kegel.net

As many bowling centers close during the summer months, it is especially important to properly prepare your machine to begin a new fall season.  If this is not done, it can lead to restriction to flow in the system, or problems with ball reaction at an inconvenient time after the league season has begun. 

In order to stay ahead of Murphy ’s Law, I urge customers to follow the Boy Scout motto and “Be Prepared.”  You will thank yourself for performing this preventative maintenance on your machine.

The first thing you will need to do is get the machine out and drain the fluids.  You will then want to remove both the oil and cleaner tanks individually and perform a thorough cleaning on them and the filters.  Inspect the tanks to make sure there is no sediment or residue from the previous conditioner or cleaner left behind.  It is important to flush and clean these tanks whether you plan to use a new batch of the same conditioner or intend to switch to a new conditioner altogether. 

Once the cleaning is complete and machine is intact, you should turn the machine on and check that oil is flowing freely through the oil lines.  You will be looking for a consistent PSI reading.  If the pressure readings are too high or too low, this indicates that there may be a problem in the oil lines. 

This is also a time of year where many centers will experiment with new oils or patterns.  I always recommend that changes be tested before the season begins.  This allows time for you to decide what is right for your center and make pattern changes or adjustments if necessary.  If your center will be using a new oil, I suggest keeping the same pattern for testing.  Changing only one of these variables will give you a better comparison of the new versus the old oil. 

This should help to ensure that you maximize your machine’s performance and decrease the risk of problems sneaking up on you once your season has begun.  Take care of your machine, and it will take care of you.  And if it doesn’t, give one of us Techs a call US Toll Free at (800) 280 2695, or International +1 (863) 734 0200.

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DC Drive Motor Maintenance
by Steve Calhoun

All Kegel lane machines are driven by DCV drive motors that are designed with two carbon style brushes, one on each side of the motor.  As the brushes wear down over time, carbon dust particles build-up inside the head of the motor between the stator (field) and the rotor (armature).  This build-up can cause a short inside the motor.  To prevent a dangerous build-up, it is important to routinely remove the carbon brushes, and blow out the motor with air to remove any carbon build-up. 

Note:  If you use an air compressor, please insure that the air-lines are free of moisture before evacuating the motor.

If the brushes are several years old, they may need to be replaced.  Each brush is manufactured with a tension spring that keeps the brush in constant contact with the rotor of the motor.   The shorter the carbon fiber brush becomes the less tension there is on the rotor.

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How to Make Your Batteries Last Longer 
by John.Thrift@kegel.net

As we all know, batteries are not created equal and they do require maintenance.  It is important that batteries are charged properly and to make sure the source that is using this supplied power is not abused so that they reach their maximum potential.  After reading this, you should be familiar with two causes of decreased battery life and some charging standards for Odyssey batteries. 

One of the biggest problems that can decrease battery life is a machine that has been abused.  When a machine is not kept clean or well maintained, it can cause an overall higher amp draw and result in the battery dropping out faster. 

For example, if the vacuum motor has had waste sucked into it, like the images of abused vacuum motors below, this can greatly affect the battery.  Damage like this could hinder machine performance and easily cause a NEW set of batteries to do 25 lanes less than it should.

Another battery issue that is often overlooked is whether the charger is giving the batteries a proper charge.  This can take into account any portion of the charging mechanism.  The Odyssey batteries require different stages of charging which should be as high as 29 volts within the first 30 minutes of being on charge to as low as 27 volts after being on charge for 6-8 hours. If proper charging does not occur, this will also affect the life of your batteries.

Periodic checking of the charging system along with regular maintenance of your lane machine will greatly extend the life of your batteries.

Contact our techs at their e-mail address, or call US Toll Free at (800) 280 2695, or International +1 (863) 734 0200.
 

Weather, Topography, and Ball Motion

THE INSIDE LINE: 2011/01/18

In the first issue of THE INSIDE LINE, we promised that our next article would discuss how weather affects topography and ball motion. Since lanes are made up of wood, and sub components of wood, we know temperature will affect the shape of them.  However, the one part of weather that significantly affects the shape of lanes is the humidity, or lack thereof.

Because wood is porous, and high humidity means there is a lot of moisture in the air, humidity tends to make wood swell up. Low humidity, when there is very little moisture in the air, makes wood compress as the moisture is not as present in pores of the wood. For those that have seen what happens to wood approaches when a spilled drink was left there too long, you know the effects.  Bowling lanes do the same thing.

Humidity and Temperature

When bowling lanes and wood based components that make up lanes are exposed to humidity and temperature changes, extra moisture in the air often "enters" the wood material at a point of least resistance. But because there are many differences in construction, and depending on the sub-foundation material and underlayment, as well as the many different wood components utilized in building a bowling lane, the only thing we can be sure of is weather definitely changes lane shape.  However how it changes can vary greatly from situation-to-situation.

For instance, often the outer edges of certain materials, like wafer board Parallel Strand Lumber (PSL), are much more susceptible to moisture penetration from the sides rather than from the top. This contamination happens much faster than moisture penetration elsewhere, so in this case the swelling causes a depression.

In other instances, swelling causes the wood, or boards, to compress against each other which can cause a “push up” effect. In this case swelling can cause a crown, or less of a depression.

But how does this affect lane conditions? First, lane conditions in this case are not about the oil pattern, it’s about the condition of the lane. Time has altered the term lane conditions to mean only oil. This was not the case for the majority of time modern bowling has been in existence. So in this case, we’ll discuss lane conditions as it relates to the shape of the lane, and how those shapes affect ball motion.

Depressions and Ball Motion

If weather change makes your lanes become depressed, this shape not only helps guide the ball towards the center of the lane, it also makes the ball lose energy faster. The reason for this increased loss of energy is the rotational effect of the bowling ball against the side hill of the depression.

Here is a graphical example:

As you can see, for a right-handed player, or left-handed back-up bowler, the rotation of the ball is counter clockwise to the slope, and therefore acts like the ball is trying to rotate uphill. This makes the ball lose energy faster versus a flat lane. When lanes are shaped in this manner, ball motion is more of an “arcing” type motion because of the early loss of energy. This loss of energy is also the root cause of why some houses are referred to as a “10-pin center”.

The majority, if not all, wood lanes are depressed, especially in the head area. The majority of synthetic lanes installed over wood lanes are depressed, especially in the front part of the lane. We have found that new synthetic lane installations are more random; some parts of the lane are depressed, some parts are crowned, some are high left, and some are high right. But they are still affected by humidity and temperature changes, which means the randomness remains, it’s just different.

We have documented examples that show certain type lane structures can depress 70/1000” when weather changes occur. To show how much this affects the bowling ball, we have taken Kegel’s adjustable lanes, shaped them, and performed many tests.

Our testing has shown that a bowling ball released at 18 mph on a lane that is depressed 40/1000” from the edge to the center, can cause the bowler to be over three boards left from that of the flat lane. Slower ball speed players and lighter balls are affected more. Faster ball speed players and heavier balls are affected less. This is in accordance with Newton’s Laws of Motion.

Crowns and Ball Motion

To get an idea how a crown affects the energy of the bowling ball by its rotation, here is the same type graphical example as before:

As you can see, now the bowling ball is rotating with the slope of the lane, which causes the bowling ball to lose less energy than it would if it was rotating against the slope of the lane. When a lane is crowned in this manner, high launch angles will be affected more than a bowler that plays “straighter up the boards”.  When lanes are shaped in this manner, ball motion is also more “skid snappy” because the bowling ball is retaining more energy.

The Race Track Effect

Because of this rotational effect and gravity, lanes that are depressed in the heads act like there is very little oil in the front part of the lane. Depressed heads are no different than driving your car on a banked curve. The reason for banked curves on the road, or race track, is that they reduce the vehicle’s dependence on friction to navigate the curve.

It’s no different on a bowling lane. Depressed heads keep the ball from “squirting” away from the pocket, or in other words, help the ball make its move towards the pocket, just like a banked race track helps the car turn the corner. That is, until the bowler lays the ball down on the other side of the depression.

Did you ever wonder why players that can get far to the left make the lanes look easy? The next graphic shows why; gravity is now working to their advantage, instead of against them.

The bowling ball now has a gravity “push to the right” in the front part of the lane, and a gravity “bank shot” once down the lane. Gravity wise, the lane is helping the ball get to the right early with energy retention, and then return to the pocket in the breakpoint area. Players that don’t have the rev rate to get to the extreme left are at a tremendous disadvantage in this type of playing environment.

