What Is A Bowling Ball Track?

    There are basically four types of BALL TRACKS. Before you start your next practice game, wipe your ball off really well with your towel and then bowl your first shot. When the ball returns, pick it up and observe the “Oil Track” on the ball to determine what kind you have.
 

1. SEMI ROLLER: This "HIGH" track is just to the side of the thumb and fingers and fairly close to the holes. With this track, about ¾ of the balls surface touches the lane as it travels down the alley. A bowler with this track indicates that he/she holds their fingers a bit stiff and turns the wrist as they release the ball (rather than the arm) which creates a nice hook. As the ball hits the pins, it makes them fall in a horizontal direction helping to knock down nearby pins instead of just flying quickly off the pin deck.

Semi Roller Oil Track

    ​2.   FULL ROLLER- The oil track on this ball runs around the center of the ball and falls between the thumb and finger holes meaning it rolls over its' entire or FULL circumference. The bowler with this track gets a lot of mix on the pins. The hook isn’t as large as the person with the semi roller, and they don't use as much wrist turn or axis tilt when the ball is released as the bowler who has the semi roller track. With the newer resin balls, the full roller track isn't seen as much anymore.

Full Roller Oil Track

  3. SPINNER- You’ll notice the "LOW" track of the oil here is way down on the ball and only covers a small portion of the balls’ circumference. A bowler with this track doesn’t have as much pin mix or power as the previous two tracks, but is rolled with a lot of wrist turn when the ball is released. There isn’t much hook and the ball deflects more when it hits the pins. Instead of the fingers normally finishing on the right side of the ball (left side for the left handed bowlers), they finish more at the top of the ball.

Spinner Oil Track

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​  4. FLARE- This type of ball track is newer since the more modern balls have been made. The ball moves off it’s initial track and ends up making a new track with each rotation of the ball as it travels down the lane. This means more of the cleaner surface of the ball is touching the lane which will equal a larger hook. (As you recall, oil cuts down on the hook). There are High Flare Balls and Low Flare Balls. High flare balls will hook more because a clean surface is happening with each rotation of the ball. Since less oil is actually getting on the ball, the hook will be larger. A Low Flare ball will hook less. If you'd like to know more about this, you can go online and research more of the technical aspects of Flare.  

    
    The ball track will be able to show you how consistent you have been on releasing the ball, as long as the oil track is very close to the previous ones. If these oil rings are more than an inch apart, then you will need to work more on your consistency. After all, that is the name of the game!

    Join me back here next week when I'll be discussing "Can You Become A Professional Bowler"?

    Good Luck and High Scoring!