Two-Handed Bowling: Practice Time for Short Pattern

In this Free Video, Scott Pohl, owner of On Track Pro Shop, explains what Helllen is seeing out there before bowling for score.

Pitch Black and Idle

The game plan going into this competition is to start with a urethane ball, the Pitch Black at 3000 grit on the coverstock. The Idle Jackson is throwing has a weaker layout, pin down with a 3000 grit on the coverstock.

Because we are bowling on a short pattern, he needs a ball that will get through the heads cleanly while having an even rolling reaction down on the back part of the lane. As you can see, both bowling balls have a pretty good reaction on the lane. Scott and Jackson like the urethane just because it blended the oil out a little bit more front-to-back.

However, it didn’t take long for that Pitch Black to stop reacting on the back-end part of the lane. So during practice time, they hit the ball with a 1000 grit sanding pad. This gets the ball to start up a little bit sooner and the result was what they were looking for.

The ball didn’t labor on the back-end and the ball drove through the pins a lot better than when it was at 3000 grit. It’s important to note that at some point throughout the block the urethane ball is probably not going to be the answer as the oil keeps pushing down the lane.

Wolverine and IQ Emerald

Jackson and Scott have decided which ball to start with and possibly the first ball they will go to when the lanes transition, but what about later in the block? Throwing the balls they plan to use later in the block during practice time will give them information about how soon or late into the block these balls could be used.

They didn’t expect these bowling balls to strike, the goal is information gathering on how the ball reacts on the fresh condition because the plan is to use them when the lanes transition.

Radium is a 37 ft medium volume short oil pattern. This tells us a couple of things. We don’t want to start with a pearl-type or shiny coverstock. Those types of bowling balls on the pattern will respond very violently on the back-end. We’re going to start with a urethane or a resin ball that’s very rolly, because that’s how you control the breakpoint on fresh oil on Radium.