Notice that during this entire article, we have shown how lane shape affects the direction of the bowling ball, how lane shape affects the shape of the ball’s motion, and how lane shape affects the energy loss of the bowling ball, yet we have not mentioned lane conditioner or the oil pattern once!

The next time you start chasing down a ball motion issue at your center, or even a pin carry issue, and you have performed the Process Verification Procedure on your lane machine and oil pattern, don’t overlook the shape of your lanes. We have a relatively new saying at Kegel; “you can’t fix a gravity problem with oil.”

In conclusion, get to know your lanes; identify how they’re shaped and how weather change affects their shape. Find out why some lanes score high, and why some lanes score low. It will save you a lot of headaches, and help you provide your customers with a high-quality playing experience all year round. And like always, if you have any questions or need help, call Kegel. We are just a free phone call away.

Earl Anthony - Simply the Best

THE difference between the good players, the very good players, and the great players, is the mental game.  But what exactly is this mysterious thing called the "mental game”?

Many of the good players and very good players possess similar physical talents to the great players, but they often fall short with their accomplishments. 

Simply put, the physical game - in any sport - is how the athlete performs based on their overall talent, ability, potential, skills, and preparation. The mental game however is a totally different animal.  This element of the "package" is HOW the athlete thinks.

We have all heard about how the great players are the ones who work the hardest. They are the first ones to practice, and the last ones to leave. But, there is a lot more to it than that. Desire, dedication, determination, self-control, focus, concentration, confidence, self-esteem, positive thinking, goals, visualization, knowledge, and a host of other things, must be mastered.

The following is how the late great Earl Anthony “mastered” the game of bowling.

One time Earl Anthony was being interviewed after one of his early victories by a reporter. It was in the early 1970's, and the reporter wanted to be controversial about the lefty-righty situation that had run rampant in the late 1960's.  He said to Earl, "This victory establishes you as one of the best lefties on Tour.  Are you happy with that assessment?" Earl looked him right in the eye and said, "I don't know anything about that, my goal is to be the best bowler."

There was another time I remember that showed exactly how the man thought. It was 1974 and he had just been named the Bowler of the Year. A press party was arranged and the award was being presented to him in his office. The wall was cleared and the photographer was going to take a picture of Earl putting up the plaque. Earl was standing toward the corner of the wall with the plaque, and someone in the crowd told him to “put the plaque in the center of the wall.” Earl replied, “No, this one is going here, and the rest of them will go across the wall.”

Earl was right, the other Five Bowler of the Year Awards eventually filled up the entire wall.

Previously, I had written a series of books called the “Final Phase”. They were instructional books to help bowlers learn about the great sport of bowling.

For one of these books I interviewed Earl and posed this question this question to him; "Earl, in my opinion, you were the greatest bowler in the world. You totally dominated the PBA Tour for more than ten years.  What do you feel was the formula-for-success that you enjoyed?”

Earl’s answer was, "In my opinion, success is the result of hard work, dedication, intelligence, selfishness, and some luck. How hard you work, and how much you are willing to sacrifice to achieve your goals, will determine to a great degree your level of success.

Natural talent is a wonderful gift, and to be the very best you must have a lot of God-given talent. However, you must work hard to develop that talent.”

Earl continued on to say, “To be a winner also takes a strong mind. You must be able to focus your concentration level to a fine point, and achieve a level of confidence in your ability that is unshakable under the most extreme pressure. Most winners develop an air of arrogance, which is a by-product of the confidence that they have in their ability.

The reason I was successful, was my ability to understand and develop my mental game, as well as the endless hours of practice on my physical game. There was also a certain amount of fear-of-failure that was tempered by a small degree of courage that I used as a motivator to let me continue to fight for my goals, despite many setbacks, and a willingness to put bowling, and my desire to be the very best, above all other things in my life."

Those three interviews alone, tells you volumes about why I thought Earl was the very best. To this day I still get chills and goose bumps when I read them.

Lane Conditions and Cold Snaps

In last month's article, we touched base on some of the effects weather can have on lane machines, lane conditioner, and ball motion. We wrote about these effects in the sense that the environment has already become more stable. But because of a few recent technical calls, we have decided to release a Special Edition of THE INSIDE LINE, and continue the discussion on how weather can affect lane conditions.

We have found that the biggest problem in a bowling center occurs when there is a drastic and quick temperature change. Kegel's lead chemist and VP of Chemical Product Development, Dennis Sheirs, found this out during the U.S. Open in 1998. For the first two days of the tournament the air conditioner wasn't working in the bowling center, and it was 80 degrees inside the center, and on the lanes.

Sometime in the middle of the afternoon on the second day of the tournament the air conditioning was fixed. Then during that evening someone cranked the air conditioning way down and by the next day both the bowling center, and the lane temperature were 60 degrees.

The bowlers started practice that morning and found the lane pattern played 10 boards tighter. Luckily, since Kegel was doing the lanes and strictly following our Process Verification Procedure, we could prove it wasn't because the laneman or lane machine did something different. But we did learn a valuable lesson; when doing lanes take control of the climate control system!

How does this affect you in daily life?

We find the same thing can happen when you typically get a cold snap up north and it's instant. Normally you will see everything get a little tighter at first. Then as everything goes through equilibrium, and bowling centers kick on the heat, all the other properties change and eventually everything will settle back in. That's when the lanes will start to hook more from the point where they got tighter at.

We said before that when the temperature of lane conditioner gets lower, the viscosity goes up, but that's only one part of the equation. The other part of the equation is the surface tension also increases, which makes the lane conditioner move more until everything settles back down. This can last over a week because during a cold snap the whole system is in flux.

What else can the weather do to my lanes?

During the summer time when the humidity is typically greater, synthetic lanes on top of wood lanes tend to be a bit more crowned towards the gutter outside of the second arrow. We know from our testing, crowned lanes tend to create "hang spots".

But in the winter time, when the heat is turned on in the bowling center or humidity decreases, the wood lane tends to depress, or the crowns decrease, and the panels follow that change in lane shape. This makes it easier for the ball move more towards the center - in other words, hook more. That change however takes a few weeks to fully occur.

If your located in an area that gradually gets colder throughout the year, you won't experience drastic changes because everything is just slowly moving there.

But from our experience, in most scenarios, those quick "cold snaps" (change from warm to cold), tend to make lanes play tighter first. Then, as the inside environment equalizes and the heater settles things down, lanes depress, and that's when we see more hook again.

So as we stated before, typically in the summertime, synthetic lanes installed over wood lanes tend to crown a little bit, and in the winter time, they tend to depress. When measuring lanes using the Kegel LaneMapper, we have documented examples of lanes changing up to .070" from summer to winter and back again - high humidity can create crowns and low humidity releases moisture causing the lane to depress.

In our research, we have found this drastic lane shape change happens only when synthetic panels are on top of existing older wood lanes. Synthetic panels on top of other substrates like MDF/HDF, or LSL do not show much change from summer to winter - only a few thousands of an inch.

Extreme lane shape change by overlays on top of wood lanes is caused by the wood lane underneath becoming "looser and looser" from years of not receiving attention as they did when resurfaced regularly. Basically, the toes screws that hold the boards together, and the screws holding the wood lane to the levelers, start backing out from the constant pounding of the bowling ball, making the wood lane act like an accordion.

Read more about Changing Lanes...

What do we suggest for quick weather changes?

Don't respond to the change too fast - give everything a chance to settle down and get back into equilibrium. Most of the time, our first response is we have to change something when somethings goes haywire - it's human nature.

You are better off to first perform your Process Verification Procedures to ensure your machine is operating correctly, your cleaner is being mixed correctly, and if so, just let everything settle down. Otherwise, you're going to be trying to change something while everything is transitioning.

A non-bowling analogy to the transition is like when you get into a pool for the first time. The water may feel cold, and that could be your first reaction, but if you stay in for a little while, you start to adjust to the temperature.  Your core body temperature does not change; you just begin to acclimate to it.

After everything have settled down though, it may be entirely possible you have to adjust your oil pattern in order to keep your bowlers closer to what they are used to. For that just give us a call - the Kegel LaneMapper has provided us with insight and allows us to provide answers much quicker than in the past.

