[HN Gopher] The insides of pro bowling balls
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The insides of pro bowling balls
Author : mhb
Score : 178 points
Date : 2021-08-05 13:17 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.popsci.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.popsci.com)
| [deleted]
| acomjean wrote:
| Candlepin bowling was pretty much the only bowling I found in
| massachusetts growing up. No holes in the the significantly
| smaller bowling balls, no removing fallen pins between bowls. Its
| different, but has fallen out of favor as a lot of the local
| bowling alleys have closed and large chains have moved in. It
| always seemed like an easier bowling to get started with...
|
| I always thought those fancy curves of regular bowling were by
| crazy spins..
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candlepin_bowling
| zwieback wrote:
| I had no idea, now I'm disappointed that the pros aren't doing
| this with solid spheres.
| JohnJamesRambo wrote:
| I feel the same. Everything I thought I knew about bowling
| seems different now; of course those weird insides hook.
| nemo44x wrote:
| Pro's use very difficult oil patterns to bowl on. You can't see
| the oil unfortunatly so people don't realize how important it
| is to making the game fairly easy or very difficult.
|
| Most amateur bowlers who are holding a 200 average in their
| local bowling league would struggle to break 130 on the same
| oil patterns the pros use.
|
| Pro bowlers don't make a lot of money and I'd wager many people
| on this Website have more income per year than a professional
| bowler. But they do have an opportunity for making money on
| endorsements for things like expensive bowling balls.
|
| The ball matters to be sure. But the oil patterns used today in
| the pro circuits circumvent a lot of it. A pro would probably
| roll 300 game after 300 game on the types of oil patterns laid
| on a typical league lane.
| mhb wrote:
| Would it be more interesting if the oil was made easier for
| viewers to see?
| adventurer wrote:
| It would
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1--KU5eBXBQ
| zwieback wrote:
| [googling "oil patterns"]
| scott_s wrote:
| I admit I had a similar initial reaction, but then I realized
| it's similar to golf clubs. Golfers don't use simple wooden
| mallets, nor do we expect them to. And part of the skill of the
| game is knowing when to use what when.
| reedf1 wrote:
| It is still very difficult to get a curve from a pro ball, it's
| just more possible. If you get one of these you are more likely
| to be confused with what it is doing that to suddenly be
| bowling turkeys and picking up spares.
| irjustin wrote:
| Super cool stuff!
|
| While I had seen how it's made on... How It's Made - they show
| non-spherical cores[0], I hadn't known about the "Smooth
| Operator" as a benchmarking tool before competition. One of those
| industry things that are obvious once I know it, but semi-
| surprised to learn.
|
| I love How It's Made.
|
| [0] https://youtu.be/YAOX1ekylnQ?t=106
| stronglikedan wrote:
| > I love How It's Made.
|
| I'm hoping that covid is the only reason they didn't make a
| 2020 season.
| S_A_P wrote:
| Pretty light on detail and its been a while since I bowled, but
| back in college movies like kingpin and the big lebowski
| convinced me to buy my own bowling ball. At the time it was
| around a 150 bucks for the ball I used, and it had a different
| material on the outside than the shiny plastic house balls that
| allows better grip(Plastic, Urethane, reactive resin, etc). In
| addition to the lopsided weight, you could drill it
| differently(and fill in previous holes) if you wanted to adjust
| the hook. I know that I was able to bowl above 200 consistently
| and frequently would get 230-240 without much practice(other than
| the recreational bowling). The main reason being that having a
| bowling ball that is able to find the pocket will knock down more
| pins. Lastly, having a custom drill to your hand and finger size
| allows you to carry much more weight. I bowled a 16lb ball
| easily. The house balls at most bowling alleys drill enormous
| holes in the 15 and 16 lb balls so you have to give it a death
| grip to hold the ball.
| whateveracct wrote:
| A custom fit ball is so much nicer. It just falls off your
| hand.
| nemo44x wrote:
| Modern bowling balls help a lot for strikes to be sure but a
| larger influence is the oil pattern on the lanes. Most places
| use a "house pattern" that looks like a "Christmas Tree" in
| that the oil pattern is nearly across the lane near the bowler
| and taper to a point in the center as it gets down the lane.
