Read The Lanes Using Your Favorite Bowling Ball

bowlingball.com, Originally Posted: 7/4/2013; Updated: 4/16/2023

If you average 180 or less and are beginning to work on improving your game, you can start by reading the lanes using your favorite bowling ball.
Each bowling center and each league where you bowl uses a given lane condition by which you will recognize the more you bowl. If you find yourself using a certain bowling ball as your best weapon on the given lane condition, that ball can be your lane reading tool.
When you first begin to warm up for a competitive session, use your favorite reacting ball for that given condition. After you get up to full speed, align to the pocket as you normally will and watch the ball travel down the lane carefully.
If your ball begins to transition and hook slightly sooner in the mid-lane than normally so, and you end up hitting the pocket high or hitting the head pin squarely, you know some type of adjustment is needed.
If you observe extended skid length and you hit the pocket light or not at all, you know another type of adjustment is necessary.
In either case, you must quickly determine if you should make an angle of attack change using the lane condition oil pattern to help you locate the pocket or another type of adjustment.
If you think that making an angle adjustment is not your best answer, perhaps a delivery adjustment of some sort is best suited to match the lane conditions and your game.
A delivery adjustment can be an adjustment in ball speed, in loft distance, or the amount of wrist you use or the degree of finger rotation you apply to your bowling ball at the moment you release your ball.
If an angle adjustment or a delivery adjustment does not seem like the right way to go, you have another option of changing bowling balls.
By changing bowling balls, you can generate either a greater skid length or a quicker reaction in the mid-lane, depending on the given coverstock selection of the ball you select to use.
There are several good adjustments available to you if the ball you use to read the lane is not reacting consistently. You can certainly use your favorite ball and apply either an angle or a delivery adjustment as needed and be effective as your first adjustments to try unless the lane condition is severely different than the norm.
However, you should realize that you may need a series of adjustments to continue hitting the pocket throughout the duration of your competitive session and trust your judgement when to implement continuing adjustments.

Reading the lanes and then selecting which adjustment may be needed is developed through experience and by developing a watchful eye zooming in on your ball reaction as it travels down the lane.
It helps to calibrate your equipment and compare ball reactions between all of your bowling balls during practice sessions. This way you know what to expect when a ball change is needed.
Choosing a good ball to read the lanes is usually one which produces a controllable ball reaction with a predictable arc motion as opposed to one which skids and flips unpredictably.
The name of the game is to hit the pocket as often as possible. Using your favorite ball to test the lanes can lead you to also selecting any adjustment needed to begin your competitive sessions. Organizing your game and your equipment are keys to finding the pocket successfully.