If you were to bowling at night with some friends and the bowling alley has some people but not as busy as during the day. You may encounter dryer lanes due to the bowling alley oiling the lanes at night or before the alley opens in the morning. During the day people bowl on these lanes and during their play, if they are using active resin bowling ball, they will take oil off the lane and if they are using a plastic ball, they are pushing the oil down the lane and it does take a little bit oil as well. Do when you come to play, the lanes are on fire meaning the lanes are so dry that hitting the lane will hook so hard and so fast they it’s hard to bowl. So you do you bowl on dry lanes? I use to bowl on a 2 man league and that league started at 9:30 at night so the lanes were done. Here are some ways to bowl on dry lanes?
Add more speed:
The first thing I do is add more speed. There are some ways to create more ball speed. The first is to step down a foot of less from where you are standing from. By stepping back some, you gain more energy on release and you have to cover more of a distance from the foul line. By taking longer steps, you have more speed kinda like a car, the distance it has to more faster it can go, with less distance means less speed. If you wanted to slow down your ball speed and step up closer to the foul line. That will decrease your speed and step back from the foul line will increase your speed. The first thing I would do is add more speed.
Play more left on the lane:
If you ball is going high meaning your ball is going left fast and not hitting the pocket, I would slide more left from where I was standing at. by doing that you move into more oil if any and the hook should come later when release. If your ball is still going left then slide more left. It is harder to play more left from your you was standing but it’s a skill that you need to learn. There will be days where there is no oil on the floor. So learning how to play it makes you more of a complete bowler. For left handed bowlers you would play more right into more oil.
Get a dry lane ball:
There are bowling balls that are built for dry lanes. There are the weak balls on the market that will make your life easier on dryer lanes. Those are mainly low end bowling balls with a weaker core. These bowling balls are great when the lanes are dry. If you are looking a dry lane bowling ball you can click here for the one I use. These bowling balls are much cheaper than the high price ones and that don’t hook as much is when the dry lanes comes you are good to go. Combine that with the faster speed and sliding more left is a winner.
Get a shiny ball:
Have you seen those bowling balls that are dull and you see some that are shiny? Well the dull looking bowling balls hooks way more than a shiny one and once it hit the dry part of the lane, it will start to hook. You don’t want to use that type of bowling ball unless the lanes are oily. The shiny ball is called polished and it don’t read the dry part of the lane as much and the reaction is much smother overall. Once it feels fiction, it will not hook so hard and it stores energy.
The urethane and plastic bowling balls:
Urethane has been used more and more by pro’s on TV. A urethane bowling ball is just a upgrade from a plastic ball but not as strong as a weak hook ball. It’s good on dry lanes but hard to control sometimes. It does not hook much at all. Plastic is just a plastic ball that does not hook. When the lanes a bone dry it’s using plastic is a good idea since it does not read the dry too much but it will hook.
When the lanes are so dry, I mean as soon as the ball hit the lane it started to go left, I would not bowl. The alley has not oiled the lanes and it’s not fun bowling on those lanes. Yes bowling in those conditions will help you be a better bowler but you do need some oil on the floor.