|
| This pattern helps the bowler a lot since shots that are thrown
| out too far (pushed) encounter a dry lane surface earlier and
| the ball can begin to find traction on the lane sooner so it
| has time to roll over and make its way into the pocket.
| Likewise if the shot is "pulled" the ball will skid on oil for
| a longer time before it finds traction and can roll over and
| thus have a better chance of finding the pocket and still
| maintain some angle to give a good chance of a strike.
|
| Professional bowlers do not use a "house shot" and in fact have
| multiple different oil patterns they use to make it more
| challenging. In general, a "reverse block" style pattern is
| used which means it is oily near the gutters and dryer near the
| center meaning imprecise shots are penalized harshly. But your
| typical bowling league doesn't have any incentive to use these
| types of oil patterns because everyone would be awful and not
| want to bowl there anymore and take their team to another house
| where they can score and enjoy themselves and delude themselves
| into thinking they could go pro.
|
| This is believed to have had a negative effect on professional
| bowling popularity as a spectator sport as many recreational
| bowlers roll high scores because of the easy shot and modern
| ball tech and aren't interested in watching pros who don't
| appear to be much better.
| IgorPartola wrote:
| So this would be the equivalent of the NBA raising the hoop
| by a foot without telling anyone that they did this making it
| look like the players aren't much better than street ballers?
| Did the pros do this simply because otherwise everyone would
| play a perfect game every time making it boring?
| nemo44x wrote:
| Yes, pro's would roll 300 after 300 on a typical house
| pattern. It wouldn't be interesting.
|
| I haven't watched in many years but I recall they started
| to show on broadcasts the oil pattern being used (they had
| 6 different types and they each had an animal name I think)
| and the announcers would detail how the pattern needed to
| be played for different types of bowler styles and
| left/right handedness. Lefties always have an advantage
| because fewer people bowl from that side so the oil doesn't
| get pushed around as much and they can create a "channel"
| from their own shots that "groove" the ball for them.
|
| Each pattern has a different length down the lane (some are
| long, some are short) and different application of oil from
| side to side. A Google image search will show you examples.
|
| I've bowled on them and they are humbling for someone who
| reliably shot over 200 on a typical house shot.
| dangerbird2 wrote:
| As a counterpoint, golf courses drastically increase the
| course difficulty prior to tournaments by growing out the
| rough and cutting grass on the green shorter (which lowers
| friction and makes the ball roll/bounce off the green
| easier). Of course, golf is an inherently difficult and
| frustrating sport even on the friendliest course
| conditions, so it's pretty hard to think the pros are no
| better than average joe.
| EMM_386 wrote:
| Well that took me down an unexpected rabbit hole.
|
| If anyone is interested, here are some of the PBA official
| oil patterns:
|
| https://bowl.com/Sport_Bowling/Sport_Bowling_Home/PBA_Experi.
| ..
| roland35 wrote:
| I love these types of charts. It looks like I am doing real
| work!!
| frettchen wrote:
| The article and comments together are great, because all at once
| I have a newfound respect for the complexity of bowling (from the
| cores to the oil patterns) and yet am bolstered in the feeling
| that there is something inherently casual about it, mostly
| because - and I cannot get over this - I had never even
| considered the possibility of _scented balls_.
|
| That seems like a weird joke, and yet many of these highly
| engineered and fairly expensive balls seem to not only be
| scented, but, for some, to come in a choice of scents (matching
| their colours to some degree).
| neur4lnet wrote:
| This seems more like an advertisement than a popular science
| article, which is a huge shame as it's an interesting topic.
| barbegal wrote:
| Unfortunately a lot of science journalism is now funded by this
| kind of advertisement. The magazine publishes the story as
| handed to them by the advertiser without the journalist doing
| any scrutiny. No money changes hands so it's perfectly legal
| not to label it as an advertisement.
| micromacrofoot wrote:
| Makes shooting straight with a house ball much more interesting
| than pro bowling, IMO.
| unixhero wrote:
| This feel like a modification of the rules.
|
| EDIT: It is of course very cool.
| SavantIdiot wrote:
| Don't look at modern bows used by olympic archers.
