Bowling Drop Zone

bowlingball.com, Originally Posted: 11/3/2012; Updated: 8/24/2021

If you are a low average bowler looking to improve your game, our staff at bowlingball.com wants you to know that your bowling drop zone is not behind the foul line but rather over the line and and onto the lane surface. Delivering your bowling ball over the line and onto the lane ensures your ball first contacts the portion of the lane where oil conditioner is applied.
By releasing the ball too soon and behind the bowling drop zone, your ball will fall onto the approach floor behind the foul line where no oil conditioner is applied. It will usually fall at a steep angle of decent where your ball bounces and reduces any chance at maintaining the effective roll that your delivery technique would otherwise provide.
Lane machines will apply oil onto the lane surface beginning at the foul line and move down the lane from that point. In order to acquire the needed ball skid to conserve ball energy for the back end of the lane and not roll sooner than planned, you must release the bowling ball out onto the lane surface.
If you are releasing the ball too soon, hold onto the ball longer by doing one or more of several options to help get the ball out onto the lane consistently:
Use slightly more gripping pressure with your bowling fingers than you presently use.
Use a wrist support device to prop up your wrist and prevent the wrist from tilting backward as you release the ball, causing you to drop the ball too soon.
Try applying releasing action on your bowling ball before the ball arrives at the tip of your sliding shoe as opposed to back at the heel of your sliding bowling shoe.
Avoid bending from the waist suddenly and thrusting your upper body toward the floor just prior to your release. This common fault of bowlers who drop the ball too soon causes a far too steep release angle and the ball will bounce onto the approach floor.
Some of the best players in the world vary loft control from just beyond the foul line, perhaps 6-12 inches beyond the line, when they wish to get the ball into a quick roll on the lane surface. Sometimes these players will release the ball so it first contacts the lane two to four feet beyond the foul line when they want to delay the roll or increase ball speed on dry lanes.
Once you are able to control a consistent loft distance past the foul line and maintain a regulated ball speed, you can work at fine-tuning your loft distances by either releasing the ball slightly later than normal for additional loft distance, or releasing the ball sooner than normal for an earlier rolling pattern.

In any case, avoid releasing the ball so soon that it does not clear the foul line and land first onto the approach. Make sure you always maintain a consistent ball speed regardless of how much loft you use.
A good objective in releasing the ball onto the lane surface is to achieve a gradual angle of descent onto the lane surface and not so steeply as to produce unneeded bouncing before settling into a roll further down the lane.
Avoid decelerating your forward swing and make sure you follow through on all deliveries. Follow through and hold your form until the ball passes the target on all deliveries.
With some practice, you will find the right bowling drop zone and control your loft distance beyond the foul line.
Thank you for visiting bowlingball.com.