Posted: 12/3/2006 9:17:44 AM EDT
| I am not a bowler. Why do you hook and spin a bowling ball rather than just rolling it straight down the lane? |
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Because when the ball enters the 'pocket' at a slight angle (I think around 5 deg but I'm a little unsure on the exact angle), it increases your margin for error to get a strike. I have two balls that I use when bowling. One (an 'ultimate inferno') that has a pretty strong 'hook' and one that has virtually NO hook, a straight ball. I use the straight ball mostly to pick up one or 2 pin spares in the corners. Note that the angle needed, CANNOT be achieved by throwing a straight ball. This is not to say you can't get plenty of strikes with a straight ball, you can. I actually rolled a 254 once throwing nothign but a straight ball. It's just harder to score well with a straight ball vs a hook. I used to throw a straight ball exclusively and eventually decided to try the hook. I'd dare say it upped my average by an easy 20 pins. It can be frustrating when you get on a lane that has no oil on it or too much oil and the ball hooks funny. If it's just too bad I'll switch over to the straight ball and roll as I used to. House balls, or in other words, the bowling alley supplied balls, have no hook potiential to speak of. A properly drilled ball designed for high hook is pretty awesome in how much it'll move on the lane. It's pretty cool to start the ball mid lane, throw it towards the gutter and have it hook back so hard it takes out the pocket. Very pretty. |
Something not mentioned yet is that if you throw the ball straight into the head pin then you also have a good chance of getting the not-so-nice 4-6 split or the evil 7-10 split which is nearly impossible to pick up. |
| If you are a right hander you want your ball to actually hit the 1-3-5-8 pins. A hooks makes this a lot easier. Normally you do not want to spin the ball as it causes loss of power. What you want is midroll with the ball rolling parallel to the foul line and then fliping forward right before the pins. A lot of guys from Asia throw a true-spinner by turning their hands in front of the ball when they let go. A pretty good technique given the poor lane conditions there. Extremely hard on the hands however. |
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Choosing your balls: here Hook balls have wierd cores to spin them here are a couple:  
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Alot of science in anything competitive - from Archery to Bowling, even table tennis equipment gets a good R&D to ensure people play it at its highest potential. Kind of a neat aspect of our nature, I've always thought. Another reason hooking works is because the oil on the lane only goes down to a certain point. The straight ball just glides through this oil, without changing course much....so an errant shot stays errant. A hooking ball, with relation to the oil, will grab after going through the oil and will still hit in the same relative area of the pins even if slightly off course....so your "buffer" of aim can me slightly better than a straight-ball bowler. This aspect is often overlooked when comparing the two throwing styles. There's a more indepth reason why this happens (and different balls have different levels of spin and "bite"), but the short answer is that a hooking ball is more tolerant of a slightly bad aim. |
I used to hook the hell out of the ball. I was ok if I had some oil through the front part of the lane so I could get some skid. If the lanes were too dry my ball would burn out unless I threw it a lot harder. If there was too much oil I had to play a tighter line which is difficult when you are crossing a lot of boards. The most consistent bowlers are ones inbetween the crankers and straight ball throwers. You do not need a lot of hooking power out of a ball anymore since the new balls have a lot of that added into them allready with the advancements in weight blocks and coverstocks. It is much more important to be accurate if you want to be good on all lane conditions. Now you get a cranker that is accurate than watch out. My one and only 300 game was thrown with a ball that was maybe hooking 8 boards. |
"Down and In" is the most consistent method of hooking, at least where changing lanes or conditions are concerned. Strong hooks across the boards tend to be at a disadvantage when the oil is short, or changes alot during a game....therefore the area of their "bite" moves...where the down and in bowler either sees a longer skid, or a more abrubt bite towards the pocket. But, either way, you're still going to enjoy a more generous buffer of aim than a guy rolling a ball straight....hence my point. |