| glasss wrote:
| It was fun learning about bowling ball cores from my fiance's
| father. He runs a little pro shop out of his garage.
|
| What was more interesting to me was the dual angle drilling
| technique he used, a fair bit of math involved:
| http://www.bowlersreference.com/Ball/Layout/Dual.htm
| lmilcin wrote:
| I was always disappointed that I can't get the ball to curve.
|
| I now know a bunch of things need to be exactly perfect for this
| to be controllable or even happen at all.
|
| I no longer feel guilty on company bowling parties to just shoot
| straight:)
| desmosxxx wrote:
| meh, just two finger hook grip it and you can spin any solid
| core ball. it's just not great for your wrist long term
| klyrs wrote:
| I'm terrible at bowling, but I've found that I can get kid-
| weight balls to curve by holding them in my palm (no fingers in
| holes) and tossing them with a gratuitous amount of spin. I'm
| sure that serious bowlers laugh or cringe, but I'm only there
| for the company of friends.
| jtwaleson wrote:
| That reminds me of the Revisionist History episode "The Big
| Man Can't Shoot" which is about how Rick Barry shoots
| underhand free throws in basketball. It's a Malcolm Gladwell
| podcast, so take it with a pinch of salt, but his point is
| that the underhand method is far superior and still no one
| uses it because they're afraid it looks ridiculous.
|
| In short: keep doing it the ridiculous way and ignore the
| serious bowlers ;)
| dylan604 wrote:
| Most sporting skill is from repetition leading to muscle
| memory so you are able to do the skill consistantly every
| time. There are lots of examples of pros with "bad" form
| that still exceeded in their sport just because they had
| become accustomed to this "bad" form.
| brewdad wrote:
| I have no idea why someone like Shaq never tired underhand
| (maybe he did in practice). His free throw shooting was, by
| far, the weakest point in his game and no one is going to
| mock him, except maybe himself.
| jccalhoun wrote:
| Basically, it is pride that kept him and others from
| doing it. https://www.businessinsider.com/why-shaq-
| shaquille-oneal-nev...
| nemo44x wrote:
| It's essentially impossible to hook a ball you get at the
| alley. They are made of polyester and just slide across the
| oil. You also don't have fingertip grips drilled in them.
|
| Pro's and bowling enthusiasts use the same type of ball (but
| fitted for their hand) for spares. You generally don't want a
| ball that can hook when trying to pick up a single pin. But
| strikes, a ball that can recover and angle towards the pocket
| and "roll over" right as it enters will store much of the
| energy you put into the ball and release it at just about the
| right time resulting in better strike odds.
| plorkyeran wrote:
| It's not remotely close to impossible to hook a polyester
| house ball. You have to go out of your way to do it, but it's
| not even particularly difficult to get some movement.
| nemo44x wrote:
| I guess my point was to do it effectively and consistently
| in terms of scoring. I mean, serious bowlers and
| professionals use them specifically because they don't like
| to move.
| mc32 wrote:
| This story from a few months ago illustrated this[1]. It's the
| story of one of the main bowling-ball designers. A math student
| who becomes a bowling-ball designer.
|
| [1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27324564
| romeoblade wrote:
| Bowling is my daughter and I's weekly activity. We both just
| picked up our pro balls yesterday from the shop and tried them
| out. It's a night and day difference from the house balls.
| nemo44x wrote:
| Yes, just having a ball fit for your fingers is a huge
| difference. And not being made of plastic means you can
| actually get some angle from revving it.
|
| Keep them clean so they last awhile. Modern balls really soak
| up oil and should be cleaned after use.
| globular-toast wrote:
| > Precisely shaped, meticulously balanced weight blocks leverage
| the laws of physics to help skilled alley jockeys throw a strike
| on most rolls.
|
| This is why I've always considered "pro bowling" some kind of bad
| joke. What fun is there in a sport decided by someone making a
| tiny mistake and not getting a perfect score?
| glasss wrote:
| I am probably going to get yelled at about this, but I would
| say other sports are similar in nature. Darts and golf come to
| mind.
| brewdad wrote:
| It's also probably why I still enjoy college basketball but the
| NBA leaves me cold. The pro players are TOO good and most
| regular season games bore me.
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