To end, and we can't stress enough, every center is unique and the solutions to any problems are just as unique. Just know that Kegel's Tech Support department is full of dedicated people trying to do the same thing you are; provide our customers with the best possible experience as we can. And don't forget, we are only a free phone call away.

Kegel Road Trip Seminar Videos

During the year 2010, Kegel, along with Storm Bowling, performed a series of seminars throughout the USA. Kegel's portion of the seminar focused on some interesting variables that make up the playing environment.

The You-Tube videos below are of Chris Chartrand presenting Kegel's portion of the seminar. After watching these videos, you will find that there are many things about bowling you probably have never thought of, or even knew about. Enjoy.

Kegel Road Trip Series - Part 1

Kegel Road Trip Series - Part 2

Kegel Road Trip Series - Part 3

Kegel Road Trip Series - Part 4

RELATED ARTICLES
Kegel's Revolutionary Slope Graphs by Ted Thompson
What a Shock - Newton Correct! by Lou Trunk
Weather, Topography, and Ball Motion by Ted Thompson
Topography: What does it all mean? by John Davis
Sir Isaac Newton Knows Bowling by Ted Thompson

The Weather’s Changing…Are Your Lane Conditions?

It’s that time of year again. Leagues began towards the end of summer, the pattern gets tweaked, and everyone starts to get back into the swing of things. Everything is going great and then boom, the weather gets colder and all of a sudden things are different. Then comes the question every manager and mechanic has heard more than they can count - "What happened?"

The products that a bowling center uses to create optimal lane conditions; like lane machines, conditioners, cleaners, and even the lanes themselves, are all physical in nature and therefore temperature dependent. So as temperature changes, the properties and performance of all those products will change as well.

So how do changes in those physical properties show up in the bowling center? They show up in lane machine performance, oil pattern differences, lane topography changes, and of course, what the bowlers feel and see in ball reaction. As the temperature of the conditioner gets colder, the viscosity, surface tension, and density all increase which not only affects ball motion, this also affects different lane machines in different ways.

For this article, we will discuss these changes and offer advice on how to minimize the effects of cold weather on lane conditions. We will focus on the products used to condition the lanes, and in the next issue, we will move on to discuss the topographical changes the lane surface goes through as the climate changes.

Lane Conditioner
In early 1997, we conducted several tests to see how much conditioners changed when the temperature was raised or lowered. What we found was eye-opening. The viscosity of some conditioners changed 2 cps (centipoises) for every 1° F of temperature change. That means if you start with a 20 cps (viscosity) conditioner and the temperature drops from 80° F to 70° F, the viscosity of that conditioner would be 40 cps.

This is not true for all lane conditioners. Some only change 1 cp for every 2° F of temperature change. That is only 25% the change as some of the others, but regardless of how much they change, it's important to know that all of them do.

To minimize this change, look for a conditioner with a higher viscosity index (VI). VI is a way of assigning a value to a conditioner’s resistance in viscosity variation as the temperature changes. The manufacturer of your conditioner should be able to give you this value and guide you accordingly.

Lane Machines
For centers using wick technology lane machines, if the conditioner or lane machine is not kept at normal room temperature, or if stored near a cold wall, the oil will “thicken” and impede the wicking action which reduces conditioner flow onto the lane. As it gets colder, the capillaries in wicks shrink, also restricting flow. Therefore the oil pattern that you started out with at the end of summer might not be the same oil pattern as the weather gets colder.

For centers using Kegel Sanction Technology™, like the IKON, FLEX, and Kustodian line of lane machines, temperature decrease will not affect the output of conditioner like it will in a wick machine. However, if the conditioner gets colder, what you may see is the pressure in your oil pump gauge increase. Fortunately, this does not change the output of conditioner; that’s the beauty of Kegel’s Sanction Technology.

For Sanction Technology lane machine owners, Kegel’s Steve Cross suggests the following when seeing slight pressure fluctuations:

- DON'T PANIC! Expect pressure fluctuations because it is normal with temperature changes.

- Do not change the tubing (pressure regulator). Many people will try to put in a shorter tube to decrease the pressure, but this is not necessary. We have designed a large margin for psi and still have the machine perform as intended. Pressure alone does not affect oil output in Sanction Technology machines.

- Do not adjust the fluid metering pump to adjust pressure. Adjusting the fluid metering pump will increase and decrease the amount of conditioner output (volume).

- Get the machine out early, turn on the oil pump motor, and let it run for about 10 minutes. You should see the psi gauge go back to normal.

Our tech support department receives many calls this time of year with temperature related concerns and we recommend the following no matter what lane machine or lane conditioner you are using:

- Keep the lane conditioner in a temperature controlled environment. The office, front desk, or wherever the temperature is most constant.

- Keep on top of your chemical orders; try to place orders a few weeks in advance to give the chemicals a chance to “acclimatize.”

- Keep the lane machine in a temperature controlled environment so the machine functions properly. If that is not possible, look for other solutions like an electric blanket, packing blanket, or a space heater to help keep the machine warm.

Ball Motion
As we stated before, when conditioner gets colder, the viscosity, surface tension, and density increase. With the increase of these physical properties, more resistance is created on the bowling ball as it rolls through the conditioner. This, in return, usually causes the bowling ball to slow down faster which means it will hook a little more.

Another byproduct of colder weather is the conditioner tends to “stay in place” more which reduces carrydown and therefore, helps the backends stay stronger longer.

Not every bowling center is affected by outside temperature changes but if yours is, our technicians have a couple tips you can employ:

- If when the weather gets colder you notice the bowling balls are hooking more, increase your oil pattern by one foot. This will help bring back the hold area you had when the season began. Once the weather warms back up, decrease the pattern length back to what it was when the season began. Note: Wood lanes with overlays can change in shape which may increase this affect; read about "Changing Lanes".

- If you find temperature changes tend to affect your lane conditions, try to use a lane conditioner that is more resistance to temperature change (higher VI index). Kegel’s Offense HV (for Sanction Technology machines only) is such a product. Offense HV was created when Kegel was entrusted with lane maintenance for the PBA Tour. It was designed to minimize the difference in ball motion from the weekly competition to the TV Show. The TV Show uses many very hot lights that are not present during the rest of the week’s competition. To this day we use Offenses HV when we perform tournaments in venues with less than ideal climate control.

Keep in mind there is no magic lane conditioner or oil pattern that is best for every lane surface or bowling center. Finding a conditioner and oil pattern that is best for your center takes some research and a lot of patience. However, as a Kegel customer you have something going for you; award winning, industry leading tech support by Kegel’s 24/7 Tech Support. Best of all, it’s only a phone call away, and it’s free!

Sir Isaac Newton Knows Bowling

Sometimes pictures, or in this case a picture and a video, explains it best. The video below is the championship match of the Trio’s event at the recently concluded WTBA World Men’s Championship. The picture is the Kegel LaneMap™ of lanes 11-12 at Dream Bowl Palace.

The final match was played on the WTBA Mexico City oil pattern which is fairly flat and 45' in length. Our after bowling tapes showed the optimum breakpoint was around the 10-11-12 boards on that oil pattern at this championship.

The ball tracks of the left-handers and right-handers during the trios championship match are on top of the LaneMap™ Slope Graphs.

Sir Isaac Newton, the father of gravity, was not surprised with the ball motion of the players during this match - Newton has known for a long time that gravity has the same influence on the bowling ball as friction, or lack thereof.

The green areas on the LaneMap™ have very little gravitational influences on the bowling ball. The light blue and orange areas are significant gravitational influences on the bowling towards the direction of the arrows. The red and dark blue areas are severe gravitational influences on the bowling ball towards the direction of the arrows.

Now watch the video below and see if you can see and understand what Sir Isaac Newton already knew. He has been whispering in our ear for many years that it's not always oil or lack of oil (friction), as the reason the bowling ball reacts differently from one lane to the next, or even in certain areas of the same lane.

Pay attention to the right lane and how many light hits the right-handed players have. Then look at the above Slope Graphs in the break point area. Those blue areas signify a significant slope to the right - which is why the ball has a hard time moving to the left. Slopes to the right beyond the oil pattern (for a right-hander) acts like "carrydown". But it's not carrydown causing those light hits - it's gravity,

Water Walker

I think that in order to give this story as much credibility as possible, I am going to have to brag a little. I have been involved in doing the lanes with the PBA for over 800 tournaments, which included the National Tour, the Senior Tour and all seven Regions of the Regional Program. I am the only person who has done lanes for every bowler that is in the PBA Hall of Fame. In other words, I have seen them all. And, perhaps, I am really the only person who knows exactly what they bowled "on", as far as lane conditions go.

