Hey what do you guys think is a good speed to throw on a typical league shot? On average what do you think most people throw?

There is alot of other varibles to consider, but with my revs and ball surface on med/heavy oil I'm on my game when I come in around 15 mph. C.A.T.S. system has it off my hand at 18 1/2 to 19. I dont like to make big adjustments so I play with speed and hand release alot.

Asking what is a good speed for a house shot is like asking how long should you be driving a golf ball on a par 4. The answer? As far as you're comfortable hitting it without trying to do too much and short enough to give you a good second shot into the green.

Bowling's no different. Like a lot of things in this sport, speed is relative; relative to the conditions you face, relative to the shot that you need to be playing, relative to what you impart to the bowling ball and affected by the conditions and shot. There is no "should be" number for speed. Optimally, you want your speed to match your revs, but again, that's optimally and some people can do that and others aren't able to do that.

So what it boils down to is you need to throw the ball in a comfortable range; fast enough to knock the pins down yet slow enough to remain in control. That's pretty much it. What number that is, exactly, depends on the individual.

I was asking on average what speed does the average league bowler throw.

And I can tell you it depends on the league and the bowler. Trying to give you numbers is nearly impossible because it depends on a lot of factors. Typically, for handicap leagues, men will average anywheres from 10-20+ MPH. Women will mainly be in the 8-14 MPH range. For higher average bowlers and scratch leagues, most men are 14-20 MPH and most women are in the 12-15 MPH range.

I hope that's what you were looking for because that's pretty much the best I can do.

I'll just second what Brian has said. There are high average bowlers (200+) in my leagues that throw at 13-14mph, some at 15-16mph, and some at 17+mph. There are others with middle averages (140-150) that throw 10mph and some that throw 17mph. Ball speed really does vary greatly.

As a reminder the mph listed on the overhead scoring system is measured at the pins, the ball has slowed down drastically from when it left your hand. Higher friction between the ball and the lane slow the ball down more. Crossing more boards makes the ball slow down more at the pins, as it has a longer distance to travel.

As a rule you generally want your ball speed to match your rev rate, so watch the ball read the midlane, if the ball is not reading the midlane chances are your speed is faster than your rev rate, if the ball is rolling too soon then chances are your rev rate is faster than your ball speed.

I have seen baseball pitchers pay more attention to how fast they are throwing the ball than the batter, and they usually get rocked so bad there is a conga line around the bases. Don't get too involved with what the overhead says since the speed isn't your actual speed anyway and increasing the overhead mph can adversely affect your ball reaction and pin carry.

You can't ask this question like you are. Well you can, but it's meaningless. As Coach Jim said, speed is only part of the equation. Speed and rev rate go together. If you throw the ball 16mph and get 3 revs on the ball, the ball isn't going to hook. If you throw the ball 16mph and get 30 revs on the ball, you're too rev dominant.

You're generally going to see bowlers throw the ball between 14 and 18mph. Some even throw it slower or faster and there's really no way to corelate who does better by their ball speed. Extremely slow or extremely fast will generally not work as well, but there still have been people to have success at those speeds.

Is the speed posted during the ESPN telecasts also measured at the pins or off the hands?

They use Digitrax which measures off the hand speed.