You need to learn to watch your breakpoint then. It doesn't matter how many boards you cross at the front of the lane - you can move in all you want, as long as you hit the same breakpoint and come off of it the same way, your carry will stay the same. There are tons of articles on breakpoint bowling - Ron Clifton and Joe Slowinski both have articles online dealing with the subject.

I read some of the Ron Clifton articles. I typically ignore breakpoints even though I've known about them. If I get some practice tonight, I'll give it a whirl.

Thanks.

If you don't watch your breakpoint, you can't make a smart adjustment based on changing lane conditions, period.

Watch the ball all the way down the lane and see if you can feel when the ball is going to make it's move to the pocket and see if you can tell when you want the ball to make it's move to the pocket. If you can do this you will develop a feel for the break point and learn the meaning of it and be able to make adjustments to get the ball to the pocket depending on how the ball rolls.

Good luck.

Instead of a single space between pins you have double space with the 6-pin missing. A really late breaking ball can pass through that double space without touching either pin.

Thanks johnw1.

Ludo, it takes some practice to watch your ball all the way to the breakpoint. But it can be done.

I practiced last night and it looked like the ball was breaking at around the 9 or 10 board. Sometimes it went out further and didn't come back.

I had some inconsistence with my release, but I was mainly focusing on getting the ball to the breakpoint and it breaking, rather than focusing on putting X's on the screen.

That's good that you watched the breakpoint. Now, completely understand why your ball worked at 9-10. You have given traits that you have to work with. Your ball. The lane conditions. And, YOU. If all of these are known, you can manage when one of them is different. You ask questions, and get the answers.

Why didn't the ball come back from past 10?
Was my release correct?

Generally, the lanes are dryer past 10, and the ball will read the lane quicker, and break earlier. So, maybe you did something else that resulted in a different reaction.

Was your arm swing straight?
Did you over rotate the ball?
Were you standing in the correct spot?

Couple these variables in with your assessment, and you will better understand what you do when you did it.

If there was any problem, it would most likely be in the release. My thumb was getting stuck in the ball (I had to pull it out when I was checking it.) I had the pro open it up a bit, and he suspects that the span is too wide (my span is longer than the metal ruler that the person who drilled my ball used, so he may have guesstimated poorly). I'll probably put some tape in it next time I roll it because it was shifting during the backswing and I may have been grabbing it to compensate.

On a related note about practice, I found my axis tilt to be slight (the Track is 1-2" from the center) and my axis rotation to be between 20 and 45 degrees. But I'll probably have to look at that again once I've taped up the thumbhole.

Wow. Time to find a new driller. So much of that statement is unacceptable.