My personal All-Time Top-10, includes; Dick 'Water Walker' Ritger. You talk about TALENT. Dick was unbelievable. He was a world-class bowler, a world class guy, and later became a world-class coach. Without question he was one of the coolest, smartest, shot-makers in the history of our great sport. He could bowl on anything.

I have literally hundreds of stories of some of the tremendous feats that were performed by the greatest bowlers in the world; those that are in the PBA Hall of Fame.

This particular story took place in the early 70's. We (the Tour) were at Cranston Bowl in Cranston, Rhode Island. The weather was absolutely miserable as it had been snowing for about a week before we got there. It was 10-degrees outside when I got off the plane. Not only that, but my job as laneman was going to be a lot tougher this week because we knew in advance that the place was in bad condition because they hadn't resurfaced in a couple of years and all of the league bowlers had been complaining. And it was an old, drafty two-sided house and each side played drastically different from each other - as well as each pair playing differently from each other. I knew that I was going to hear about that.

After the first day of qualifying, Ritger was in the lead, which wasn't unusual for this 20-time champion (at the time). Almost every bowler was upset with the lanes and I had to hear about it.

That night at 2:00am I went in to do the lanes and it was now 19-below zero. There was so much snow in the motel parking lot, that and I couldn't find my car and had to walk about a mile to get to the bowl. About 15-minutes after getting there, part of the roof on the high-side (the real tough side) caved-in from the weight of the snow. It was a disaster. The janitor called the head mechanic who in turn called the Manager. He called everybody he knew to get in there to help clean up the mess. I called Harry Golden (the Tournament Director) to let him know what had happened. I cleaned and oiled the low-side then went over to take a look at what was going on over on the disaster side. There were about 20 people cleaning the water, snow, ceiling tiles and other debris off of the lanes and approaches. You could see the sky through the hole in the ceiling. I remember thinking: "I'm sure that the guys will blame me for this, too."

There were buckets on the lanes that were still catching water from the drippy roof. It was now 6:00am and the Pro's were scheduled to bowl at 9:00am. At that point I thought that there was no way. I started cleaning and oiling the part of that side that wasn't under water. When I got to the part of the house that had caved in, a "Miracle" happened. It had stopped raining and the dripping over the lanes had stopped. I cleaned and oiled the rest of the lanes. There were still some drips coming down over the lanes, but "Miracle number 2" was that the drips were only over the gutter gaps and the buckets that were placed there were catching all of the drops. It was about 8:45am now, and I took the lane machine to the back. The mechanic and all his helpers were back there huddled next to a little heater he had, and they were all trying to dry out.

When I came out of the backend, I saw about 20-bowlers standing in the settee on 31 and 32. I went over there to see what was going on. The only drips that were still coming down were over the approach on that pair and because of the full field, they had to use that pair in the tournament. Harry made the decision to leave the three buckets where they were on the approach. It was either that, or put 5 on a pair, and none of the bowlers wanted that. The buckets were to stay in place for BOTH squads.

I stayed around to watch the 1st squad bowl. After they bowled their 6-games that morning, the high game on the pair was 149. It was impossible for the players to walk around the buckets that were there to execute any type of normal shot.

Now the next squad came in to bowl. Ritger was scheduled to bowl his 2nd game on 31 and 32. It would be interesting to see what he could do there and not lose too much of the lead that he had enjoyed. When he got there for game 2 of this second day, there was a huge crowd in the bleachers, and standing behind the bleachers, as well.

I watched him (with no practice balls) alter his approach by snaking his footwork around the three buckets in a serpentine manner. I couldn't believe my eyes. He shot 279 like it was nothing. It was ridiculous.

One World - One Game

It has been almost ten years since John Davis (Founder of the Kegel Company), called together a group of experienced lane men in an attempt to further research the on-going lane conditioning problems with our Sport. It had become apparent that too many tournaments were deemed unfair by the participants and tournament organizers.  Bowling ball technology had rapidly advanced and it was getting next to impossible for the lane man to do the job without some sort of social controversy.  After that five day meeting in Sebring, Florida, Davis promised to undertake the huge task of taking care of lanes at every major tournament in the world and then posting those results on The Foundation website for the whole world to see.  Davis and The Foundation came up with their initial slogan which was: “One World – One Game.”
 
The Foundation also coined two other phrases:
 1. "You don't need to be a lane man to know that there are problems, you just need to be a lane man to know how bad the problems are."

 2. "If not us, who? If not now, when?"
Early on, a series of scratch tournaments were developed, called: The Foundation Games.  These events were held in this country (and abroad) with some promising results.  They were unique by featuring ‘multiple conditions’ in an attempt to further challenge the participants by having more than one lane condition to compete on.  Challenging oil patterns were used (both long and short) that required the athletes to compete on different lengths of oil during competition.

In 2000, Dr. P.S. Nathan, then President of the World Tenpin Bowling Association (WTBA), held a World Bowling Seminar in Malaysia and Davis was invited to attend along with many other bowling leaders from around the world.  At that week-long educational meeting, it was unanimously decided that in order to find out who the best players were at any given event, the athletes needed to be challenged with these ‘multiple condition’ type tournaments.

The WTBA then formed a Technical Committee (TC) to continue researching the problems on a world wide basis.  Since then, different tournament formats have been tested along with bowling ball restrictions (amount of balls used in the events) which were instituted.  It is quite clear today, that some of the underdeveloped countries are at a disadvantage regarding bowling equipment. 
 
For many years now, numerous thoughts, opinions and feelings about lane conditioning have been constantly expressed on most every bowling websites discussion groups.  Depending on the average person’s position (agenda), most blame the problems with our game on various aspects of the game, including; pins, oil patterns, balls, kick-backs, flat gutters and an assortment of other things.  Most have never done lanes and have no idea what that particular job entails.
 
Today, even with the use of different formats and multiple conditions, problems still exist in our great sport.  The WTBA Technical Committee feels that it is time to try a different approach.
 
 
"One World - One Game - One Ball"
 
In 2003, Davis was named as Chairman of the WTBA TC, and Kegel was still taking care of all the tournaments for the WTBA and developing countless oil patterns.  It became obvious that the lane man still could not do his job without some social unrest.  Something else was needed.  
 
The WTBA TC decided to research and test a type of bowling ball that would not mutate the oil patterns as much as today’s High Tech balls do.  Davis was put in charge of doing the research for this project.  Days, weeks and months went into this very technical testing, using CATS data.
 
A ‘prototype’ bowling ball was developed which showed encouraging results.  During the week of April 17-22, a Bowling Writers meeting was scheduled in Orlando, Florida (which is only about 80 miles from Kegel’s Training Center), that was combined with the USBC Annual Meeting. 
 
The WTBA TC also scheduled a meeting at this time and this was a chance to announce this new theory.  A small scratch tournament would be held and the results would be shown to the world.  Many top players from Florida would participate along with some other top amateurs and former PBA Tour champions.  It was an eight game event that was bowled across eight lanes.  The amount of oil that was used was 7.140 mL, which is an amount that was used in the early 1970’s.
 
 
Those results (total pin fall) were: 

1. Bob Learn, Jr. (1880)
 
2. Vernon Peterson (1770)     

3. Matt Gilman (1715) 
 
4. Bob Handley (1675)  
 
5. Mike Purdy (1671)
 
6. Larry Barwick (1670)       
 
7. Rob Comito (1666)  
 
8. Steve Johnson (1660)        
 
9. Neil Stremmel (1655)   
 
10. Storm DeVincent (1627) 
 
10. (T) Sami Luoto (1627)
 
12. Chris Chartrand (1612)    
 
13. Dennis Davis (1598)  
 
14. Craig Auerbach (1596)
 
15. Saul Insignares (1573) 
 
16. Tony Lavance (1572)   
 
17. Ron Dixon (1523)
 
18. Jose Rodriquez (1514)
 
19. John Forst (1513)
 
20. Dennis Psaropoulos (1512)
 
21.Tony Crews (1477)
 
22. Bill Blackwell (1454)
 
23. Pekka Korpi (1383)
 
24. Josh Moore (1354)
 
 
Each player paid a $100.00 entry fee to enter the tournament, and that included a bowling ball.  Each player had a choice of 15 or 16 pounds to use.  Except for that weight difference, all of the balls were made as similarly as humanly possible. Davis donated an additional $2600.00 for a total Prize Fund of: $5000.00.  Learn earned $2000.00 for the win along with a very nice banner that was signed by all of the participants and those on the WTBA TC.  In all, 12 players cashed. 
 
