SolveYourProblem Article Series: Bowling
Teach Me How To Bowl

Why Your Center of Gravity Is Important When Bowling

Who would have thought that bowling could be so complicated? After all, the game simply entails sending a perfectly round ball down a long and narrow corridor with the goal of knocking down a number of pins. This might have been your train of thought before you seriously got involved with bowling.

Once you did enter the world of recreational bowling – and perhaps even league bowling – you soon realized that there is so much more to this game than meets the eye. There are mental aspects of this game that would do any baseball game proud. Then there are the physical aspects that are akin to the various conditions that may be found in golf. Last but not least is the matter of equipment selection which is as serious as it may be found in professional skating, where even the smallest aspects may mean the difference in points that can win it or lose it for you.

Talk to any seasoned bowler, and she or he will nod sagely when you inquire about the center of gravity while bowling. There are a number of factors that affect your center of gravity, and if you are aware of them, you will be able to spin them to your advantage; obviously when gravity and bowling are mentioned in one sentence it is no surprise that it is the actual bowling ball that is being discussed. Not all bowling balls are created equal, and seasoned players are actually quite often going to great lengths to alter their balls so as to squeeze the last ounce of performance out them.

Nothing affects the center of gravity as much as the top and bottom weight of a bowling ball. Granted, the ball is perfectly round and it is hard to imagine that there might be different weights that could even be discussed, yet did you ever consider that there is a little bit of extra weight added to the ball to make up for the material that is discarded when the finger holes are drilled? Failure to add this counterweight would result in your balls rolling down the lane with a quite noticeable wobble. Novices do not usually consider the fact that there are a couple of ounces of material missing in the top of the ball, yet when it is rolled it traverses the lane in a smooth fashion, as though the sphere were unbroken.

If you take a close look at your bowling ball, you will actually be able to see where its center of gravity is located because it is marked with a small dot. The counterweight that makes up for the weight lost when the finger holes were drilled is placed underneath this dot. Experienced bowlers have figured out that they can alter the performance of the ball by drilling additional holes into their bowling balls, thus throwing off the center of gravity slightly. Thus, if a bowler wishes to make up for a personal handicap, or maybe a perceived lane fault, she or he may drill one or more holes into one side of the ball, leaving the directly opposing side slightly heavier. This will affect the center of gravity in that it will cause the ball to travel closer to that direction than toward the other one. Of course, the alterations you will be able to make with these subtle shifts do not make up for skill and excellent lane conditions; conversely, if you make your changes ill advisedly, you may actually hinder your game rather than improve it. Thus, it is imperative that you are completely certain of what you are accomplishing before beginning to drill.

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SolveYourProblem.com : 2009

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