What's with all the Dots and Arrows?

You've seen them every time you get up to bowl: dots and arrows are EVERYWHERE, but no one ever told you what they were for! They probably have something to do with aiming, but since you're just looking at the pins and hurling the ball at them, you don't know how to use them!

Aha - well, they ARE incredibly useful, and once you understand what they're all about, you'll finding yourself relying on those lane markings more and more.

First, even the approach itself has information you can use. Let's start there. Every lane on EVERY bowling alley has common characteristics. One of them is that the boards are (on average) one inch wide. There are 39 of them from the edge of each gutter. If you're one of those people who like to think in terms of the properties of odd numbers, it means there's a central board: #20.

NOW, unfortunately, there are two ways of numbering the boards. Right-to-left and left-to-right. Most people go right to left, because they're right handed bowlers. Left-handed bowlers tend to place board #1 as the left-most board and work from there. For EVERYONE though, board 20 is board 20. Yay. If you look at lane close up, there will either be five dots on the deck or seven (that difference depends on which lane manufacture built your bowling center and to some extent when it was done). Each of these dots are five boards (so about five inches) apart, and mark boards numbered 10, 15, 25, and 30 (or also 5 and 35). At the foul line, the same dots usually appear on the same boards. The dot on board #20 is sometimes slightly larger, making it easier to find your place.





These are the map of the lanes for showing the location of the dots on the approach. One set is mid-way so you can use them to set yourself up with the ball, the other set is just at the foul line. This allows you to either check to make sure you're not drifting during your approach, or to set up deliveries that aren't parallel to the pins.

But the dots on the apporach are a tool, even for the most inexprienced bowler. Why? Because it allows you to set up in the same place when you want a consistent delivery (typically for strike shots applying no adjustments). By being as consistent as possible you'll improve your game. So, with a little practice to find the right "spot" on the approach based upon where the dots are, you can be more confident that you're starting off right.

Out yonder - on the lane - there are seven arrows. They are on the SAME boards as the dots, centered on board 20, spaced 5 boards apart. They're another important tool because they tell you where to aim. Most beginner bowlers tend to look at the pins setting up the and executing the delivery - that's natural since they're the ultimate target. However, the arrows give you an advantage: they're only 15 feet away, whereas the pins are 60 feet away! So, your targeting precision is greatly increased using the arrows for targeting instead of the pins themselves, especially for picking up spares. The right combination of starting position and target, in combination with making adjustments for lane conditions, will increase your chances of making any spare or split (some like the 7-10 will still fall under "slim" :-) but you'll have that more of a fighting chance).



There are other markings too - small dots closer to the gutters - five on each side. They're also for setting targets, typically for more advanced targeting using angles.

Most of the medium- and high-average bowlers use these markings as fundamental tools. The more you learn, the more you can compete on their turf. :-)

More to come.

So - what's a handicap?

Almost as soon as you get close to a league that's about to get started bowling, you'll overhear the word "handicap."

Other sports like golf also have handicaps.

In bowling, it's a way of fudging the scores to put everyone on (nearly) the same playing field so that a team made completely up bowlers with higher averages than most of the people in the league can't overwhelm the competition and win most of the prize money. So in "handicap" leagues (as opposed to "scratch" leagues), everyone's score is adjusted upwards a certain amount based upon your average.

Three numbers go into the calculation: your average, an upper limit set by the league, and a percentage that determines how "flat" the playing field is intended to be.

The upper limit usually corresponds to some average that no one in the league is expected to exceed (although it does happen). Something around 200 is common. (If someone's average does reach above the limit then their handicap defaults to zero.)

The percentage is also set by the league. If it's set to 100% then everyone - no matter what their average is - is basically playing against their average. If the team's total points are X above their combined averages, then X has to be higher than how well the other team did collectively. This is even more important in "match" style leagues (see the posting on point systems), since there each player is also competing against a single play on the other team TOO!

So, if your average is 120, and the league gap is 200 with 100% handicap, then your handicap is 200 - 120 (x 100%) = 80. Someone else with a 180 average would be 200 - 180 (x 100%) = 20. That means for every game, 80 is added to your score, and 20 for the guy/gal with the 180 average.

So then why would any league want to set the percentage to less than 100%? Well, while the complete handicap makes things average neutral, since there's a limit to how much your score can go up at any point in the game given whatever circumstances exist, it is much easier for a low-average bowling in a 100% handicap league to pull ahead of a high-average bowler, since there are far fewer opportunities to get more pins.

Say for example we have two people, one with a 120 average, and the other with a 180 average. A person can bowl 120 with just a few marks in a game:

8- [ 8] 7/ [ 24] 62 [ 32] 9- [ 41] 8/ [ 60] 9- [ 69] X [ 87] 53 [ 95] 8/ [112] 71 [120]

in this case, one strike and 3 spares. So there are six frames where opens, were they converted to spares would give 0-10 pins extra, but mostly in the 6-10 count range. If you work things out, basically it ends up that for each extra mark, you gain 10 pins (for spares). So, to have a "really good game" 20-30 pins over average (or more!), you just need to go from three marks to five and STILL have four open frames in a game!

The 180 bowler has it harder. To get 180, you basically can only afford two - MAYBE three opens in a whole game.
But the "ten pins per converted open" still applies. With eight marks - there isn't much room to get those 20-30 pins, unless spares start to become consecutive strikes (which both increase the score and forgive remaining open frames) and that means cutting down the number of balls thrown (i.e., opportunities for good shots --- even 180 bowlers have issues they're working on!).

So let's say that the 120-bowler has a good game and scores 150. Your handicap (from above) is 80, so you've shot a 230 game. The 180 guy also had a good game - 208! His handicap is only 20, so that's 228. He just LOST by 2 pins despite beating you by 58 scratch!

In a 90% handicap league, you still end up with a much higher handicap: 200 - 120 (x 90%) = 80 x 90% = 72 (fractions are truncated). For the 180 bowler: 20 x 90% = 18. Now your score is 150 + 72 = 222, and his is 208 + 18 = 226 and now he's won by 4 pins.

If most of the people in a league are beginners or low-experience bowlers, then 100% handicaps are easier to use, and don't have much of a effect against the higher-average bowlers (also adjusting the cap can loosen or tighten things). For a wide variety of bowlers in a league, I'd suggest a 90% handicap - it doesn't overly hurt the low-average bowlers because over time they tend to advance in average more quickly (look how many first-year bowlers win "Most Improved Average" awards!) and start to "catch up" to their more-seasoned competitors or team mates.