When asked if he wanted the banner, Learn said, “Certainly.  It will go in my trophy room with all of my other cherished awards.”  He added, “This was great.  ALL tournaments should be like this one because I really think that it was the fairest tournament that I have ever bowled in.”

After the event, all the players were asked to fill out a detailed questionnaire that had a multitude of pertinent questions regarding the tournament.  Those queries are currently being analyzed.  
 
All in all, it was deemed a tremendous success by the Players and Officials.  All results of the CATS data (from every shot, from every player) are also being analyzed.  When completed, a detailed report will be sent to WTBA President Heikke Sarso for review.
 
 
STAY TUNED!

The Beginning

The year was: 1956.

The place was: Hillsdale High School in San Mateo California

My first recollection of Billy Hardwick was that of disbelief. What a sight it was. He was a sophomore, a year behind me in school. He was all of 5’3” and weighed-in at exactly 99-pounds.

He came out and (tried out) for the Varsity football team. The Head Coach, Frank Collins, looked at him and said that he was too small to play, but since we were a new school and needed players, he told Billy that he could hold the blocking-bags during practice. He also told him that because of his size (or lack of it) that he wouldn’t be able to issue him a team uniform.

But, Billy had guts and said that he still wanted to play and practice with the team. It was a cold and rainy day in September. There he was in his ragged, old sweat-shirt, sweat-pants and wearing his tennis shoes. The shoes were those old “high-top” canvas style and the laces were tied around the tops about 4-times. His skinny, little ankles were way too small to fill-up the tops of the shoes and it looked like he was walking around with two small “sacks-of-potatoes” hanging off of the bottoms of his legs.

The practice field was very wet and muddy that day, and the first chance I had to block him and the big blocking-bag that he was trying to hold-up, I put a little bit of an “extra” effort into it. The poor little kid had no chance. He went slipping and sprawling and sliding before eventually ending up on his back in the middle of a huge mud puddle. On his way down, all you could see were arms and legs going in every direction as he tried in vain to maintain his balance. It was an absolute riot. Even all of the Coaches were laughing.

I intentionally humiliated him once again when I reached down to help him up and purposely stepped on his foot with my football cleats. He let out a scream and rolled over (face first) in the mud. Now, he was covered from head-to-toe in the sloppy quagmire. It was hilarious. Everybody there was howling. Everybody that is, except for Billy. Looking back though, I was probably a big “bully” for doing that to him. Even though he never said it, I am sure that he hated me for doing that to him.

Basically that was the end of his football career. He did go on to play on the basketball, baseball and cross-country teams. Despite his slight stature, he was a fierce competitor. As the years went by, he would eventually prove “that” to everybody. His burning desire that he possessed soon became evident when a new bowling center opened in our town and he was finally able to find (and master), his sport.

During that year we became the best of friends, and that friendship has been a close one for 6-decades. I owe him a lot from what he has taught me and the countless doors that he has helped me to open. We have (personally) endured a lot together and I have countless stories about him. I will be telling some of them here……at least the ones that are suitable for print!!!

History tells us that he did go on the Tour, twice becoming Bowler of the Year. He was voted in the top 20-players of all-time and inducted into both the ABC and PBA Halls of Fame.

Today, Billy is alive and well and owns a very successful bowling center in Memphis, Tennessee. I still see him now and then and occasionally talk with him on the phone. If you see him, tell him that I said hello.

By the way, he did pay me back. Yeah, he was the rotten egg that got me into bowling!

Bowling Bedlam - Oil

The playing environment of bowling today may be as complex, unpredictable and chaotic as any time in the history of the game. We're not talking about the weekly league or club game where the participants just want to have fun. We're talking about professionally maintained and controlled tournament environments where bowling sports people compete.

It is in this type of sporting environment, along with the basic premise of playing well both physically and mentally, that the decisions the modem player makes will ultimately determine whether they perform up to their expectations or have to wait until the next event comes around.

This is the second in a series of articles that will try to shed some light on many of the variables in the current game of bowling and why the players of today need to be very open minded and aware of the total environment at all times when competing. The supplied information is all in the quest of understanding and to increase performance, not to create excuses.

Oil (Conditioner)

There are low viscosity oils and high viscosity oils. There are oils with different amounts of additives such as friction modifiers and flow agents for different types of lane machines. There are oils with varying surface tensions which help the oil bond to the lane surface.

Mineral oil is used in most lane conditioners as the base oil but over the years lane conditioner has evolved. Today's conditioners are now mixed with a percentage of specialized additives to increase the performance and durability of the conditioner.

All these different types of conditioners will make your bowling ball react differently on the lane. At the same time, different types of conditioner can make the same pattern play different.

If using a wick machine, some conditioners will flow through the wicks more than others making the same pattern settings apply a different pattern. With wick machines, temperature will affect the flow rate since temperature not only affects viscosity or the thickness of the conditioner, it will affect the size of the capillaries of the wicks as well.

If using spray type machinery, different conditioners will either peel off or hold onto the buffer brush more or less which can change the shape of any specific pattern even though the machine settings remain constant. Different lane surfaces will do the same thing so add that into the equation also.

There is a very good online article by Kegel's Chris Chartrand on lane conditioner (oil), "10 Things That Everyone Should Know about Lane Conditioners" which you can view by clicking on the title. Therefore we won't go into specific details on all conditioner properties but one thing we will touch base on is viscosity since the USBC has just made a new specification on this lane conditioner property.

The new viscosity rule the USBC has implemented "requires that lane conditioners used during USBC competition read between 12 and 81 centipoises at 70 degrees Fahrenheit." Centipoise (cps) is the standard unit of measurement for fluids and many lane oil manufactures will have this designated on their product.

Viscosity is very misunderstood in common bowling discussions. Most bowlers believe the higher the viscosity of oil, the "slicker" the bowling ball reacts to it. Actually the exact opposite happens.

By definition, viscosity is the measurement of internal friction of a fluid. The greater the amount of friction, the more force is required to move the fluid against itself which is called shear. Therefore the higher the viscosity, the more force it takes which increases friction. The lower the viscosity of oil, the less force it takes to shear which decreases friction.

In terms of a bowling ball rolling through these different oils, the higher the viscosity, the more resistance there is which makes the ball slow down more. When we get to the bowling ball portion of the series, we will spend more time on this subject but in short, friction is what makes the ball slow down and therefore enables it to hook.

Temperature is one of the biggest environmental factors in changing viscosity of a conditioner. So as the weather changes, so can the bowling conditions.

So what is the purpose of viscosity in lane oils? In short to provide durability to an oil pattern however, because of the many different additives being used in today's oils, viscosity is not as important as it once was in regard to lane maintenance. But as a bowler, you should be aware of how it relates to ball motion.

Oil Patterns

This subject of oil patterns is a difficult one and probably the most blamed and misunderstood subject in bowling. Lane conditioning rules have changed many times over the years and even today with the USBC 'three unit rule' or the USBC Sport Bowling rule in place, there are an infinite number of pattern combinations and ways to apply an oil pattern to the lane.

Kegel's Founder and CEO John Davis had a saying when he was entrusted in doing lanes over the years which goes something like this;

"Its 4 o'clock in the morning and the tournament starts at 8:00. You know if you do this; this might happen. But if you do something else, that might happen. So what are you going to do? Who do you call? Who can you call? You have to do something but there is no book. It is all up to you."

In these simple questions lies the major dilemma for every laneman at every bowling tournament in the world. Only after the tournament do they ever know if the job was socially acceptable or unacceptable. In simpler words, did the laneman do a good job or a bad job?

Of course the laneman might ask the same question to the bowlers; when trying to figure out the conditions, did the bowlers do a good job or a bad job?

2008 EYC - When Everything Comes Together

The 2008 ETBF European Youth Championships at famed Tali Bowl in Helsinki Finland showed what can happen in the modern bowling environment when all parts of the scoring environment are predictable and at a high level. During the Championships, 12 of 15 girls scoring records were broken and 11 of 15 boys scoring records were broken. There were also five 300 games during the Championships. However, the closer you look and dissect the possible reasons why those records were broken and scores were achieved, the less anyone should be surprised.

The Players

The youth players of Europe are more knowledgeable than ever and the overall level of coaching is at an all time high. Add to the fact that eastern European countries are increasing in participation numbers and they are treating bowling as a sport. Even world renowned coach Sid Allen has been attracted to Europe being hired as head coach of Latvia. This proved to be a great move on the Latvian Federations part as it helped them achieve the country’s first Gold Medals in Major Championship events. In fact Latvia won a total of five medals during the Championships, 1-Gold, 3-Silver and 1-Bronze. A fine testament to what a solid coaching program can bring to a Federation.

The Scandinavian countries have long been setting the standard in Europe by developing great player after great player. The Finns, Swedes, Norwegians and Danes all took medals in the boys divisions and from watching the youth competition at the 2008 EYC, the Scandinavian’s still are generating many great players.

But there are also some very good up and coming youth players from other parts of Europe because of solid coaching programs and Federation support. We should look forward to watching them in future European Championships and tournaments like the European Bowling Tour for many years to come.

Another item coming into place within Europe is increased equipment knowledge which is a huge part of being successful in the modern game. Until now and mostly because of language barriers, Europe as a whole has been behind the learning curve of countries where English is spoken or understood in high numbers. That however is changing and they are catching up fast as was evident by observing ball choices at this event.

The Lanes

But back to the environment, the scoring or playing environment that is. Tali Bowl is somewhat of an anomaly in the world of bowling. Built in 1972, the Finns might have known something very few knew, or at least practiced, about the installation of bowling lanes. Even after the replacement of the wood lanes to Pro Anvilane synthetic panels, all lanes at Tali Bowl consistently have a certain topographical characteristic and the key word here is “consistently.”

Many of the synthetic lanes we have checked over the years have showed very little regularity with regard to topography throughout any specific lane but not Tali Bowl, all lanes follow the same topographical features throughout the entire lane surface. When lanes are installed in as a consistent manner as they are at Tali Bowl, players have to adjust very little as they move across the center during any one block of bowling.

As Team Norway Coach Trond Syvertsen said, “Only thing we did, was not to move too much and keep the ball rolling forward.”

Just imagine not having to take one, two or even three frames to figure out how the next pair of lanes is playing in relation to the last pair and only having to concentrate on releasing the ball the same way. This adds a minimum of 10 pins to the scoring pace right off the bat.

As far as the specific topographical character of the lanes at Tali Bowl, lanes can be crowned, flat or depressed. But because it has been requested by Tali Bowl representatives to not make certain aspects of the installation public, here is how different types of topography act to a bowling ball.

Crowned lanes act like a banked curve that is falling away from the apex of the turn. You won’t see race tracks built this way but we do see many lane surfaces that are installed this way.

As the bowling ball travels towards the channel, crowned lanes decrease the pressure between the ball and the lane which also decreases friction. This decreased friction of the bowling ball keeps the ball from slowing down at the normal rate and therefore also decreases the hook potential of the bowling ball.

Basically, on a lane that is crowned the bowling bowl is rolling down a hill as it travels towards the channel and then has to climb a hill as it makes it moves towards the pocket. This topographical property also decreases pin carry because it lowers the entry angle of the bowling ball into the pocket.

Crowned lanes are also more sensitive to release variations or ‘mis-hits’ which can cause inconsistent ball motions for the less repetitious player. For right handed players, the 2-10 spare combination is a common leave on lanes that are crowned.

Flat lanes, or lanes that are in the plus or minus 10/1000 of an inch range, are very rare in synthetic lanes of today but there are actually a couple documented examples. One is the Kegel Training Center in Florida. The other is the bowling center that held the USBC 5 person team scoring record of 3905, Chacko’s Bowl in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. That record was broken in 2004 but Chacko’s is still the host to the USBC Men’s three player team series record of 2443. Flat lanes provide the most predictable ball motion for the greatest variety of styles.

Depressed lanes act like a high banked curve at a race track. Just like a banked curve helps a race car turn easier, depressed lanes help the bowling ball curve back to the pocket easier.

As the ball travels towards the channel, depressed lanes increase the pressure between the ball and the lane which also increases friction. This increased friction of the bowling ball helps the ball slow down and therefore hook into the pocket with more regularity. This not only helps with consistent ball motion, it also helps with pin carry because it increases the entry angle of the bowling ball into the pocket.

And last but certainly not least is the lengthwise levelness of bowling lanes. Lanes that predominantly go downhill from foul line to pin deck make the bowling ball slow down less and therefore decrease hook potential. Lanes that predominantly go uphill from foul line to pin deck make the bowling ball slow down more and therefore increase hook potential. As in crowns and depressions, flat lanes are the most predictable for most styles.

An example of how lengthwise level affects ball motion is a bowling center Kegel checked during their lane maintenance years on the PBA Tour. In this particular bowling center, the high end always played significantly tighter than the low end which had lanes that were added on after the initial installation.

After mapping the entire center, the difference was found to be in the lengthwise levelness of the lanes. All lanes in the high end went downhill almost two inches from foul line to pin deck. The lanes on the low end were relatively flat.

As stated in the opening paragraph of this section, the most important thing about a bowling center installation is “consistency” in lane levelness from the first lane to the last lane. For the bowling player, this gives the most predictable ball motion from lane to lane and that equals the highest scoring potential. If there is one thing we can say about the bowling lanes at Tali Bowl, they have very consistent topographical features from lane to lane.

The Pin Carry

Tali Bowl has long been known for good pin carry. The pins used during the 2008 EYC were Brunswick Max’s but it was not the pins that made the difference, it was the lane installation plus the entire pit area at Tali Bowl. The side boards (kickbacks) are tight, the pin decks are solid and the pin spotting was good.

The last 300 game bowled in European Youth Championship history in the boys division was, you guessed it, at Tali Bowl in 1994. The first and only 300 game by a European girl was last year in Thessaloniki Greece at another consistent lane installation but that bowling center has since closed down.

The Oil Pattern

Ah yes, the oil pattern. The one thing everyone likes to focus on because it is invisible and therefore open to discussion, controversy, interpretation or whatever analytical word one can come up with.

Being a mixed youth event that employed a single condition, the main goal for the 2008 EYC lane maintenance team was to provide a playing environment where many different bowling styles had a chance to succeed. In order for that to happen, it was important to provide an oil condition that complimented the lane surface.

The pattern used for the 2008 EYC was 39 feet in length as announced in Bulletin II. Standard procedure in ETBF Championship events is to announce only the distance based upon the pre-tournament inspection which is normally six to nine months in advance.

At the 2008 EYC, oil pattern information was transparently provided to the teams like never before. As usual the teams were provided the lane machine settings, the forward volume, reverse volume and the total volume of conditioner. However this time they were also provided with the front-to-back taper ratios and side-to-side ratios.

For all ratio readings, USBC Sport Bowling calculations were used which averages the unit amount of conditioner from boards 18L to 18R divided by the average unit amount from boards 3 to 7. Currently, USBC Sport Bowling has the only official guideline for competitive oil patterns in bowling and states side-to-side ratios must be 3:1 or less. The WTBA and ETBF do not have definite oil pattern specifications so the goal for the 2008 EYC was to hit the high side of the USBC Sport Bowling ratio parameters.

The front-to-back taper ratios at the 2008 EYC were 2.2:1 on the inside and 2.7:1 on the outside portion of the lane. This means in the front part of the pattern there is 2.2 and 2.7 times the amount of conditioner in those zones compared to the amount at the end of the pattern. A 3D visual of the oil pattern was also provided.

Also shown to the coaches and players were the side-to-side ratios from six different tape readings. The pattern ratios at the 2008 EYC were 2.5:1 at 6 feet, 2.9:1 at 14 feet, 3.0:1 at 22, 27 and 32 feet and 3.2:1 at 37 feet using USBC Sport Bowling calculations.

In comparison, the side-to-side ratios of the 2008 EYC pattern were the same as the 2007 PBA Greater Detroit Open and PBA Spartanburg Open. In those PBA events, the ratio at the end of the pattern was also 3.2:1 but all PBA tournaments must pass USBC Sport Bowling standards. Therefore, the 2008 EYC pattern also passes USBC Sport Bowling and was on the same difficulty level as those PBA patterns.

Conclusion

Too many people think scoring pace is all about the oil pattern. Of course the oil pattern can make the scores higher or lower but so do many other abovementioned areas of the playing field.

However, should we not just have some specific oil pattern parameters and let the scores be what they are? Bowling should not penalize a good installation and reward a bad installation because of a perceived perfect scoring pace and until now, that is what bowling has been doing.

The play and competition during the 2008 European Youth Championships was fantastic. There are many very talented youth players in Europe right now and all the record breakers and medalists should be very proud of their accomplishments because they earned it.

I also hope the players realize how lucky they were to be able to compete in an arena like Helsinki Finland’s Tali Bowl. It is arguably one of, if not the best, bowling arena in Europe. And the ETBF European Youth record book proves it.

Bowling Bedlam - The Lane

The playing environment of bowling today may be as complex, unpredictable, and chaotic as any time in the history of the game. We’re not talking about the recreational league or club game where the participants just want to have fun, and the conditions are designed as such. We’re talking about professionally maintained and controlled tournament environments where bowling sports people compete.

It is in this type of sporting environment, along with the basic premise of playing well physically and mentally, that the decisions the modem player makes will ultimately determine whether they perform up to their expectations or have to wait until the next event comes around.

The players of today have to choose how to execute their delivery using which type of bowling ball, with which layout, with what surface preparation, on what lane surface, with what lane characteristic, on which oil pattern, and following what group of players. The player must also change this strategy rapidly and often during any specific round of play or throughout the course of an event.

This series of articles will try to shed some light on many of the variables in the current game of bowling and why the players of today need to be very open minded and aware of the total environment at all times when competing. The supplied information is all in the quest of understanding and to increase performance, not to create excuses.

The Lane

There is no question bowling balls of today are more frictional, hook more, and cover more area across the lane as it travels from the foul line to the pins. The modern core designs and coverstock compositions create more friction, which also makes the bowling ball more responsive to all the different variables that make up the playing environment.

There are different types of plastic film coated wood lanes which are the softest lane surfaces. There are wood lane surfaces coated different types of urethane which are the next hardest lane surfaces. The hardest and most common lane surfaces around the world now are synthetic lanes, with many different installation and friction characteristics.

We won’t get to deep into the specific manufactured hardness, friction, or wear properties of synthetic lanes, but keep in mind that all manufactured synthetic lane surfaces are different and how those surfaces wear from use is also not equal.

The USBC has performed studies that show some modern synthetic lane surfaces score best when brand new, some score better after a few years, peak, and then begin to score worse, while other surfaces score higher as wear and friction increases.

In regard to topography, the sanding techniques on wood lanes make those lanes much flatter than that of the installation of multiple synthetic panels. When a particular bowling center employed a strict resurfacing program, with skilled resurfacers, all the lanes in the bowling center was of high-quality and fairly consistent.

It is therefore a fair statement to say that wood lanes that are consistently resurfaced, screened, and re-coated on a consistent basis are more level than the synthetic bowling lanes of today.

One might think the contrary when only thinking about the synthetic panel itself. But when multiple panels are attached in sections on top of structures made up of other wood components, and more often than not on top of older wood foundations, it is easy to see the challenge for consistent levelness across a center using synthetic overlays. But it’s not impossible to achieve.

The current lane specification rules were written in 1937 by the American Bowling Congress, for wood lanes. The basics of the rule are the entire lane must be less level within plus or minus 40/1000 of an inch to be certified and approved for sanctioned play. The idea was that any groove deeper than the specification would allow too much guidance, or path correction, of the bowling ball after it was released by the bowler.

These level number limits also apply to crowns (hills), depressions (valleys), crosswise tilts, and lengthwise levelness. Surprisingly, only recently has the lengthwise level specification been added into the rules. The 40/1000 inch specification now reads “over 42 inches in any direction”, but only for new installations or centers that are changing from wood lane surfaces to synthetic overlays.

However, the overwhelmingly majority of the lanes are still inspected and passed by inspecting the lanes at only three predetermined points. These three inspection points are at a distance from the foul line between 10’-15’, 30’-40’ and 50’-55’. It is of course at these predetermined inspection areas installers of synthetic lanes pay most attention to.

Of course there are some very good installations and installers of synthetic lanes today but the reality is, installations are only as good as the time and care that is taken on a particular installation. Since the advent of synthetic lanes, achieving consistent levelness throughout a bowling center is a very difficult painstaking task and the tools and technology to level lanes in a more efficient manner have not been available. (Note: The recent invention of the Kegel Portable LaneMapper has made this process more efficient and attainable.)

Long time laneman and former PBA Lane Maintenance Director Len Nicholson states, “I’ve seen synthetics installed in 4-6-hours and they were legal according to the Sanctioning Body. This was in bowling centers that were changing over to synthetic overlays after their wood surfaces have reached their life limit. However, when the arena settings started on the PBA Tour and companies like AMF and Brunswick wanted to showcase their synthetic lanes, it would take them up to two days to get them as perfect as they could. And they were using their best installers performing the job on only four lanes!”

As the bowling ball travels down the synthetic lanes of today, it has to go slightly uphill sometimes, and then downhill at other times. The ball encounters random patterns of hills, valleys, and it encounters microscopic frictional differences, all without any uniformity.

By performing tests at the Kegel Training Center’s adjustable lanes in 1999 with top PBA professionals such as Parker Bohn III, Brian Voss and Jason Couch, it was proving that as little as 20/1000 of an inch, or 25 percent of the allowable tolerances, will affect the path and reaction of today’s highly responsive bowling balls.

These seemingly minute irregularities can cause a ball to increase its footprint which increases the friction between the ball and the lane. This will make the ball slow down more therefore increasing the hook potential. These topographical irregularities may also decrease the footprint between the ball and the lane which causes less friction. This makes the ball slow down less therefore decreasing the hook potential.

These random irregularities can make your intended shot possibly either hit the pocket heavy, light or in extreme cases even miss the pocket entirely.

When oil patterns that are designed to play more towards the outside portion of the lane are applied to bowling lanes which are predominantly crowned on the outside boards, it is difficult for the bowling ball to hook back into the pocket. Most short oil patterns are designed this way, and crowned lanes can make those patterns more difficult. However on longer oil patterns, or patterns designed to play more towards the inside portion of the lane, crowned lanes can sometime act like hold area which can increase mistake area.

On the other hand, bowling lanes that are depressed from the edge board can act like a race track with high banked turns on short oil patterns. The highest scoring lanes for short oil patterns are when lane topography is either slightly depressed or flat.

On long patterns however, depressions can take away hold area and make a long pattern more difficult since the ball will have a tendency to hook more. That is unless the player is on the other side of the depression. Then a depressed lane acts like that same banked race track a depression gives a player on a short pattern.

Unfortunately, rarely do synthetic lanes have a consistent character with regard to topography which makes it a challenge for both the players and the laneman.

For tournament players, depending on what lane a player begins their round on, these lane differences may determine a player’s equipment choice for the day or even where to play with no likeness of another. These choices can and often will cause the oil pattern to change in a different manner from day to day, squad to squad, pair to pair and even lane to lane.

A scenario often seen in leagues and tournaments throughout the world is when there are perceived differences in ball reaction, total blame is put on the oil condition when in fact most times it is the difference in the topography, surface friction of the lanes, or even the bowler themselves.

The below picture show a real world example of two lanes that make up a pair in a sanctioned bowling center.

The left lane of the pair is within specification, plus or minus 40/1000 inch, at most points throughout the lane. The right lane however has historically played notably different than its companion.

In this case, because of the extreme depression in the head area, and the excessive crowns in the mid lane and break point area of the lane, the right lane has always played considerably tighter. Basically the bowling ball is falling off the mountain in the midlane and then trying to climb the mountain as it begins it move towards the pocket. The depression in the head area also causes the ball to 'burn up' earlier which causes less back end movement. The players in this center say they are always lined up 4-5 boards different between these two lanes with the ball hooking much less on the right lane.

Take notice the points on the right lane that are within specification, which in this example are not many but only in the three aforementioned inspection areas. The left lane is also most level in those same three inspection areas.

Kegel has measured 1000’s of lanes and studied the scores of many different tournaments they have been associated with. They have found these topographical and frictional differences are the reason those “mystery pairs” tend to show up at bowling centers. It’s not always that those lanes or pairs are bad or out of specification and sometimes that one lane or those mystery pairs are actually flatter than all the other lanes. What makes them challenging is they are different than the others and players are trying to adjust to that one different lane off of all the others.

With all other things being equal, low scoring centers or tournaments are more about the lane surfaces throughout center being very irregular from lane to lane, while higher scoring can be more about the lane surface being very consistent from lane to lane.

In short, when centers have consistent topographical features from lane to lane, fewer adjustments from the players are needed.

Nicholson tells of an example from the PBA Tour at The Showboat in Las Vegas; “The TV Pair always played weird. The great PBA players always had problems. Scores on that pair were never up to par and eventually they changed the TV pair.”

If there is one thing you can take from this article, is to look at bowling lanes individually with each having their own unique characteristics. Don’t look upon a pair of lanes as both being the same or adjust to one lane in a pair off of the other lane unless you notice a specific trend in the center.

The balance between caring for the playing environment and it participants from the monetary pressures is one of bowling's sanctioning bodies’ greatest challenges. Our recreational fads will come and go with having to be continually reinvented to keep interest amongst those non-sporting customers. A healthy sport of bowling however will produce lifelong customers which every business person should want to create and sustain.

Topography: What does it all mean?

Topography - The Science of Representing the Features of a Given Surface.

Lane topography in today’s bowling environment is one of the most influential factors in ball reaction. In the past, when bowling balls did not grip the lane surface as much and therefore hook as much as today’s balls, lane topography was not as much of a factor. In short, the less the amount of overall hook, the less lane topography comes into play and the more the ball hooks, the more influence topography has on ball reaction.

The topography of a lane surface consists of three different types of measurements: Crosswise Tilt, Crowns & Depressions, and Lengthwise Level. Topography affects the ball reaction characteristics on each lane and is mostly responsible for those ever present "mystery lanes" you may encounter in a bowling center.

Crosswise Tilt

The United States Bowling Congress makes the rules covering lane specifications. All other Federations around the world follow the USBC in this regard. One such specification is the crosswise tilt, or the measurement from gutter to gutter which shows if one side of the lane is higher than the other side. The specification is plus or minus 40 thousandths (0.040) of an inch (1.106 mm). This is just over 1/32 of an inch.

The USBC provides special lane levels used in measuring and certifying bowling lanes. For crosswise tilt the level is laid across the lane, and the bubble of the level will move to the side that is high. Feeler gauges, ranging from 0.005 to 0.040 of an inch thick, are then placed under the low end of the lane level until the bubble is once again centered. The thickness of the gauges needed equals the amount of tilt on the lane.

The majority of lanes have some amount of tilt. While there may not be consistent tilt readings across all lanes in a particular center, there is often a degree of consistency on each lane, but not always. The amount the crosswise tilts affects the entire lane can be averaged between each arrow. Example: 0.040 thousandths tilt has an average value of 0.005 thousandths for every five board area.

The crosswise tilt becomes the greatest factor when the lane is tilted to one side for a certain length of the lane. The ball is more affected by the crosswise tilt from thirty feet to the pin deck as this is where the break point is or where the ball changes direction the most. It can have some impact in the front of the lane, but the tilt needs to be pretty large. (12-15-2009 edit: Recent testing and findings have changed this notion. Testing has found that the front part of the lane has as much, if not more, influence on ball motion and direction as any point throughtout the lane. In an area of less friction, less force is required to move an object off line. Newton's Laws of Motion)

In simpler terms, if a round object is placed on a flat level surface and then one side is raised, the object roll towards the low side. Remember, this is only one of the pieces of lane surface characteristics. Below are examples of crosswise tilts:

Crosswise Tilt - High Right

Crosswise Tilt - High Left

Crowns and Depressions

The crowns and depressions show the actual shape of the surface from gutter to gutter.

A crown is an increase in height from a given zero point. The peak of the crown, of course, is the highest point. The peak, however, is not necessarily the center of the lane. It can peak at any point across the lane. A crown, unlike crosswise tilt, is measured by the amount of change across each five-board area. This is also measured using the lane level with an attachment called the Dial Indicator. The indicator glides across the level reading the amount of rise or drop of the surface in thousandths of an inch. (12-15-2009 edit; with the invention fo the Kegel Lane Mapper, topography is now measured on each board instead across a five-board area.)

A crown can give the bowler a sense of hold but also takes away swing area. Like crosswise tilt, crowns have more influence when they remain consistent across a certain length of the lane. Crowns have a tendency to benefit players that do not cross a lot of boards. Two units of oil can feel like five units when the lane is crowned. The amount of pressure that the ball has against the lane is less when going away from the pocket but greater when more direct. It is like riding over a hill.

Example of a 0.040 inch Crown

A depression is the opposite of a crown. The shape is measured by the amount of decrease from the zero point. This concave shape allows bowlers to feel that there is more swing area but less hold. It can make a line near the gutter have more swing area. Basically, five units of oil can react more like two units of oil.

A depression can also force players to cross an increase number of boards. The pressure the ball feels on a depression is greater when crossing boards which increases friction between the ball and the lane. But a ball thrown on a more direct trajectory will have trouble reaching its break point because of this increased friction.

A depressed lane is very much like a banked turn on a race track. When an automobile or motorcycle hits the banked curve, it becomes easier to turn and also slows easier. The momentum of the vehicle is now compressed into the embankment.

Example of a 0.040 inch Depression

The USBC specifications for crowns and depressions are the same as crosswise tilt, plus or minus 0.040 of an inch.

Crosswise Tilt + Crowns + Depressions readings at a distance of 42 feet from the foul line.

Lengthwise Level

The lengthwise level of the lane is the final piece in the topography puzzle. This can also have dramatic effects on ball reaction. This allows us to see how many hills and valleys the ball sees rolling down the lane. Like driving, the vehicle maintains or even increases speed when moving down a hill. It slows quite a bit when moving uphill. A lane that runs uphill or downhill from 30 feet to the pindeck will become more sensitive to speed changes. This is caused by the amount of surface pressure that the ball has against the lane. A lane going downhill can play tighter and an uphill lane can promote more hook.

Most lanes are installed using a carpenter’s string or a laser. One problem with a carpenters string is it will tend to show the lane is lower in the center than at the foul line and pin deck. In our data collection process we collect the lengthwise measurements every five feet, with a laser.

Example of a lane’s lengthwise level taken every 3.5 feet:

Three-in-One

When all three factors (crosswise tilt, crowns and depressions, and lengthwise level) are added together, many different things can happen. Each lane has some differences whether it is one or all of the three factors. Certain combinations of the three can have somewhat similar characteristics as a lane that has a different topography. Inequity can be seen in a surface and the level of a lane can give a certain style or side an advantage.

The patterns run for most high level competitive bowling events allow the topography to stand out. The patterns themselves normally do not provide much swing area or hold area, so we have an idea of what the reaction should look like. When we see something different, we could make the conclusion its the topography. It might also the way the players you are following are breaking down the oil pattern, but that is another discussion for another day.

Believe it or not, wood lanes tend to be the most consistent across a given center. The reason is the sanding equipment does not allow for significant changes from lane to lane. Most lane resurfacing machines have a fixed pattern for making cuts during the resurfacing process. But keep in mind, there can still be mystery lanes.

On the other hand, most would think synthetic lanes are the flattest surface currently on the market, but that is far from the truth. Lanes made up of multiple synthetic panels can, and are the majority of the time, be vastly different from lane to lane across a house. There are many reasons for these inconsistencies with synthetic lanes.

Reason #1: The Weather

Centers located in areas of the world that can experience large temperature and humidity changes from season to season, see the most changes in topography (both wood and synthetic). Even though the lanes are synthetic, they are still made of wood in one form or another. Substructures are made of a pressed board, and pressed fiberboard's (wood fibers). The actual surface is made up of sheets of pressed paper with a melamine layer that the ball touches. So the surface can absorb moisture from the air and it can dry out when the air is dry. All wood does this!

Reason #2: The Installation

How synthetic lanes are installed is very important. They may initially be consistent across the house. Eventually the lane takes abuse and gets exposed to environmental factors, explained above. Remember that a wood lane is one solid piece while the synthetics are separate pieces screwed together. An installer may tighten screws tight enough to dimple the surface and cause the areas not screwed down to "bubble" up.

All of these factors make up the topography of a particular lane surface which can and probably will influence the reaction of your bowling ball.